Football programs across the nation are being destabilized by the current NIL and portal insanity. Boosters and fans are being asked to buy season tickets, give generously to athletic departments and collectives to fund what is becoming nothing more than a commodity. How much will football talent yield in a free market? The tradition and legacy of pride have been replaced with free agency. I realize it is sacrilege to suggest boycotting one of America's favorite pastimes, but without money from boosters and ticket sales, the well dries up. Protect the game now and for future generations. No more money.
I think changes to the portal are vastly more important than NIL. The portal needs a major overhaul. 1 transfer for your entire college career (other than grad transfer), sit out a year when you transfer or if your head coach is fired, you can transfer without sitting a year. I’m sure others have some better ideas around the portal but it alone is ruining college football.
Financial compensation in the form of NIL or direct payments plus a player’s ability to freely transfer at any time and multiple times over a career are a bad, bad combination. 30 years ago everyone understood that only a small number of players would ever go pro. Thus the NCAA commercial that said “90% of us are going pro in something other than sports.” Everyone had pro dreams but they also understood it was unlikely to happen. Playing in college and using the opportunity provided to make something of your life was enough. Now everyone is getting paid and everyone is free to seek greener (pun intended) pastures is they are unhappy with playing time, payments, coaches, the team’s record, and any number of other reasons. The opportunity to play at this level and perhaps go pro has been replaced with the opportunity to make money. Notice how the NCAA has been completely casted aside. When was the last time we heard of an academic cassualty? A player not having the necessary ACT/SAT score? Failing courses in college? Tutor scandals? Academic scandals like F$U music class in 2007? Hell now we got players reclassifying a year ahead of schedule in what seems like a week’s time. These things all magically went away with the transfer portal and NIL. The market will self correct. It may crash and burn in the process, but it will self correct. But there need to be rules and regulations from the NCAA along with enforcement.
Yeah. I’ve been less and less engaged. Think the time has come to just say goodbye. This is the stupidest crap I’ve seen in my 50+. Thanks Ed O’bannion
Not yet. Like many here I am not happy about the way things have changed in the CFB landscape. I’m not interested in a junior NFL, I stopped watching the NFL in 2014 and frankly even then I stayed too long. My hope here is that figures in the sport, perhaps coaches such as Saban get together and have talks with the NCAA to come up with some sensible solutions to address our concerns. Coaches and universities can’t possibly be any more satisfied than we are, they don’t want to spend their time and resources on a kid just to see him playing someone else while they have to engage in a bidding war for his replacement. I’ll give it some time and see what happens before I make a final decision.
This. If we had a competent coach and administration that knew how to handle current anarchy we would be tuning in and just complaining about the system. It’s easy to talk boycott when you suck and your coach is driving the program further away from its goals.
Please, please, please apply to be the AD at UF. Because, apparently, that concept is a bit over the current guy's head.
No one at programs that are winning or at least being competitive are calling for that. We do have a choice to make though: are we going to compete or do we just say to hell with it and drop it entirely. Not into seeing UF being a perpetual whipping boy, we should be better than that.
So true, but, the sad part is that the group of schools that can compete is being reduced to those with the most funding, even more so than in the past. I predict that Texas will soon dominate the SEC with the oil money that flows into that program. Not saying we can't be in that group though.
You are absolutely right. There will only be a handful of schools going forward that can compete for a national title in this NIL/TransferPortal environment. We happen to be one of those schools if we can pull our crap together. I guess that has to be good enough for now. But yes, for the vast majority of schools, they have no shot.
Nah, just let it burn. I read on here the other day that there is no way college football could ever lose popularity, it can happen, everybody used to follow boxing, now I bet 95 percent of this forum would have to google who the current champions are.
You do realize you just restated the current rules. 1- 1 free transfer as an undergrad. The second as an undergrad, sits out without a waiver from the NCAA or transfers down to FCS. 2- 1 free transfer as a graduate. 3- All players(undergrad/grad) get a transfer if a head coach is fired or leaves that doesn't count as their free transfer.
If you are going to boycott anything it should be the NFL. Their reluctance to create a farm system or development league to feed their beast has helped to create the current situation. For heaven’s sakes, just buy and use one of those crappy spring leagues and just allow high school graduates go straight into that like MLB.
I'll still watch but yes I'm not going to fund it. No need to go all dramatic and boycott it, if the maker of the product deprioritizes you then you respond by simply deprioritizing the product. I don't enjoy this version of cfb very much so I just don't spend as much time or any money on it. This year I think I missed 3 or 4 games because I decided to do other stuff on Saturday, and I didn't really miss it. Just do the same. When we lose or players transfer I just don't really care. The change bothers me though. I used to enjoy following the sport.
Yet players are suing as we speak for free transfers with no restrictions and they will probably win. I see no other way than employees under contracts. I’m no expert in law but I can look at all the models that already work and there’s a reason their setups are what they are. They’ve evolved over 100 years of litigation and most point have already been decided. You know what tge laws are already and pretty much know what will fly and what won’t. College football is obviously the minor leagues of the nfl and they have been working together for decades along with tv to create what we have. They’ve skated a thin line of collusion and given players no other path. It’s over in the way it was done. The players have too much power now but as long as the fans pay the tab and keep showing up 90k strong to watch, nothing will change. Interrupt the money and it’ll change instantly.
As of now, we are nowhere near the point to show the powers-that-be that we have HAD IT. And to me, there is a really great way to do it, but I would say it would be much harder for college fans as opposed to NFL fans, because the distances many folks commit to negotiate. Here is the "plan": You arrive on game day exactly as you always do. You do your usual pre-game rituals and then arrive inside the stadium. The team comes out and you cheer them and go through the alma mater and the National Anthem. You cheer as the ball is kicked off. And then...you walk out en mass. There are two trains of thought. If you don't show up it can mean that you just don't care and so you can leave your space for others to take. BUT if you spend the same amount of money and show up to support the team of your choice and then just leave before it gets going in earnest, you are plainly stating that you care a LOT about the team, just not the state-of-the-program, or in your case, the state-of-the-game. EVERYTHING today is about TV. You think there won't be a powerful message sent when the real fans are not there (but were) and the powers-that-be are, um, "oblivious" to that fact? Methinks they would "get the message" or else the oblivious fans will.
