You’re howling at the moon my man. If these folks proposing limits/restrictions on NIL don’t get it by now, then they never will.
The train has already wrecked. It was carrying a stockpile of nuclear munitions which detonated. Now the college football world is living in the post apocalyptic aftermath where there is lawlessness and everyone is out for themselves.
Saban the hypocrite is always crying whenever he feels like his golden goose is threatened. Screw him.
We may look back very soon and realize the breaking point already happened. I, for one, am already getting disenchanted with my favorite sport. There is a waning sense of loyalty, commitment to the team, and school pride. It’s turning into all about the individual and selfish ambitions. Don’t think you are getting enough playing time…don’t try harder and compete- just transfer. Think you can get more than a free ride education, go get some NIL elsewhere. Don’t think your team is good enough, enter the portal and abandon ship. The change in transfer portal rules and the NIL were slippery slopes and major college sports are sliding off the cliff. They are quickly becoming minor league sports - and all about the best teams money can buy.
The schools are part and parcel as guilty as anyone. At Gators games you have to search for down and distance, statistics, and other scores due to the torrential number of advertisements. Huge scoreboards haven't been a boon for the fans, but they have been for advertisers. Difficult to criticize the athletes for individualism and ambitions when the schools are all about the vast amounts of money they are making. Blaming athletes is like blaming employees for higher prices at stores.
College football is going down the drain. It is getting unwatchable. Players who are NFL prospects won't play in the bowl games which have become meaningiless. Making it a 12 game playoff will mean nothing when all the draft prospects opt out. Sadly college football as we once knew it is dead. For example, the Orange Bowl, FSU opt outs alone makes the game garbage. The entire bowl system will eventually collapse. RIP college football.
The only chance college football has is the farther it gets away from amateurism and the more it pays its players the more it will actually start to become a threat to the NFL. Once the NFL can't compete with the "starting" salaries of college NIL money this thing will start to change again.
If it's parity that's the issue, cut the schorships to 45 and the UAA would have to be more selective to whom the offer and leave plenty of opportunities to play elsewhere. It will never happen.
The hilarity of some of you guys. There are maybe 3-5 guys on a P5 roster making premium NIL money. Another 5-10 getting middle 5 figures. The majority are getting 5-25,000 for the season. I have a client who is heavily involved in the NIL at the university in my city. Their entire NIL budget for every sport at the university is 700,000 a year. He tells me every athlete ( 450 all sports) on campus get a minimum 5,000 for their season in monthly payments. If they portal out or graduate the NIL stops. Their QB wanted a car so they leased him one. It's costs them 500 a month and he's happy. When you see players like Arch Manning or Sanders making millions, that is not all coming from the university collective. Sanders has a commercial deal with Google as well as deals with Beats and smoothie king. Manning has a multi year deal with a sports memorabilia company.
UF has approximately 650 student athletes. I read that the collective has raised 5 million, probably more. If every athlete got 5 grand for a year/season. That would leave 1.75 million. If you evenly spread out the 1.75 million amongst the 85 scholarship players, that's about 20,000 a player plus the 5,000. Well we know they are not spreading it out evenly so that leaves a select few who are getting 5 or more figures from NIL.
I agree that CFB is being ruined by NIL and transferring to another school is about me, me, me!!! What a difference in attitude with Dameon Pierce and Trevor Etienne is discussed here: Florida Football: The juxtaposition of Dameon Pierce and Trevor Etienne
I stopped for lunch at a little diner near Columbus, OH today driving home from holidays. Two newly signed buckeye football players (I matched faces to signing day photos) sitting and riding with two older men that I’d guarantee weren’t family. The boys were already blinged out like I’ve only seen on TV. I didn’t eavesdrop but everyone was chatting and laughing casually. I don’t like NIL or know the rules, but hoping some young athletes may meet a mentor instead of everything being shady or all about selfishness.
The brutal truth is that college football is a college sport in name only. The only changes will be more money going to the sport and those who benefit from it.
Saban is 100% correct. No loyalty (see Etienne)transfer portal (especially the timing) has created a monster because guys are transferring because of PT,the NIL and agents. Like most college grads I worked my way through without any help from anyone and my education provided a good life for my family. Anyone who thinks Saban is wrong has not lived long enough to appreciate what he's saying. Glad Etienne and I never shared a fox hole because he wouldn't have had my back. Agents suck, the no-fun-league sucks and they have continued to kill college football for a long time. 1965 Gator grad.