How to Fix the Broken College Sports System

Because the stadium money is honest money, raised the same way your local municipality would raise money (bonds) for a large infrastructure project. NIL is just the pooling of booster money so you can pay players. We're not selling bonds to fund the purchase of players. Now, perhaps you could go the Glazer route and take out loans, or maybe see if the Saudis or Qatar are interested in funding a piece of America.

 

You say "commitment". Some of us say, "sold out".

Repeat performance: UF again ranked No. 5 among public universities by U.S. News & World Report

And this ^ is why it isn't happening. May as well turn in your O&B for Georgia red and black. We're not selling the entire university out for football. If that's what you want, I'd start looking for another team to root for or find another sport to follow. UF cares as much - or more - about that than winning NCs in football.

 

Don't forget the 100M training facilities, with barber shops, recording studios and a meal plan most of us would kill for. That said, none of what you say addresses my point, which is that this is as much of an NFL issue as an NCAA issue, yet the former (which is the richest professional league ON EARTH) gets to escape the conversation altogether while we label the latter (which is a Non Profit) "greedy". Sorry, I missed ADs. So, coaches (which the players demand) and ADs are making some coin. Who else? I don't see anyone.

Also, what's the value of the player development the colleges do? Raise academic standards and kick a lot of these guys to the street and you'll find out real fast when the NFL scrambles to get something in place rather than see the talent rot on the street.

 

I don’t think there is fixing college football. But I do believe it can be stabilized. Simply eliminate free transfers. Give a free transfer if the coach leaves or if the kid graduates. If they want to transfer fine, just return to sitting a year.

 

I think they’re about to lose this battle in court, and it will be more of a free for all than it is right now.

 

But, again, how many powerful schools think the system is broken? It seems only us and maybe Clemson. Alabama, Georgia, LSU, Texas, A&M, Ohio State, Michigan, FSU, Southern Cal, Oregon, and pretty much every other major school seem to be just fine. How are you going to get any of them to sign up for change when the present system is set up for them to be at the top?

 

I do not believe anyone in the NFL minds being called greedy. Owners are billionaires, players millionaires, and it is the most successful league in the world as you note. The difference is the college game was built on “students”… supposedly.

The NCAA instead created a billion dollar business where academics were ignored, taj majal facilities built, paying players under the table was so common as to be joked about, and coaches paid $70M not to coach. The NCAA 2022 revenue was $1.14 Billion, reported a $59M annual loss, with reserves of over $450M. That is some not for profit don’t you think! NCAA operating losses of almost $59 million reported for fiscal year

You seem bothered that the NFL “escapes being called greedy”, while the non profit NCAA is held to task. I think most alumni (me included) loved college football b/c it was students representing an institution we loved and getting an education. THAT is what schools, conferences, and the NCAA sold to us as fans and to players. The NFL never sold us anything other than fireworks, money, great athletes and cheerleaders. I think most of us feel a loss from the lie that college football has, finally, openly become. Despite the BS claim most of us have that Americans are pure capitalist, we thankfully are not. Most of us still believe many things are more important than money, and students playing a sport for the old school WAS one of them. Until that sport was turned into a business by the NCAA (yes, and to the benefit of the NFL).

I do not think the NFL should escape critical review. Should any adult (18 year old) be able to go to the NFL? Yes as anything else is a restraint of trade (not to mention that if you can go in the marine corp I see little reason in a free country to stop one from going to the nfl, good decision or not). The NFL is free riding on a college system that builds stars and develops players for them for free. Should they be criticized for being smart? Should colleges sue them to pay into the system? Name the grounds of that suit as I’d love to hear it. Ultimately, colleges/ncaa sold the soul of cfb to make money, not to make money for the nfl.

I agree with the gist of your post: colleges should take back college football and enforce academics. Many alumni like me would still love it, perhaps more. But I’ve never seen folks riding a gravy train hop off for integrity. If this is going to change it will be because the NCAA has so abdicated developing competitive rules on pay/transfer that the whole system blows up in lawsuits (NIL, taxes, transfers), donors refusing to fund outrageous free agent payrolls, and fan outrage. Or perhaps college football just says “forget it”, stop age/grade limits, develops collective bargaining, and announces “we are now a competitive league with the NFL”? That would sure get the NFL’s attention. That is, unfortunately, more likely than us ever returning to true amateurism.

I’m fine with folks blaming the NFL for benefitting from the NCAA but the NFL’s only claimed function has always been profit. NCAA and Colleges claimed a higher ground but drove us into this dysfunctional ditch of also being purely about money for all involved. That is why I am disappointed with CFB today and blame those who led it.

 

I don’t believe many of those schools want to keep recruiting their own players year after year.

 

Saban whines about it all the time.

I don’t think it matters, as the courts are about to shut down this idea anyway.

 

It’s crazy to me, but I don’t doubt it.

 

My complaint lies around the simple fact there should be a pro path out of HS like there is in every other sport and that the lack of said path has created this mess that is destroying the game. What sad, IMO, is this minor league could be viable and profitable. There is only one entity to blame for that and they're never held to account, and yes, that bothers me, especially when there isn't some pot of gold to raid in the other system.

I would also argue that the system the NCAA created is older than the NFL and was doing just fine until guys in the NFL started making big bucks and then people naturally started eyeballing the colleges.

 

On a side note, it will be interesting how the NFL deals with the inevitable drop in skill and talent as a result of this and whether they ultimately see the benefit of controlling the development process themselves.

 

All the other pro leagues continue to fail one after the other, and none of them ever proved themselves as a pipeline to the nfl. The best athletes still went to college. They could play in canada, and I think they can play in Europe too, but again, neither of those leagues have shown they can get players into the nfl.

The nfl isn’t going to fund a minor league system. They have no reason to. It would pretty much just be charity.

 

That's because they play in the offseason and have to create loyalty from the ground up. NFL2 would tie directly to the existing brands and fanbases. Are you honestly suggesting there wouldn't be an audience for this, say midweek? It would be draft/recruiting guy's dream league.

And, OF COURSE, they won't willingly pay for it. Did the NCAA and its members willingly agree to NIL? No, they fought it (and lost) in court. They will have to be forced to and, unfortunately, the NCAA and its members lack the stones to do it.

P.S. Baseball and hockey have viable, thriving minor-league systems. Hoops? Not so much, unless you count Europe. But it's still something. Meanwhile, richest league in the world gets to skate on player development cost. MFers are geniuses.

 

The NCAA likes the top talent being essentially forced to them, so not sure why they would try to force a change.

I’m not arguing whether or not there would be a market for a minor league nfl, but I don’t know anyone that follows any other minor league sports with any enthusiasm. I’m just saying they have no real reason to fund one.

I guess the athletes could sue the nfl to change their entry age, like they sued the ncaa for NIL. Organize a lawsuit if that’s what you think is going to fix it.

 

The worst thing that happens for them is the players who aren't good enough to play for the top schools transfer out to the mid level schools. The best thing that happens for them is the players too good for the lower and mid level schools transfer to the top schools. So it is still a net positive for the power brokers. We just don't like it because it exposed us as a mid level school and not a power broker like we want to think we are.

College football has always been an uneven sport. The schools that have been at the top for last 100 years and are still there are not agreeing to anything that doesn't leave them still at the top. They're not doing anything to benefit the mid level schools.

 

Pretty sure Maurice Clarett challenged it in court and lost.

 

NFL has better lawyers.

They also have a cba in place that the players union agreed to. Going to take a hell of a force to make a change there, imo.

 

Except for the many hundred thousand dollar free education , being set up for life if you play your cards correctly, and team + individual promotion that would be basically impossible to accomplish on their own.

 

Why should a player have to sit out a year if he satisfied the terms of the scholarship?

And the terms are play a season of football and remain academically eligible.