Looks like the whirl winds of college football continues to blow. Craziness. Just one step closer to becoming Pro football if it happens.

https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/college-football-players-group-talks-with-big-ten-commissioner-kevin-warren-demands-include-share-of-revenue/

Sounds more like something the mob would do.

"We aren't really a union. We are a membership-based advocacy organization."
"We care about the sport as a whole."
"But, agree to our shakedown terms or we will unionize and see how you like collective bargaining."

Bonus: they've already thought about (and publicly shared) an accounting loophole to avoid having to revenue share under Title IX.

In reply to Charlie Murphy money whipping head coaches should have been in your opening paragraph
Them being highly paid is not good but how they are rewarded for leaving is much worse

I just hope we can accelerate decoupling the semi pro league from universities. The soccerization (a crap ton of pro teams) of college football is upon us.

Beware what you agree with. I love college sports & ignore the professional leagues. Paying everyone that participates is ridicules. I marched in behind the band for 4 years & now you want to "pay the band" .... and the Corp.... and, and?
If it threatens college sports , grow a pair & just say No!
That's what I'll do!

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Totally agree. My prediction from a year ago is that within a decade college ball is basically dead. I see minor league NFL. At first that may not seem bad to folks but with that I see half empty college stadiums as the sport becomes largely irrelevant (just like every other minor league sport nobody watches).

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At Kyle Field, you're about to see more full stadiums more often. Bc Sam, App State, and UMass aren't going to be on the schedule. The teams that are on the schedule are going to lead to fuller stadiums and more TV viewers.

MLB thought the same with free agency.

In reply to 68RebelE

68RebelE said:

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Beware what you agree with. I love college sports & ignore the professional leagues. Paying everyone that participates is ridicules. I marched in behind the band for 4 years & now you want to "pay the band" .... and the Corp.... and, and?
If it threatens college sports , grow a pair & just say No!
That's what I'll do!

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Calm down. If it spreads to the SEC, the SEC distributions are primarily from TV, and TV barely shows the band, so we can continue not paying your irrelevant BQ and CT asses.

I wonder how long will it be when the players will demand not to go to class in order to make that bank?

In reply to Burpelson

Burpelson said:

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I wonder how long will it be when the players will demand not to go to class in order to make that bank?

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Even in the 90's they usually showed up for the first day and exams, so I think that horse pretty much left the barn a long time ago.

In reply to Burpelson Players have been skipping classes since what- the 50's or 60's? That won't be a new trend.

In reply to Burpelson

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I wonder how long will it be when the players will demand not to go to class in order to make that bank?

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Yeah, keep telling yourself something changed recently.

Maybe you should wonder what's been happening the last 30 years.

Also, if you'd gone to class yourself, you'd know the right wording was "I wonder how long it will be…"

In reply to Showstopper

Showstopper said:

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Burpelson said:

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I wonder how long will it be when the players will demand not to go to class in order to make that bank?

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Even in the 90's they usually showed up for the first day and exams, so I think that horse pretty much left the barn a long time ago.

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I was in two geology classes with Ray Childress. He was there, front row and neatly dressed every day. but yeah that is an exception.

The students won on appeal on anti-trust grounds in a narrow ruling with respect to competition on educational benefits. So it ain't never gonna be the way it was…deal with it.

Furthermore:

"In challenging the NCAA's argument that maintaining compensation restrictions is necessary to distinguish college athletics from professional athletics, Justice Kavanaugh stated: "Businesses like the NCAA cannot avoid the consequences of price-fixing labor by incorporating price-fixed labor into the definition of the product."49 Although Justice Kavanaugh did suggest that the NCAA could protect itself from future judicial scrutiny by engaging in collective bargaining with student athletes, he also flatly concluded that "[n]owhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate. . . . The NCAA is not above the law."

For a thorough review of the decision including the jurisprudence leading up to it, consider carefully reading this Harvard Law Review piece:

https://harvardlawreview.org/2021/11/ncaa-v-alston/

I shared some related articles you may find interesting on MBB showing an emerging trend to pay out Alston achievement award funds. I ran into the term "Alston funds" in a client engagement this past week and was fascinated.

Nov 39, 2021

https://www.bakertilly.com/insights/institutions-begin-paying-student-athletes

Jan 20, 2022

https://gamecocksonline.com/news/2022/01/20/featured-south-carolina-athletics-provides-alston-funds-to-all-student-athletes/

In reply to Sid Farkas IDK, the players I had classes with were in class every day I was (so quite possibly even the days I wasn't). I'm sure there were some that weren't but then again, non athlete students did the same.

I think some kids will be offered an opt out education benefits and still make the money to play, it's coming.

In reply to merch

merch said:

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My prediction from a year ago is that within a decade college ball is basically dead. I see minor league NFL.

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Don't you just love that feeling of having an original thought that everyone else has already agreed with.

In reply to 68RebelE

68RebelE said:

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Beware what you agree with. I love college sports & ignore the professional leagues. Paying everyone that participates is ridicules. I marched in behind the band for 4 years & now you want to "pay the band" .... and the Corp.... and, and?
If it threatens college sports , grow a pair & just say No!
That's what I'll do!

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You should just stop watching now then.

In reply to MaroonStain

MaroonStain said:

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MLB thought the same with free agency.

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You work at a company that can decide where you live, what you earn, where you can work and what opportunities you can pursue in life until you retire or change professions?

In reply to Burpelson

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I think some kids will be offered an opt out education benefits and still make the money to play, it's coming.

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Oh my god.

Oh no.

We haven't cared if players went to class or graduated for decades.

Really, if you saw them in class, you were more annoyed they weren't on the practice field figuring out how to win more football games.

I don't know about now, but when I worked in the athletic department in the 90's, we had class checkers. Coach Slocum would get the list of players that had skipped class on a daily basis.

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I don't know about now, but when I worked in the athletic department in the 90's, we had class checkers. Coach Slocum would get the list of players that had skipped class on a daily basis.

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Namely Poultry Science or some such. And not one of our football players ever became a poultry scientist.

In reply to 20ag07 Would be nice, but nobody watches minor league anything. Football thinks it is King. Thinks it is on top and demand will always be there. People think it is football so somehow it is different. It isn't. pride comes before the fall.

For a long time, college football has held that special place in our sports world. Assuming that will always be the case is a mistake.

I believe players becoming employees is coming down the road, and it is almost inevitable at this point. Conferences are wanting Congress to step in and make things equal across all states for NIL. I don't think Congress has any interest in stepping in the middle of NIL, and I have zero confidence that they would actually make things better. Signing players to a paid contract likely gets rid of the 2 biggest issues facing college football, collectives and transfers. It will remove the era of free agency that we have entered, and collectives will be less meaningful if the schools are actually paying athletes. You probably will see a lot of other sports go away since they are being subsidized by football, and that would not be easily sustained if football players become employees.

In reply to 68RebelE Interesting. But I think reasons behind what you say are important.

Why do you care about college sports? It certainly isn't the product on the field. College sports are not close to professional level. You don't know the players. So what draws you in?

I think a lot of us have historically had reasons to be drawn in. Looking forward I think majority of my reasons likely won't be there, in which case I won't watch. I get some still will and that is great. I just think most will be surprised at lack of interest.

In reply to 20ag07

In reply to Reno Hightower

Reno Hightower said:

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The band members, cheerleaders and whoever else is a part of the spectacle and pageantry of the game deserves a cut as well. Just because the players are the main draw doesn't mean there aren't others who perform during the game and they deserve compensation for their efforts as well.

If $$ gets spread around, then spread it around.

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As the parent of a freshman in the university of Michigan marching band this fall, I support this message and encourage the big 10 to go down this rat hole.

There's eventually going to be a player's union representing players from every school that has tv revenue.

get used to it now. I for one dgaf. This is all part & parcel of the cfb industry finally catching up with the times

In reply to merch

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I think a lot of us have historically had reasons to be drawn in. Looking forward I think majority of my reasons likely won't be there, in which case I won't watch. I get some still will and that is great. I just think most will be surprised at lack of interest.

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Those reasons are?

That you thought you were watching/supporting some kids going to class to get an education?

That we were all singing kum-by-yah and helping the Sam Houston's, etc?

Or because it's a fun way to spend your Saturdays all fall?

Or something else?

Just a reminder that Kirby Smart just signed a $112M contract and nobody seemed to think this was the beginning of the end for college football.