FC/OT: Kevin Warren wants to get to 20 and pay players.
- Thread starter Midnighter
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the only difference between 'college' football and the USFL is, 'college' has some sort of affliation with a school, while the USFL does not. I wonder if things like 'normal progress to graduation' is still a thing? Can you imagine a player with a $1,000,000 NIL contract getting kicked out of school for failing grades?? wont happen.
Imagine Joe trying to recruit today and in the future. Mom’s psghetti for dinner, talking academics, promising mom that he’ll take care her boy, promising the kid that he’ll get a good education. Yeah, that would all go over very well now.
“College” football at the D1 level is dead. If there was any question, these statements put them to rest.
D1 schools and players are in it for bucks. Degrees? Who cares?
Student athletes? Bwahaha. Forget GPAs, class eligibility, and all the quaint rules of the past. If you can breath and play, you are eligible.
School pride? What’s that? Alumni will soon share nothing with the players. We might as well have competition between custodial staffs at universities. Or maybe we can cheer on the managers of the endowments? That is a closer match to the purpose of the dollar generating football programs.
Anyone who gives a dime to the Nittany Lion Club or stadium and facility fund raising is a chump. You might as well cut a check and send it to the Steelers and Eagles with the caption “for use as you see fit”.
D1 schools and players are in it for bucks. Degrees? Who cares?
Student athletes? Bwahaha. Forget GPAs, class eligibility, and all the quaint rules of the past. If you can breath and play, you are eligible.
School pride? What’s that? Alumni will soon share nothing with the players. We might as well have competition between custodial staffs at universities. Or maybe we can cheer on the managers of the endowments? That is a closer match to the purpose of the dollar generating football programs.
Anyone who gives a dime to the Nittany Lion Club or stadium and facility fund raising is a chump. You might as well cut a check and send it to the Steelers and Eagles with the caption “for use as you see fit”.
Hasn't this been the case for the past 20 (30? 40?) years?
20 teams and a 10 team conference schedule, with no divisions, mean each team would have only one dedicated rival they play, each year. Teams would play nine other conference teams one year and the other nine the next. Every four years every team would play a home and away with every other team. No divisions makes scheduling much easier. Added in two semi final games for good luck.
Good point. What’s a school have to do with its football team now, other than maybe marketing?
"If we lose what we have in college football, we're going to lose a lot. We can't be condoned out of it"
- quote by some old Italian coach. 12/04/2007
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I think this is the core question.....what is (should) the relationship between the FB team (and maybe the MBB team) and the school actually be? This is very tricky, and there a few options IMHO:
- Maintain the current relationship meaning it is part of the university system and budget. That means the players are students and subject to the same rules as all other students. In public universities with faculty unions it may not always be easy to keep players from "flunking out" or not being eligible. Also, if you seek to pay FB players you will have to pay the same $$$ to all other athletes (Title 9 problem). The only way most schools would survive this would be to keep the $$$ very limited and small to avoid a fiscal nightmare. In this model, all revenue is the property of the school and distributes in its normal budgeting process. In this model, the players continue to have their own NIL property rights as that has nothing to do with the school $$$.
- Break the FB team from the school, and make it an entertainment company. Then the players can get paid directly by the company and there is no need to ever open a book or attend the school. If the company wanted to offer a tuition program benefit, it could and some players might want to be students, but the company would pay the school for the scholarships (they may be doing that now from the AD anyhow). In this model, the company would exclusively license the rights to use the school branding, uniforms, colors, logos, etc. The media/tv rights $$$$ could flow through the league office to the FB company. Under this model, all the FB media $$ are outside the school, except for what they charge the company for the license. The league/team companies could/would likely bargain for the players pay like NFL. Each league could cut its own deal, so no way there is any anti-trust issues. This makes it an official minor league, and avoids any academic entanglements. Players can still have their NIL deals - i.e. do adds for State Farm.
- Other option? Not seeing any easy one. Certainly almost impossible to try and pay FB players under #1 model.
It is a shame...but that's my opinion. I still follow to a degree and root for the psu kids and hope that a good number of them do get a degree and make themselves into something special (whether in the real world or pros). The game itself is still entertaining and I get vocal about what is going on, but I no longer live and die with the outcome. I used to watch tapes of games all week, followed the rest of CFB world etc... no more. I have the time, just have lost the interest.
I preferred the "old days" but they are long gone and not coming back.
My guess is that so long as the people keep filling the seats and paying the bills, the show goes on. But I do wonder if that will happen... are young kids as vested as we were or will they find something more fulfilling to do than follow football (and with the head injuries piling up, how long can the game itself survive)? Next decade should be interesting to observe.... just won't be much of a participant lol.
Idk that paying the players causes a title ix problem. Iirc title ix speaks to opertunities
Will probably be some form of #2 - but, won't 'break' away from the school. Football players will be employees but I don't think there will be any requirement to attend classes or maintain grades (so, optional). But, they should have contracts, like pro players, so they're not just doing whatever they want during football season. Must show up to practice, put in time during the week, etc. Get rid of all the practice limits too since this is effectively their 'job'.
If they do that, then they will have to make sure they are employees like other staff, and not classified as student athletes - then school free tuition might be benefit if that is what other staff get. That keeps the Title 9 out of the equation. Schools would have to be very careful to never make them seem as students, as then all the other athletes are going to insist on the equal pay. There may still be lawyers who try to construe that they are student athletes with all getting equal $$$$. I cannot see how they could win that argument, but some may try.
Most universities have foundations that are separate but related. Not hard to imagine athletic departments using the same business model
Is the State of California (legislature) trying to stop this? Not sure why a legislature is getting involved in a school's conference decisions - unless they expect this to be a major budget issue for the state.
It's not the state legislature (AFAIK) - but rather the University of California Board of Regents who collectively set policy for the UC schools. I think they're mostly bluffing, but have said they could kill UCLA's move to the B1G if they wanted (or suggested as much).