Mac Engel: Alabama and Nick Saban are ruining college football (link)

[LookSharp]

There is nothing else that manufactures the type of interest that comes with supremacy.

But what Saban and 'Bama are doing to college football doesn't feel like good marketing as much as it does a radio station playing the No. 1 hit 24 hours a day for 10 straight years.

We are reaching that point when people will simply turn it all off, and watch something else.

Mac Engel: Nick Saban and Alabama pop Cincinnati and are ruining college football (msn.com)

IMO Georgia is going to beat Bama this time but nonetheless, it doesn't detract from his underlying point. The business model of college football is busted. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. I don't think it's something a 16-team playoff can fix due to NIL, player free agency and the opt out. As usual, money has a tendency to corrupt things. The 5-star talent concentrates and congeals in the SEC. And so what's a poor team to do? Well, if you can't beat them then join them, which is precisely what Texas and Oklahoma decided to do in order to remain relevant. After all, should you want to be the best then you must play the best. Michigan found out the hard way Friday night.

 

[NittanyBuff]

Lol, Uncle Nick is just too good. All good things come to an end, every great program has had their lean yrs, just respect what the guy has done. I think Georgia gets them this time around as well.

 

[BW Lion]

Meh. Mac seems like one of those whiny people interested in equality of outcomes.

 

[SurgeOne]

There is nothing else that manufactures the type of interest that comes with supremacy.

But what Saban and 'Bama are doing to college football doesn't feel like good marketing as much as it does a radio station playing the No. 1 hit 24 hours a day for 10 straight years.

We are reaching that point when people will simply turn it all off, and watch something else.

Mac Engel: Nick Saban and Alabama pop Cincinnati and are ruining college football (msn.com)

IMO Georgia is going to beat Bama this time but nonetheless, it doesn't detract from his underlying point. The business model of college football is busted. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. I don't think it's something a 16-team playoff can fix due to NIL, player free agency and the opt out. As usual, money has a tendency to corrupt things. The 5-star talent concentrates and congeals in the SEC. And so what's a poor team to do? Well, if you can't beat them then join them, which is precisely what Texas and Oklahoma decided to do in order to remain relevant. After all, should you want to be the best then you must play the best. Michigan found it out the hard way Friday night.

The blame isn’t with Saban or Bama. It’s with the NCAA and college players being free agents. Saban warned that when the portal became “a thing” that it would help Bama and hurt the “have nots.” They get the top recruits each year and now are the top option for the best in the portal. Saban’s doing what every King of the Hill would do. I do agree that college football is becoming much less interesting.

 

[LookSharp]

Meh. Mac seems like one of those whiny people interested in equality of outcomes.

It's more like he and others wax nostalgic for the days of diversity and inclusion...

What’s not debatable is that, for a sport that spent a long history rich in geographic variety, such variety isn’t the spice at the moment. It isn’t even present. It got left in a past now crawling with tumbleweeds, a past when titles would come to the Nebraska plains, to the middle of Pennsylvania, to just below downtown Los Angeles, maybe even up to the Pacific Northwest and the tailgating boats competing for primo spots off Lake Washington.

Another Alabama-Georgia showdown brings with it more fretting about college football domination (msn.com)

 

[NittPicker]

Cut scholarships to 80 so certain teams are slightly less able to hoard talent. 85 may have been okay when transferring was much less common but times have changed.

 

[manatree]

Cut scholarships to 60 and weekly practice/training to be equal to the number of weekly class credit hours. If a player is taking 12 credit hours a week, they are allowed to practice/train 12 hours a week.

 

[OuiRPSU]

If Penn State had been as successful as Bama, they’d be saying the same negative things about us. And then how would you feel?

As I’ve said many times before, and as been stated above, every program has had its share of crappy seasons (even Alabama). Of course, with the portal and NIL things have changed but, at some point, the balance of power will eventually shift.

 

[BobPSU92]

No athletic scholarships. Football players apply and get accepted based on academic record and can apply for an academic scholarship (full or partial) based on need.

 

[JVP_Yahweh]

Meh... get better or get out of the way

 

[Midnighter]

There is nothing else that manufactures the type of interest that comes with supremacy.

But what Saban and 'Bama are doing to college football doesn't feel like good marketing as much as it does a radio station playing the No. 1 hit 24 hours a day for 10 straight years.

We are reaching that point when people will simply turn it all off, and watch something else.

Mac Engel: Nick Saban and Alabama pop Cincinnati and are ruining college football (msn.com)

IMO Georgia is going to beat Bama this time but nonetheless, it doesn't detract from his underlying point. The business model of college football is busted. The rich keep getting richer and the poor keep getting poorer. I don't think it's something a 16-team playoff can fix due to NIL, player free agency and the opt out. As usual, money has a tendency to corrupt things. The 5-star talent concentrates and congeals in the SEC. And so what's a poor team to do? Well, if you can't beat them then join them, which is precisely what Texas and Oklahoma decided to do in order to remain relevant. After all, should you want to be the best then you must play the best. Michigan found out the hard way Friday night.

Bama is going to beat the sh*t out of Georgia and their walk on QB. Just like they did earlier this year.

 

[NJPSU]

College football is dead but Alabama isn’t the reason.

 

[Player2BNamedL8r]

No athletic scholarships. Football players apply and get accepted based on academic record and can apply for an academic scholarship (full or partial) based on need.

This is interesting. Then again, one could argue that scholarships are the next dinosaur to fall by the wayside now that players can get paid. The ncaa is irrelevant. Football hungry schools will just start hiring kids…no class necessary. Basically, they’ll cut the whole student-athlete charade and just fund a minor league.

 

[troutrus]

Meh... get better or get out of the way

BINGO!!!!

 

[Player2BNamedL8r]

What football factories should do is align themselves with NFL teams (2-3 schools per pro team), then let the league start drafting kids right out of HS and plug them into whichever farm team is best for each player. The league has pretty much been skating for free with colleges picking up the tab for getting its players ready for the league. Let THEM pay for player development, while the universities continue to provide the facilities (stadiums/practice fields/weight rooms/housing/etc) with league subsidies of course. Any school not aligned with a team then can create a new, more legitimate governing body that caters to student-athletes.

 

[manatree]

What football factories should do is align themselves with NFL teams (2-3 schools per pro team), then let the league start drafting kids right out of HS and plug them into whichever farm team is best for each player. The league has pretty much been skating for free with colleges picking up the tab for getting its players ready for the league. Let THEM pay for player development, while the universities continue to provide the facilities (stadiums/practice fields/weight rooms/housing/etc) with league subsidies of course. Any school not aligned with a team then can create a new, more legitimate governing body that caters to student-athletes.

Why should the NFL suddenly start to pay for something that they get for free?

 

[Zone-Blitz]

What football factories should do is align themselves with NFL teams (2-3 schools per pro team), then let the league start drafting kids right out of HS and plug them into whichever farm team is best for each player. The league has pretty much been skating for free with colleges picking up the tab for getting its players ready for the league. Let THEM pay for player development, while the universities continue to provide the facilities (stadiums/practice fields/weight rooms/housing/etc) with league subsidies of course. Any school not aligned with a team then can create a new, more legitimate governing body that caters to student-athletes.

Should colleges pay high schools for getting their recruits ready for college?

 

[psu7113]

Lol, Uncle Nick is just too good. All good things come to an end, every great program has had their lean yrs, just respect what the guy has done. I think Georgia gets them this time around as well.

Saban has been great, to be sure. I don’t mean to take anything away from him, but he has also been aided by a 4 team playoff system which concentrates talent at the top and creates a cycle of perpetual dominance. Would Alabama have been as successful as it has been recently under the traditional bowl system, with no playoff, or with an expanded playoff? Perhaps no, as, all things being relatively equal, until recently these things have been cyclical. For example, there was a time, no all that long ago, when USC a was on top of the world and Bama was very good but not great. The lack of competitive balance is ruining college football. The only thing that will change it is if viewership and interest declines enough that the NCAA, and the television networks that are really driving the bus, have no choice but to create a more competitive environment.

 

[Zone-Blitz]

The article was spot-on and says out loud what a lot of people feel. We can heap praise on saban and bama all we want but at some point it becomes boring. I love Zeppelin but after awhile i like to take a break and listen to something else. I think that was his point. It’s just the same script year after year after year

 

[Zone-Blitz]

Saban has been great, to be sure. I don’t mean to take anything away from him, but he has also been aided by a 4 team playoff system which concentrates talent at the top and creates a cycle of perpetual dominance. Would Alabama have been as successful as it has been recently under the traditional bowl system, with no playoff, or with an expanded playoff? Perhaps no, as, all things being relatively equal, until recently these things have been cyclical. For example, there was a time, no all that long ago, when USC a was on top of the world and Bama was very good but not great. The lack of competitive balance is ruining college football. The only thing that will change it is if viewership and interest declines enough that the NCAA, and the television networks that are really driving the bus, have no choice but to create a more competitive environment.

Saban was very successful before the playoff as well

 

[Big_O]

Saban has been great, to be sure. I don’t mean to take anything away from him, but he has also been aided by a 4 team playoff system which concentrates talent at the top and creates a cycle of perpetual dominance. Would Alabama have been as successful as it has been recently under the traditional bowl system, with no playoff, or with an expanded playoff? Perhaps no, as, all things being relatively equal, until recently these things have been cyclical. For example, there was a time, no all that long ago, when USC a was on top of the world and Bama was very good but not great. The lack of competitive balance is ruining college football. The only thing that will change it is if viewership and interest declines enough that the NCAA, and the television networks that are really driving the bus, have no choice but to create a more competitive environment.

Exactly!

 

[NittPicker]

Saban has been great, to be sure. I don’t mean to take anything away from him, but he has also been aided by a 4 team playoff system which concentrates talent at the top and creates a cycle of perpetual dominance. Would Alabama have been as successful as it has been recently under the traditional bowl system, with no playoff, or with an expanded playoff? Perhaps no, as, all things being relatively equal, until recently these things have been cyclical. For example, there was a time, no all that long ago, when USC a was on top of the world and Bama was very good but not great. The lack of competitive balance is ruining college football. The only thing that will change it is if viewership and interest declines enough that the NCAA, and the television networks that are really driving the bus, have no choice but to create a more competitive environment.

The network driving the bus is ESPN and they've gone all in with the SEC. ESPN also controls the vast majority of bowl games. They'll be giving the SEC more coverage and more hype. Many high school players will buy in and feel like if they want to play college football, the SEC is the place to go. If USC, for example, could get that kind of national hype they'd have more success in getting local kids to stay. Riley got off to a good recruiting start but I wonder what will happen in a couple years after the buzz of his hiring wears off.

 

[step.eng69]

The blame isn’t with Saban or Bama. It’s with the NCAA and college players being free agents. Saban warned that when the portal became “a thing” that it would help Bama and hurt the “have nots.” They get the top recruits each year and now are the top option for the best in the portal. Saban’s doing what every King of the Hill would do. I do agree that college football is becoming much less interesting.

 

[NittanyBuff]

If Penn State had been as successful as Bama, they’d be saying the same negative things about us. And then how would you feel?

As I’ve said many times before, and as been stated above, every program has had its share of crappy seasons (even Alabama). Of course, with the portal and NIL things have changed but, at some point, the balance of power will eventually shift.

Exactly, as dumb as when we had the "Hack a Shack", years ago and he couldn't make a foul shot they wanted to change the rules. No, just learn how to shoot, same here, adjust, adapt, overcome, work smarter etc..

 

[laKavosiey-st lion]

Bama is going to beat the sh*t out of Georgia and their walk on QB. Just like they did earlier this year.

Schit is true^^^

 

[PAgeologist]

That's the beauty of a dynasty. Everyone has to get better and figure out how to beat them. Eventually someone will become the next king of the hill. Dynasties force innovation and improvement by others and don't allow stagnation. Everyone complains about them, until their team is at the top.

For those who don't follow college wrestling, PSU is that king right now. Although Iowa has recently caught and beaten PSU last year and likely would have in the Covid canceled season.

 

[Player2BNamedL8r]

Why should the NFL suddenly start to pay for something that they get for free?

Why should universities fund minor league football?

 

[manatree]

Why should universities fund minor league football?

Because they want to. IAA, II, III, and NAIA seem to work just fine for many universities.

 

[Midnighter]

IMO, for college football to be sustainable as an entertainment product, there first has to be some changes to the way the season and championship are determined. Try to control what you can control since you can't control which players choose which schools. I would start with:

1. Consolidate the conferences and further separate the big dogs from the wannabes. Do something like they do in Euro soccer with relegation. Keep the top 60 teams from the Power 5 and Notre Dame (as long as they are competitive). Make it so Bama and others have to play a competitive schedule each and every week. No more dodging LSU, Florida, etc. and scheduling The Citadel and Mercer. And if you win a NC? You have the hardest schedule the next year.
2. Expand the playoff. This will help a bit with spreading talent around and make the bowl season better/more exciting. Would rather there be six or seven really competitive, meaningful bowls than two dozen that are just to fill air time (you can still have these as a reward for fans/players, but the bigger bowls would be better if part of a playoff). And maybe you catch someone like Bama on a bad day.
3. Rip the bandaid off NIL/payment. Go balls out. Allow schools to pay/sign players or help them with deals. PSU should be able to leverage the NYC market and alumni base in way someone like Bama can't. I'd wager most of their die hard alums/fans are in the south and the competition for the bigger markets will be a lot stiffer than where PSU could do well. They can fight over Atlanta, Charlotte, etc. with every other Southern school.
4. Make players sign contracts with schools. Ones that work both ways and require certain commitments. For example - you get room/board/tuition/money in exchange for a full season to include a bowl unless injured. Break the contract, pay a fee. Make it so the contract can prevent transfers (or provide for penalty in the event of one).

As is, it's boring as sh*t to watch Bama, Georgia, Clemson, Oklahoma, Ohio State, and whatever rando school (Cincinnati - looking at you) plays in the playoff. It's less diverse than the BCS and every other format we previously had.

 

[Georgia Peach]

Lol, Uncle Nick is just too good. All good things come to an end, every great program has had their lean yrs, just respect what the guy has done. I think Georgia gets them this time around as well.

Compare WR units and tell me again who is going to win the championship?

 

[psu31trap]

Is Nick Saban really that good of a football coach? I think he coached at Michigan State for 4 or 5 years and with the exception of one good year he was mediocre at best. Then, he left for LSU where he could land the kids he couldn’t land at Michigan State and won a NC. Brian Kelly is aspiring to do the same, let’s see if he succeeds. What about Saban’s stint in the NFL? Again, after looking up his record of 65-63 his performance would be considered poor or average at best. You see, success in the NFL is harder to attain. There’s much more of a level playing field, players are much more difficult to manage and budgets are usually scrutinized. Sure, in college Saban looks like a genius matching wits against other college HCs with profoundly lesser talent, but in the NFL he would be forced to play against guys like Payton, Shanahan, Reid, Belichick and McVay.

We need to face the facts, Alabama and Nick Saban created a recruiting powerhouse fueled by big donors, state politics, and a focus on football like no other school. I did my best to omit “college” from my post because in my humble opinion they should be treated as a minor league for the NFL and not as a conference of collegiate athletes.

Yes, they’re ruining college football.

 

[Lionville]

Cut scholarships to 80 so certain teams are slightly less able to hoard talent. 85 may have been okay when transferring was much less common but times have changed.

That doesn’t eliminate the problem created by the portal.

 

[laKavosiey-st lion]

Rip the band aid off, 100% agree

 

[NittPicker]

That doesn’t eliminate the problem created by the portal.

That wouldn’t be the intent.

 

[84lion]

We need to face the facts, Alabama and Nick Saban created a recruiting powerhouse fueled by big donors, state politics, and a focus on football like no other school.

This a million times over. I agree, Saban is a good coach but he owes a great deal of his success to Alabama's commitment to consistently fielding a great football team. They leverage boosters, donors, and who knows what else. Ohio State is another school that has done this long-term, just not quite to the Alabama level.

I think of Alabama in the same vein as the old 49ers teams under Walsh and Seifert, and more recently the Patriots under Belichick. Those NFL teams created dynasties in their era. Alabama has done similarly.

Alabama will relinquish their dynasty when they're ready. I don't believe any school can hope to match Alabama's overall commitment.

Finally, I think Alabama is doing what Joe Paterno wanted Penn State to do when the NCs were won in the 1980s - leverage the football success to enhance the academic brand. Alabama has been raising their academic brand as well, so I think they're getting what they want out of this.