Question for long time Vol fans

[HuntlandVolinColo]

Dang it, no Nega-Vols stuck their head in the blender!

 

[BubbaWms]

After 50 plus years of watching Big Orange football, the next season is always more special.....never know when it's going to be your last :blink:

 

[Vfl2407]

Op has to be 20 at the most.

You're about 40 years off.
But, thanks for appreciating my youthful outlook and exuberance. :rock:

It's awesome on this web site when people don't like a thread or post, that instead of just ignoring it, that they attack the poster.

 

[CountVolcula]

10 at the beginning

Tempers to a 5 by the time we get beat by Florida Georgia and Alabama

1 at the end if we lose to Vandy

Start the emotional rollercoaster all over again

 

[Backwards K]

Been a fan since 1967, season tix since 81. I'm at about a 7.5. Interested in seeing this addition and will go to every game or at least plan to. Figure this to be a mediocre year but should position the team to have a good run over the next 3 or 4 years. Looking forward to seeing the new players and see if some of the big names can stay healthy enough to play more than 2 or 3 games.

 

[Vol_in_Japan]

C'mon now, what kinda poll is this? The answer should be a 10, always.

GBO!!!!

 

[Nocleats]

!!; I'm excited, like always, and nothings going to change that. Love My Vols

 

[YankeeVol]

But it can be amazing how quickly that number drops

Truth

 

[Booker512]

10 at the beginning

Tempers to a 5 by the time we get beat by Florida Georgia and Alabama

1 at the end if we lose to Vandy

Start the emotional rollercoaster all over again

You should take up knitting.

 

[HoptownVol]

I haven't watched a single "practice" video or interview. What does that say?

 

[VFLinFL]

I bet D4H selected #10. I thought this was his post when I first read #10. Give me #9 because I am always excited when it is Football Time In Tennessee and always will be excited. Wait... I didn't shart though. Seriously though I really didn't. Wait... let me check.....

 

[jim pique]

a Tennessee can since my freshman year,call of 1966.The hair on my arms stands up as our Vols fun through the "T".always has ,always will.Psyched up so that years come to my eyes.

 

[Wylo]

10 excitement

6 expectations

 

[ftsandersvol]

It is a 10 every year! GBO!!!

 

[TNnative]

10 at the beginning

Tempers to a 5 by the time we get beat by Florida Georgia and Alabama

1 at the end if we lose to Vandy

Start the emotional rollercoaster all over again

He should have added, "All of the above by the time everything is said and done."

 

[cali_vol]

I'd say 8. We always start undefeated! Young talent is there. If they show up and injuries are at a minimum we could have a really exciting season.

 

[SmokinBob]

I don't think Phil would agree with you about being in the entertainment industry. And although I didn't always like CPF or agree with him...there has never been a sliver of a DOUBT in my mind that that he didn't care about the young men he coached at the University of Tennessee!...They weren't entertainment to him, nor a bunch of sausages in a factory.

It was a career to him...and a mission, too! Just look at the list of former players who love him like a father.

He was working with living, breathing human beings who truly looked up to him for guidance. And he had earned their respect by being a man of integrity...He believed in them and had to live and suffer the heartache of having to discipline many of them.

Ask the mothers and fathers of those players who played for him all of those years--you think they will call him an entertainer? Stupid!

Honestly--I find your statement offensive and insulting to the entire coaching (and teaching) profession. IT takes some kind of willful ignorance to refuse to acknowledge the impact the men and women who coach for a living have on the lives of college athletes. SHAME ON YOU for thinking that it's all just entertainment.

I'm a sports fan...and primarily a football fan! However, I don't watch it for entertainment...like a fictional movie...

I love to watch excellent coaches lead young men onto the field who are prepared to play excellent football. I love to see players improve and mature on the field over their careers. I love the guys who play with passion and for the pure love of the game.

I loved watching JJ go up and with sheer will catch that ball last year at UGA.

My favorite UT game of all time was the '91 Notre Dame game....because even though ND had the better team and the huge first half lead....the UT Volunteers led by Johnny Majors just wouldn't QUIT! They never gave up...all the way to the finish! And that is inspiring, not entertaining...

My second favorite is the 1986 Sugar Bowl win over Miami...again because our team was allegedly outmatched against the mighty Hurricanes of Miami...and there was no way they would win...

But our team was better prepared, better coached, and played with passion and a self-less love for each other and their coaches....and the game...and that game was inspiring, not entertainment!

Why? Because a bunch of nobodies took on the somebodies in the world and actually WON!

I dare you to watch these videos...and then try to tell me that it's all just entertainment....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQPgI08DDJg

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/...d463d4fd0127ff029413251e72c6098b&action=click

Good post is good.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

To much perspective here. On the outside it is entertainment and not of the more noble type. The Sporting News Networks, especially the national sports news are for the most part, prostitutes. But the deeper you go the more real it gets. You get to regional and it's liable to be about state pride or regional pride. Until you get all the way down to the locker room. There you're at the field of dreams. It's not that a football game is that important. It's a time in life when they have come in as boys and are now trying to determine what kind of men they will become. The goal setting is actually more important than what the goal is. The determination to achieve is more important than what is achieved.

So I don't understand those that get so down on the team as a whole because of what administrators or boosters do. Just think of the magical seasons that we've seen. Johnny Majors didn't become a super genius in 1985 and 1989 to go back to being typical the rest of the time. Fulmer didn't become a super genius in 98 to suddenly turn stupid in 08. The determination, the comradery and the love of their team are the greatest determining factors as to how well a team can be coached. So if John Kelly, Juann Jennings, Jack Jones etc.., have bought in and believe in their coaches and program, then that settles it , so do I.

So when we consider the talking heads, the bettors, sports talk provocateurs that think they are the Howard Sterns of sports. They are all about entertainment and don't matter at all. But when you get to the heart of the matter on those fields of dreams and the practice fields and locker rooms that facilitates them, these boys trying to become men are what matters,...they're all that matters

So completely, totally, perfectly well said.

Thank you for this.

 

[SmokinBob]

To much perspective here. On the outside it is entertainment and not of the more noble type. The Sporting News Networks, especially the national sports news are for the most part, prostitutes. But the deeper you go the more real it gets. You get to regional and it's liable to be about state pride or regional pride. Until you get all the way down to the locker room. There you're at the field of dreams. It's not that a football game is that important. It's a time in life when they have come in as boys and are now trying to determine what kind of men they will become. The goal setting is actually more important than what the goal is. The determination to achieve is more important than what is achieved.

So I don't understand those that get so down on the team as a whole because of what administrators or boosters do. Just think of the magical seasons that we've seen. Johnny Majors didn't become a super genius in 1985 and 1989 to go back to being typical the rest of the time. Fulmer didn't become a super genius in 98 to suddenly turn stupid in 08. The determination, the comradery and the love of their team are the greatest determining factors as to how well a team can be coached. So if John Kelly, Juann Jennings, Jack Jones etc.., have bought in and believe in their coaches and program, then that settles it , so do I.

So when we consider the talking heads, the bettors, sports talk provocateurs that think they are the Howard Sterns of sports. They are all about entertainment and don't matter at all. But when you get to the heart of the matter on those fields of dreams and the practice fields and locker rooms that facilitates them, these boys trying to become men are what matters,...they're all that matters

You nailed it 46.

 

[MikeVol44]

Mike, you gotta stop mouth breathing.

Sports are entertainment. There's no debate, it's a fact. Sports exist to entertain, just like the theater, and musical artists, and magic shows. It's all entertainment.

1. I wasn't angry when I posted....I guess that is what you mean by mouth breathing...

I just flat out disagree with you--and find it incredulous that you think that anyone who disagrees with you must be irrationally overcome with uncontrollable anger...i.e. only able to breathe thru the mouth.
What does that make you?

2. I do agree that PROFESSIONAL sports do exist for entertainment purposes...and that the "performers" get paid...It's all just a big show...and $$$ rules...

However--NO...I will not agree that competitive sporting events on the collegiate level exist for entertainment purposes.

Nothing could be more wrong...Why? Just my opinions..

1. Why must the athletes attend classes...and maintain an adequate and quantifiable level of classroom success? No professional entertainer must do so...

2. Why do we have Title IX in collegiate athletics--when there is no such concept in professional sports?

Professional sports are MARKET DRIVEN...supply and demand...money...money...money...

3. Only a very small % of college athletes progress to making a living from sports..

http://www.ncaa.org/about/resources/research/estimated-probability-competing-professional-athletics

So--the athletic scholarship is a vehicle to provide an education to equip the student for gainful employment in the work force.

4. The $$$ from collegiate athletics is NOT shared with the athletes (other than scholarship $$$--according to the rules)...and there is a continual resistance to this entire concept.

5. If only entertainment--then the entertainers should be allowed to freely change jobs after the conditions of their ONE YEAR CONTRACT (scholarship) are fulfilled.

And they should be allowed to jump to another team who has the ability to pay them a fair MARKET wage as reward for their performance excellence.

Ultimately--if collegiate athletics are nothing more than entertainment--then the athletes are nothing more than mere commodities...to be bought and sold...with no inherent value to society other than their ability to perform on game-day.

I'm not asking anyone to agree with anything I just said...just giving my own rationale for not seeing college athletes (male or female) as entertainers within an entertainment industry.

:salute:

 

[VFL-82-JP]

long post; tldq

Pardon my cynicism, Mike, but college football is big money. I mean, BIG money. It generates revenue on similar levels to the NFL: Division I college football will generate about $7.3 Billion this coming season, while the NFL will generate about $9 Billion.

Yes, it is big-E Entertainment, and part of the Entertainment Industry.

You're right about the athletes being student-athletes, of course. As I mentioned earlier, college sports are where the entertainment industry and education intertwine. College football is some of both, and not purely either. The students, in particular, are deep in the mix, with one foot in each world. Coaches and admin staff are more deeply in the entertainment industry, though some coaches do see themselves as teachers and mentors of more than football, which puts them in both worlds, too.

Keep in mind: student-athlete football players ARE paid for being athletes. They're paid $50,000 to $100,000 a year (or even more; varies by school) to cover tuition, room and board, books, and other expenses, plus now travel money and other funds to cover the "full cost of attendance." In other words, they are paid more per year than many of us here on VolNation make in our full-time jobs. They're not getting all that money because they're students; they're getting it because they are talented athletes (who also have to be students to meet NCAA requirements).

Important to note: these are financial benefits that the average Tennessee student has to (1) get a job to cover, or (2) get from his parents, or (3) take out a loan for, then pay back later. This is not an insubstantial amount of money these student-athletes are making. And the only reason they're making it is because they are good enough to play football competitively at the college level.

So we can leave that whole "they're unpaid amateurs" fiction off to the side. It hasn't been true for a long, long time.

Fact is, the world they live in is a complicated venue where Entertainment and college education merge. And they are most certainly part of both.

 

[Behr]

Haha. Holy Moses.

 

[VFL-82-JP]

p.s. You touted an NCAA-favorite line in your response, Mike, one that always makes me chuckle when I hear it in a commercial during a game: it goes something like this: "I'm one of thousands of college student-athletes, and 99% of us will go pro in something other than sports." Something like that.

Well, that's true if you include the men and women's swim teams. The dive teams. Women's field hockey. Volleyball. Tennis and golf. Track, field, and cross-country.

But if you narrow it down to the big-money sports, esp. football and men's basketball, the percentage leaps higher. Your link included that part of the story: 19% of Division I men's basketball players go pro; 5% of women's basketball; 9% of Division I baseball; 2% of Division I football (and note: that 2% is some really questionable math; see below).

Next step: narrow it down to Power 5 teams, esp. in football. The percentage leaps up again. I would guess somewhere around 15-25% of Power 5 college players go pro in sports.*




* Really rough back-of-the-napkin kind of calculations: 129 college teams each take 25 new scholarship players a year: that's 3,225 new Division I college football players per year. Hold that number.

The average NFL career length is 3.3 years. Which means over the course of three and a third years, the entire 53-man roster of each team will, on average, turn over once. (that doesn't mean your favorite QB can't stay in the league 20 years...it just means his longevity is going to cause some poor defensive end to leave in less than 3 years to keep the average right). So in a single year, each NFL team will need about 16 new players. Multiply that by 32 NFL teams, and you've got 512 new NFL players a year.

But that's not all, a player can go pro in the Canadian or European leagues, as well. That's another 15 teams with roughly the same turnover. So add another 240 pros to those destinations (at a much lower pay scale, sure, but they're still going pro in sports, right?).

So total is about 750 pro football players needed each year, out of 3,225 college players added each year. That's 23%.

This is really rough measurement, so don't take that figure as accurate. Could be anywhere from 15% to 30%, as imprecise as the calculations were.

Still, that's a heck of a lot more than the NCAA wants to admit in its push for the purity of the "student-athlete" model. And those percentages will be higher still if you focus on the Power 5 conference teams, like Tennessee.

We had, what, 6 guys drafted and another 5 or so who made NFL teams as undrafted free agents this spring? That's 11 out of what began as a class of about 25 players when they went off to college. So around 40%.

That's the reality of college football as the main path to the pros, in the Power 5.

 

[MikeVol44]

p.s. You touted an NCAA-favorite line in your response, Mike, one that always makes me chuckle when I hear it in a commercial during a game: it goes something like this: "I'm one of thousands of college student-athletes, and 99% of us will go pro in something other than sports." Something like that.

Okay...:salute: eace2:

 

[jayisavol]

8 but I'm a glass half empty kinda guy