I canceled my contribution to Spyre

Because buying tickets and gear was never going towards the team.

You think that’s enough to buy the highest end players in the country?

If so then maybe we don’t need any collectives at all. Let’s hope every other school feels the same.
 
Nice deflection. You didn’t answer my question.
It's not a deflection. It's in response to an idiotic response because you apparently think it's okay for people to have to work for free, because they choose a particular place to work.
 
We had same problem with Jarrett Guarantano and Tyler Bray. Both were highly rated QBs that flopped for the most part. Nico isn't the first one (although I will say Nico was probably the highest rated one).
Tyler Bray had a million dollar arm and a five cent head. I will say that offence scored a lot of points.
 
You think that’s enough to buy the highest end players in the country?

If so then maybe we don’t need any collectives at all. Let’s hope every other school feels the same.

You think this is what NIL was supposed to be? Less and less will be willing to dump money into what we’re currently getting. Collectives, talent fees, players blackmailing schools, etc. People will get sick of it sooner than later.
 
We’re a Graham Mertz gifted fumble and Jalen Milroe not forcing a bad throw to Ryan Williams in the endzone away from having Butch Jones record last year and there’s no telling how much money we spent on NIL
James Pearce Jr ripped that ball away from Mertz in a truly outstanding defensive play. It wasn't a "gift." It was literally a take away.Screenshot 2025-04-21 at 11.36.57 AM.png
Screenshot 2025-04-21 at 11.36.32 AM.png
Mod McCoy took inside position away from the heralded WR, timed Milroe's pass perfectly, and went sky-high to make that interception. It was a great defensive play.
Screenshot 2025-04-21 at 11.31.56 AM.pngScreenshot 2025-04-21 at 11.26.53 AM.png
 
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I'm older and don't mind at all. I don't understand why people are so upset that the group that has been exploited for decades finally gets a piece of the pie. It also benefits us. You immediately see the teams that were paying huge on the illegal side taking a tumble (Alabama and Georgia both having three losses).
The problem is not that they are getting paid, it is that there are no guardrails in the current system. There is no way for a school to hold a player to their agreement, they can leave at any time and hold the school hostage with their demands.
 
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Can't do it anymore, what a sh*t show CFB has become. I can't in good conscience contribute anymore. That's all... flame a way.
Why did you decide to post this? Budget your money the way you see fit. Did you think this was thread worthy? No. Agree it is a planned discretionary expense and it is putting money into the wild wild west, but not a thread worthy event.
 
The problem is not that they are getting paid, it is that there are no guardrails in the current system. There is no way for a school to hold a player to their agreement, they can leave at any time and hold the school hostage with their demands.
Nope, you can just tell them to pack their stuff and go like we did with Nico, it just cost him over a million dollars to pull what he did.
 
You should really take a stand and abstain from CFB altogether. Spyre didn't create it. The NCAA, schools, networks - the fans - turned it into big business a long while ago. We just don't get to exclude the worker-bee anymore, and it's not reverting.

This.

Nobody really b***ed when college football turned into a billion dollar empire with expanded TV contracts, entire networks created, coaches making millions and becoming mercenaries, bowl games and conference championships out the wazoo making millions.....but now it's crazy? This is the result of the train that left the station 30-40 years ago. The destination was always happening. Does it need to be reformed and reigned in....sure. But it's the result of what already was allowed to happen. It's not the disease, it's a symptom.
 
The problem is not that they are getting paid, it is that there are no guardrails in the current system. There is no way for a school to hold a player to their agreement, they can leave at any time and hold the school hostage with their demands.

This is the problem. This and the transfer portal timing and being so open that it allows the player to further hold the schools hostage. I don't have a problem with the concept and principles of each, but there has to be some rules that makes it less chaotic. Pro sports has contracts, free agency, etc. and I'm not saying college sports needs exactly that but like a light version of it.
 
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So the unlimited transfer rule is based on a court ruling?
The courts have basically found the NCAA to be a monopoly in violation of the anti-trust laws and so they (the NCAA or any replacement national body) are having an extremely hard time making any nationally applicable rules that are enforceable. The SEC's rule that you can't transfer to another conference team except in the winter portal period is enforceable because it's not national in application.
 
I feel like we’ve got to the tipping point. Fans have to be tapped out financially. It’s close to a $3000 weekend to go to a game in Knoxville and I see a lot of fans there that don’t look like they can afford it. I don’t know how much more the turnip can be squeezed.
 
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This.

Nobody really b***ed when college football turned into a billion dollar empire with expanded TV contracts, entire networks created, coaches making millions and becoming mercenaries, bowl games and conference championships out the wazoo making millions.....but now it's crazy? This is the result of the train that left the station 30-40 years ago. The destination was always happening. Does it need to be reformed and reigned in....sure. But it's the result of what already was allowed to happen. It's not the disease, it's a symptom.
This is the truth that created this mess.

NCAA vs Oklahoma which allowed conferences and schools to negotiate TV deals and brought about the bidding war for conference media rights. This began the era of the "we know it's useless but the TV revenue is great" bowl.

As fans, we loved it. No more 3 games a season on TV IF we made a New Years bowl. We could see the Vols most weekends in the Fall from the house and soon it became expected that almost every SEC game was on TV.

Viewership went crazy. Ad money went crazy. Athletic Dept revenue went crazy. College athletics popularity was incredibly high and so was college Athletics Dept revenues and so was ad revenue! It was wonderful.

The athletes? No. They're amateurs. We can't pay them or it messes everything up. We can't. We can't control it if we pay them and we don't call them employees instead of student athletes. The NCAA was correct.

Result: Alston v NCAA. The ENTIRE NCAA business model is a violation of the rights of the workers. Keep them from NIL? Illegal. Keep schools from using NIL as essentially pay for play in recruiting? Illegal. Keep students from transferring whenever they wish and playing? Illegal.

The slightest crack in the door of compensation for students, Alston was about educational benefits like laptops, etc being part of scholarships...... and it all broke.

It all goes back to the fans and schools wanting all that TV money and creating the industry that is big-time college sports and all many of you have ever grown up with...... Saturday being full of TV sports.

It wasn't EVER supposed to be like that. The NCAA tried to keep control, keep the business smaller, keep it from becoming like the NFL and NBA on TV.

They lost. Ultimately, we lost.
 
It's not a deflection. It's in response to an idiotic response because you apparently think it's okay for people to have to work for free, because they choose a particular place to work.
Still didn’t answer the question. And you won’t because the answer doesn’t fit your narrative. College athletics, any sport, is voluntary. It is a choice. Any college athlete can also choose to quit at any time if they are not happy with their circumstances.

I played a sport in college. Never received a dime other than per diem money when we were on the road. Worked my tail off too. For the love of the game. And wouldn’t change a single thing. Got my degree and have now been employed at my Alma mater for 33 years.

I would have charged for my autograph had anyone ever asked for one. But, alas, nobody ever did 😄
 
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UT's endowment has nothing to do with athletics. UTAD is separate.

And revenue sharing is going to open a entire new set of issues because of Title IX. If the money flows through the University instead of a collective, it's going to have to get equally split between men and women sports
I understand that technically The entities are separate, but do you think the university would be in the same financial situation without athletics?

Also, do you think the revenue sharing could be divided by revenue earned?

Obviously the endowment is positively affected by marketing aka athletics, and revenue sharing can be allocated differently between sports.

My daughter is a d1 athlete in a non revenue generating sport. We are happy for the scholarship money and all the other benefits she gets. We do not expect a share of the football money.
 
Are they being forced to play football? Or are they choosing to?
They are choosing to play football, in part, because schools RECRUIT them to play football AND after high school they can't enter the draft yet

Perhaps you've not read Alston v NCAA where the Supreme Court essentially says the NCAA has a monopoly on the slice between high school and pro. With that, they've manipulated the market to avoid paying players at the market rate for talent because essentially the players have nowhere else to play.

If you think you're going to "win" by saying the players choose to play, the Supreme Court has beaten you to point. The NCAA holds a near stranglehold on college play, particularly as it pertains to the potential earnings of a player in college or the NFL.

It's not REALLY a choice if you have nowhere else to work.
 
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Yes. AND TENNESSEE, the state not the school but you can guess who lobbied for it, joined the case to allow multiple transfers without penalty.

UT WANTS this, apparently, whether fans do or not.
"they thought they wanted this", would be a more approp statement. Just like they thought they wanted Nico.
 

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