The Realities of The NIL Era...

[VolsSportsFan]

So some of you are all pro-captialism except now? This is reaping what you sow.

Everyone sat around on your hands while college sports, football in particular became huge business. Nobody cared when coaches started getting paid millions and millions and got idiotic boyouts, conferences get billions from TV networks, get their OWN networks, and now the players are reaping suddenly you realize things might not be the same? Blame yourself for not paying attention.

The best you can hope for is they come up with rules and guardrails that will look a lot like the NFL, and those moaning about it....well the NCAA has been treated as an NFL minor league for decades so what did you expect.

You can't have a business (yes big time NCAA sports is a business) pulling in billions and not expect the players to want their cut, and everyone freaking out about how much good freakin lord where is your perespective. Coaches are being paing $75 million to WALK AWAY. Why does that not piss you off more than some QB who might be in the NFL making $2 million.

If you want your nostalgic version of what you thnk college football is supposed to be, I suggest you start watching FCS, D2, D3, and NAIA.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

The Supreme Court TOLD the NCAA that their business model is illegal and unworkable and they should go to Congress for help.

Still, every couple of months people post on VN that "the NCAA should fix this."

It's not really remarkable that a business model that's illegal and unworkable isn't working very well and gets sued all the time. Duh.

Yep, they 100% have zero power to fix this. I am not typically someone who calls for Congressional action but in this case Congress is literally the only entity with the power to make enforceable rules, at least without the complete destruction of the concept of intercollegiate athletics.

 

[UTwick]

The NCAA needs to stand up and do something. Is there a way this can get controlled without the kids becoming employees?

Until Kiffin goes 'Full Michigan', LSU is going to be a handful. Of course, all the money LSU is spending on football does track with being 50th in the US in literacy.

Priorities!

 

[Delmar]

It's absolutely pay to play, but it's unfair to allow Nico situations to happen anywhere. And red shirting is a good thing for most kids. Although it hasn't really paid off for Arch Manning, I think his family did the right thing setting him up to sit. Best thing for the kld.

In the NFL it's usually preferable to have drafted QB watch for at least part of a season before being run out as a savior. This system is 100X worse for a star high school player who signs a gigantic NIL to go to...Arkensaw, let's say. Poor o-line, he ran 10 plays in high school and now has to make presnap blocking audibles. Odds of destroying that kids confidence are very high.

Maybe he was OK going to UT and redshirting but Ark offered more so he goes to Ark. And after that awful season, he's straight to the portal.

Fairness has nothing to do with any of this. It’s called survival of the fittest and who has the most gold. Not sure what redshirting has to do with the conversation. You wrote:

“Name, Image and Likeness should be a real-world component. If I want to give money to the star QB and I own an asbestos removal company, that deal should have no ties to his playing anywhere special.”

My response was simply addressing that statement that, while admirable, won’t work with today’s climate. NIL in college football is most certainly tied to where the player plays.

 

[Delmar]

The Supreme Court TOLD the NCAA that their business model is illegal and unworkable and they should go to Congress for help.

Still, every couple of months people post on VN that "the NCAA should fix this."

It's not really remarkable that a business model that's illegal and unworkable isn't working very well and gets sued all the time. Duh.

Yep. It’s amazing to me that people forget these conversations and keep beating this dead horse every couple of months.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Yep, they 100% have zero power to fix this. I am not typically someone who calls for Congressional action but in this case Congress is literally the only entity with the power to make enforceable rules, at least without the complete destruction of the concept of intercollegiate athletics.

I'm a bigger fan of the revenue sports breaking away and forming pro leagues. I think they get some kind of "implied Antitrust" protection to collectively bargain, cap salaries, etc. I think you are an attorney but I'm not..... but only baseball has a TRUE exemption and the NFL, NBA, etc are using a different "implied" method. I would prefer that for big-time "college" sports.

Schools are academic organizations and being involved in a multi billion dollar sports business isn't anywhere near the charter goals of most universities. The "educational and social benefits" from the big-time sports is now well overshadowed by the business aspects. JMO

 

[iuvol]

The NCAA needs to stand up and do something. Is there a way this can get controlled without the kids becoming employees?

Until Kiffin goes 'Full Michigan', LSU is going to be a handful. Of course, all the money LSU is spending on football does track with being 50th in the US in literacy.

Congress won’t let them do much.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

I'm a bigger fan of the revenue sports breaking away and forming pro leagues. I think they get some kind of "implied Antitrust" protection to collectively bargain, cap salaries, etc. I think you are an attorney but I'm not..... but only baseball has a TRUE exemption and the NFL, NBA, etc are using a different "implied" method. I would prefer that for big-time "college" sports.

Schools are academic organizations and being involved in a multi billion dollar sports business isn't anywhere near the charter goals of most universities. The "educational and social benefits" from the big-time sports is now well overshadowed by the business aspects. JMO

Without the connection to the schools though minor league football won't be much more popular than minor league baseball eventually though imo. It'll be NFL lite with an inferior product. "Vols, Inc." unconnected to the University of Tennessee isn't going to have the same sort of draw. I think that's an overcorrection of past wrongs. The connection to the schools is more valuable than people realize. The reality is 90% of D1 players aren't going to make it in the NFL or the NBA. I prefer a compromise that addresses the past inequities and remembers the 90% and the non-revenue athletes and provides them ALL with access to an education. Create a conditional safe harbor from antitrust which is only effective provided that at least half of all revenue is set aside for athlete stipends, lifetime insurance for sports related injuries and pensions for the revenue sports athletes. In return the NCAA (or some new governing body) can make enforceable rules regarding recruiting, transfers, and NIL.

 

[Sarms58]

The current NIL circus is a prime example of what happens when you have poor/incompetent leadership. These guys have collected huge salaries for decades and never faced any really significant challenge. When the courts ruled that college players could monetize their name, image and likeness, the NCAA was flat footed - they had no plan. It will become a more sane process not because of the NCAA but because others are stepping up to put workable plans in place.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Without the connection to the schools though minor league football won't be much more popular than minor league baseball eventually though imo. It'll be NFL lite with an inferior product. "Vols, Inc." unconnected to the University of Tennessee isn't going to have the same sort of draw. I think that's an overcorrection of past wrongs. The connection to the schools is more valuable than people realize. The reality is 90% of D1 players aren't going to make it in the NFL or the NBA. I prefer a compromise that addresses the past inequities and remembers the 90% and the non-revenue athletes and provides them ALL with access to an education. Create a conditional safe harbor from antitrust which is only effective provided that at least half of all revenue is set aside for athlete stipends, lifetime insurance for sports related injuries and pensions for the revenue sports athletes. In return the NCAA (or some new governing body) can make enforceable rules regarding recruiting, transfers, and NIL.

I just think a wealth of problems stems from how to treat non-revenue sports vs revenue sports even with Antitrust protection for the NCAA.

Who is to say that a non revenue athlete who puts in significant training and practice time isn't doing as much as a star football player? The fact that one is part of a sport the school chooses to put millions of dollars toward vs a non revenue sport isn't the fault of the non revenue athlete. They work just as hard to represent the school and may or may not legally deserve similar compensation based upon similar time spent preparing for their sport.

Schools aren't necessarily going to want to keep supporting non revenue sports and paying non revenue generating athletes that suck money from their cash cow sports. Not separating the revenue sports from the non revenue sports hurts more athletes than it helps, IMO.

Schools will treat athletics as a business, for real, if they get an exemption to do so and as such they will cut out the "dead weight" sports.

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

The NCAA needs to stand up and do something. Is there a way this can get controlled without the kids becoming employees?

Until Kiffin goes 'Full Michigan', LSU is going to be a handful. Of course, all the money LSU is spending on football does track with being 50th in the US in literacy.

The NCAA needs to stand up to federal law and federal court decisions???

Hogwash.

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

I just think a wealth of problems stems from how to treat non-revenue sports vs revenue sports even with Antitrust protection for the NCAA.

Who is to say that a non revenue athlete who puts in significant training and practice time isn't doing as much as a star football player? The fact that one is part of a sport the school chooses to put millions of dollars toward vs a non revenue sport isn't the fault of the non revenue athlete. They work just as hard to represent the school and may or may not legally deserve similar compensation based upon similar time spent preparing for their sport.

Schools aren't necessarily going to want to keep supporting non revenue sports and paying non revenue generating athletes that suck money from their cash cow sports. Not separating the revenue sports from the non revenue sports hurts more athletes than it helps, IMO.

Schools will treat athletics as a business, for real, if they get an exemption to do so and as such they will cut out the "dead weight" sports.

Key words "non revenue".

 

[S.C. OrangeMan]

Yep, they 100% have zero power to fix this. I am not typically someone who calls for Congressional action but in this case Congress is literally the only entity with the power to make enforceable rules, at least without the complete destruction of the concept of intercollegiate athletics.

They do, but not without granting employee status to the athletes.

That comes with unionization, collective bargaining, and maybe strikes.

133 team draft replacing recruiting.
Involuntary trades.

Military academies not being able to compete in FBS.

Is that REALLY the NFL model that anyone wants the NCAA to adopt if Congress to legislate things?

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Key words "non revenue".

You think a business can NOT pay employees just because that portion of the business doesn't generate revenue?

They can shut down that portion of the business that isn't generating revenue but they MUST pay the employees in the division until they do.

That's the issue. If the schools are just going to keep the revenue generating sports because they don't want to keep supporting the non revenue sports and paying the non revenue players, that hurts more athletes and students than it helps.

If it is run as a business, they SHOULD shutter the non revenue sports but should the university be a sports business and not have athletics as an adjunct to education?

 

[TNHopeful505]

The thing that still remains true is that there will always be more players than there are schools. And, these players cannot get to the pros without going to college.

Once a league starts that pays these players out of high school and serves as a gateway to the league without classes and responsibilities, watch out.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

The thing that still remains true is that there will always be more players than there are schools. And, these players cannot get to the pros without going to college.

Once a league starts that pays these players out of high school and serves as a gateway to the league without classes and responsibilities, watch out.

College has huge money via media contracts. A startup competitor is like the various attempts to start competing pro leagues: doomed.

There is zero chance of serious competition on Saturday unless conferences like the SEC and B1G break away from the NCAA. ZERO.

 

[dduncan4163]

I understand what you’re saying, but they should be paid something, but not the amount they are now. The pendulum swung way to far the other way.

They also should have 5 years to play 5 years and nothing more.

And the NCAA is to blame for it all.

 

[marvin616]

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I tried to post this in the OP but it didn't work.

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College Football’s NIL Problem is Self-Inflicted​

Lord Dukes de Enfer
8 min read
·
1 day ago
The bubble is really full and close to bursting.
The reality is NIL is here, and it’s not going away. However, for some people, change is hard.
Back in the day (2020 and prior), college football compensated guys to play, sometimes with bags of money, sometimes with cars or toys, and other times with women. Certain groups loved this system. They had mastered it, and they knew how to stay out of trouble and how they could get away with what nefarious games they played.
Usually, it was the boosters who paid the bill for the players. Oklahoma had a local Chevy dealership who would lease cars to star players. And no one in Norman, Oklahoma, cared if a star linebacker paid his lease payment or not for the Corvette he was driving to class. But the boosters controlled this opaque process. Now they don’t.
They are still very important as generating $20mil plus, a year isn’t easy. And the money the SEC/Big 10 schools used to amass to bring in a solid freshman class quietly, isn’t going to get the job done in 2026.
LSU (dominant team before NIL) had the highest-ranked player coming out of high school, Bryce Underwood signed to a ‘letter of intent’, for (reportedly) $1.5mil/per season. When Michigan’s NIL company came up with $3m per year for 4 seasons. The highest amount paid to a college athlete to that point. Bryce decided not to enroll in the land of Crawfish and became a “Michigan Man”.
So a bunch of rich A-Holes screwed a bunch of other rich A-Holes, so what?
Because these kids now have agents, the days of giving a kid and a few $1,000 a week are over. Because there was an agent in the middle, Dave Portnoy (Barstool Sports) and Larry Ellison (Oracle) led a group that guaranteed the $12m or so to Underwood. LSU’s boosters, who previously have operated in a vacuum, aren’t getting the best overall players to come to Baton Rouge anymore without having a billionaire or two who really likes the Tigers.
Because the system has changed so much, so fast, the SEC & Big 10 legacy teams are losing their advantage in clandestine player purchasing. If those schools could come up with good money to pay kids in 2015, they will find some money in 2025. But giving a kid a car or paying mom and dad’s mortgage isn’t all that expensive in the grand scheme of things. And things are going to get expensive.
Not only have the amounts increased, but access to players, agents, and schools is out of the dark alleys and ‘old boys’ networks and are now being tracked by 100’s of internet fans. Yes, the numbers have gone up, but 5 years ago you couldnt get into that game easily. You had to have a high school coach or “friend of the family” who the boosters could deal with. Now, a rich donor who loves the University of New Mexico can make a few calls and Viola! New Mexico is a big-time program if he likes.
Maybe I’m naive, but I don’t think kids were making a million dollars a season before NIL. The following is what was reported last December (2024): what teams were paying players for the 2025 season. As I’m writing this mid-December 2025, the NIL numbers below are a year old. But you can bet the numbers didn’t go down.
I also show what the investment brought the NIL spenders with the team’s current ranking in the playoff rankings, 2025 record, and a note about the team.

20. Florida State Seminoles: $10 million​

5–7 Didn’t want to pay the massive buyout to fire the coach.

19. Oregon Ducks: $10.6 million​

#5 in Playoff rankings, 11–1, Gets to beat James Madison in the first round of the playoff

18. Kentucky Wildcats: $11.2 million​

5–7, fired head coach

17. Arkansas Razorbacks: $11.5 million​

2–10, fired head coach

16. Auburn Tigers: $11.58 million,​

5–7, fired head coach

15. Tennessee Volunteers: $11.6 million​

8–4 Star QB left the team in May, so the coach did a good job to hold it all together.

14. Virginia Cavaliers: $12.7 million​

#19 10–3 NOT in the playoff

13. Michigan State Spartans: $13 million​

4–6, fired head coach

12. Indiana Hoosiers: $13.6 million​

#1, 12–0 Playoff bye week.

11. Penn State Nittany Lions: $13.7 million​

6–6, fired coach mid-season

10. Oklahoma Sooners ($14.8M)​

#8, 10–2, hosting Alabama in the playoff

9. Clemson Tigers ($15.2M)​

Unranked, 7–5

8. Florida Gators ($15.8M)​

4–8, fired head coach

7. Alabama Crimson Tide ($15.9M)​

#9, 9–3 record, and playing at Oklahoma in the playoffs

6. Michigan Wolverines ($16.3M)​

#18 with a 9–3 record and NOT in the playoffs. After the season fired their coach for an unrelated reason.

5. Texas A&M Aggies ($17.2M)​

#7, with an 11–1 record and a home playoff game

4. Georgia Bulldogs ($18.3M)​

#3 with an 11–1 record and a playoff bye week

3. LSU Tigers ($20.1M)​

Unranked, 7–5, fired the head coach, whom they replaced with Lane Kiffin, who is an unquestioned winner, but also perhaps the worst person in college football. Kiffin’s deal is $13mil a year and NIL spending of $25mil on top of $91,000,000.00 guaranteed.

2. Ohio State Buckeyes ($20.2M)​

#2 in the playoff rankings with an 11–1 record and a playoff week #1 bye week.

1. Texas Longhorns ($22.2M)​

#13 in playoff rankings with a 9–3 record and NOT in the playoffs.
wikicomms
We learned a few things this season about NIL and the future of college athletics…
#1 The economics have changed, and it appears the richest schools with the least disciplined alumni will flourish.
#2 You are going to need to spend big money or you really have no chance. Seven of the 20 top spenders made the 12-team playoff, with three teams not on that list, but were on multiple other up-to-date lists due to late spending (Texas Tech, Miami and Ole Miss). Rounding out the top 10. The other two teams are from smaller conferences and both spent less and are going to get destroyed by bigger schools.
#3 If they spend, you’d better win. In the film version of “Glengarry, Glen Ross,” Alec Baldwin offers a results-oriented sales meeting to his sales force, where he breaks down how things work -
“1st place, a brand new Cadillac, 2nd place a set of steak knives, 3rd place, F-you, you are fired.”
You’ll notice the trend on that list is a 3 tier outcome for the coaches and to some extent the AD’s of the top NIL schools. Tier #1 — Make the playoffs. Tier #2 Come very close to making the playoffs. Tier #3 F- You, you are fired!.
The results to this point are pretty clear: the NCAA should have worked out a system to compensate players long ago. And even now as schools that used to make millions with their football programs are starting to lose money, the NCAA still has its head in the sand.
The NCAA’s unwillingness to make these athletes employees (because then they will unionize and negotiate as a group and the NCAA can’t have that) is leading to unchecked spending.
Five seasons ago the NCAA could have made the players employees and capped compensation at $5,000,000.00 per team. Everyone would have been ecstatic.
NIL Year
Below is the Avg. a team from the big 4 conferences paid in NIL since NIL became a thing.

Year 1 — 2021–22​

$1.5M — $3M

Year 2 — 2022–23​

$5M — $8M (+200%)

Year 3 — 2023–24​

$9M — $12M (+60%)

Year 4 — 2024–25​

$13M — $16M (+35%)

Year 5 — 2025–26​

$20.5M (+40%)
It’s unsustainable. But there is another reality. The schools must have lied for decades as to the real profit numbers.
Twenty years ago when Alabama was winning titles, they said “athletics lose money”. Some people believed them; those of us with a brain knew better. And technically, the NIL money isn’t coming from the schools until 2026, however, the schools are hiring additional staff to manage the NIL realities going forward. Also the schools and athletic departments are facing additional pressure if that is even possible.
The booster who put up the money expects to win. The days when a coach would almost always stay until his contract ended, being given time to build a program up, has been replaced with, “need a quarterback, poach a 3rd year Jr from a non-Power 4 program”. Smaller schools are helpless to stop teams from Power 4 programs. You think Sacramento St is going to match an NIL offer from Iowa or UCLA?
I am happy the players (who were basically slaves to the NCAA before NIL) have leverage and are getting paid. The one thing that bothers me, though, is how this affects other sports.
The excuse, “football pays for everything else,” is sorta BS as it costs a lot and other sports are relatively inexpensive compared to the traveling circus a football team is. The highest paid employee of almost every state in the USA is the state’s school’s football coach. That was before the largest building owned by the state (often the football stadium) is maintained and secured. The average road game requires transport of over a 100 players, coaches, endless equipment and that’s before the now $20m necessary to field an average team.
As this continues to be mismanaged, it’s going to get more and more upside down.
Lane Kiffin got $91million guaranteed, but the coach LSU fired had a buyout of $54million. And LSU is a state school. Don’t be surprised if other opportunities start to vanish from the school if they have a couple more down years. The in-state tuition at LSU is just under $12,500. With a student fee base of roughly $324m a year, and with Lane costing $13m, the buyout of $54m and $25m guaranteed for players, that’s 28% of the entire student fee base at LSU next year.
I know the buyout is going to be amortised over a couple seasons and part or all of the NIL may not fall on the school, but you can see the sun coming up over college football and it looks more like a nuclear winter than a nice fall morning.

• **FOOTNOTE***
• Below is a (accurate as of September 2025) list of the states where a football coach is the highest paid state employee.

The “Football States” List​

In these states, the head football coach at a major public university (usually the flagship or the primary land-grant university) holds the top salary spot.

• Alabama (Kalen DeBoer, Alabama)
• Arizona (Kenny Dillingham, ASU or Brent Brennan, Arizona)
• Arkansas (Sam Pittman, Arkansas)
• California (Deshaun Foster, UCLA or Justin Wilcox, Cal)
• Note: While California has highly paid surgeons, the UC system football coaches currently top the list (~$4M–$7M).
• Colorado (Deion Sanders, Colorado)
• Florida (Billy Napier, Florida or Mike Norvell, FSU)
• Georgia (Kirby Smart, Georgia)
• Idaho (Spencer Danielson, Boise State)
• Illinois (Bret Bielema, Illinois)
• Indiana (Curt Cignetti, Indiana)
• Note: Historically a “basketball state,” the new football contract (~$4M+) now rivals or exceeds the basketball coach’s salary.
• Iowa (Kirk Ferentz, Iowa)
• Kentucky (Mark Stoops, Kentucky)
• Note: Football coach Mark Stoops (~$9M) earns significantly more than new basketball coach Mark Pope (~$5.5M).
• Louisiana (Brian Kelly, LSU)
• Maryland (Mike Locksley, Maryland)
• Michigan (Sherrone Moore, Michigan)
• Minnesota (P.J. Fleck, Minnesota)
• Mississippi (Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss)
• Missouri (Eli Drinkwitz, Missouri)
• Nebraska (Matt Rhule, Nebraska)
• Nevada (Barry Odom, UNLV)
• New Jersey (Greg Schiano, Rutgers)
• New Mexico (Bronco Mendenhall, New Mexico)
• North Carolina (Mack Brown, UNC)
• Ohio (Ryan Day, Ohio State)
• Oklahoma (Brent Venables, Oklahoma)
• Oregon (Dan Lanning, Oregon)
• Pennsylvania (James Franklin, Penn State)
• South Carolina (Shane Beamer, South Carolina)
• Tennessee (Josh Heupel, Tennessee)
• Texas (Steve Sarkisian, Texas)
• Utah (Kyle Whittingham, Utah)
• Virginia (Brent Pry, Virginia Tech)
• Washington (Jedd Fisch, Washington)
• West Virginia (Neal Brown, West Virginia)
• Wisconsin (Luke Fickell, Wisconsin)
• Wyoming (Jay Sawvel, Wyoming)

https://medium.com/tag/football?sou...0a2199---------------------------------------

Bronco Mendenhall isn't the coach of New Mexico, it's Jason Eck, and why did the writer pick New Mexico as an example to $#!+ on? They had a fine season and almost got into the MWC championship. Eck will be a name to watch in coaching circles, he has a good program in place here.

 

[utvols74]

The NCAA is powerless unless Congress passes some sort of Antitrust exemption for college sports. That's the only way out in which college sports survives in a recognizable form. If you go the employee route football and basketball will inevitably break off from the schools and become true minor league sports teams, the non-revenue sports will go away. It is frustrating for the people who love college sports and understand these legal realities to see us hurtling towards this disaster with no power to avoid it because of the sheer inertia of all the ignorance, greed and misinformation surrounding the subject.

This is what I've predicted shortly after NIL. Big businesses will start their own "Super Conference" and invite "representatives" from the schools to participate. Unless you play in the Super Conference, your pro aspirations are done. It will be something like the old end-of-season "Blue-Gray" game or Senior game when players were selected to play in a televised game to get more exposure to pro scouts.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

College has huge money via media contracts. A startup competitor is like the various attempts to start competing pro leagues: doomed.

There is zero chance of serious competition on Saturday unless conferences like the SEC and B1G break away from the NCAA. ZERO.

Title IX is going to be a major impediment to schools directly employing football players and basketball players and paying them their fair market value. A clean break from that regulatory oversight will be needed. The schools will ultimately sell their rights to the teams for a nice chunk of change to private equity. Vols, Inc. may rent Neyland Stadium to play it's games for a time but the connection to the schools and the states will dwindle, as will the draw.

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

They do, but not without granting employee status to the athletes.

That comes with unionization, collective bargaining, and maybe strikes.

133 team draft replacing recruiting.
Involuntary trades.

Military academies not being able to compete in FBS.

Is that REALLY the NFL model that anyone wants the NCAA to adopt if Congress to legislate things?

That's what is guaranteed to happen if Congress doesn't act.

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Title IX is going to be a major impediment to schools directly employing football players and basketball players and paying them their fair market value. A clean break from that regulatory oversight will be needed. The schools will ultimately sell their rights to the teams for a nice chunk of change to private equity. Vols, Inc. may rent Neyland Stadium to play it's games for a time but the connection to the schools and the states will dwindle, as will the draw.

I'm not a fan of private equity having a controlling interest though it may happen that way. I'd REALLY like to see a group of billionaires and pro owners "cherry pick" the teams for a league including both football and basketball teams previously associated with colleges.

And yes, the interest will probably drop over time and some will immediately leave "butthurt" over the change just to "prove something," whatever that is. The young will know nothing different so they may or may not embrace it.

We old heads ALWAYS think we know what will happen and that isn't always true. I can recall discussions among my elders about the integration of basketball and football that said "They may do that **** up North but not in the South. It won't fly down here. Never!"

Right now I think things can actually contine until the "players are employees" lawsuits wind to the Supreme Court. Sure, it's chaotic and messy but outside of a one game dip (I had the Vols at 9-3,) I've enjoyed the season overall.

With the DC change I'm anxious for next year already. Chaos or not, GBO.

 

[Carl Pickens]

Yep…. College athletes at the University of Tennessee are definitely “exploited”.

• In-State:
  • Tuition & Fees: ~$13,876 ($11,560 tuition + ~$2,316 fees)
  • Total (with Housing/Food):~$36,710
• Out-of-State:
  • Tuition & Fees: ~$33,340 ($30,704 tuition + ~$2,632 fees)
  • Total (with Housing/Food):~$56,170

 

[SayUWantAreVOLution]

Yep…. College athletes at the University of Tennessee are definitely “exploited”.

• In-State:
  • Tuition & Fees: ~$13,876 ($11,560 tuition + ~$2,316 fees)
  • Total (with Housing/Food):~$36,710
• Out-of-State:
  • Tuition & Fees: ~$33,340 ($30,704 tuition + ~$2,632 fees)
  • Total (with Housing/Food):~$56,170

Athletic Department revenue was about $225M last year so UT got their money's worth, eh?

 

[bozotheacc]

YOU are the one wanting to restrict competition by somehow going off on Lane Kiffin getting a better job for himself and LSU simply competing via hiring using money as an incentive.

That's ACTUALLY competitive. That's how it works. Want to innovate? Spend some money for research. Want to excel? Spend some money to hire excellent workers.

Just because you dislike the competition personally does not mean the system is broken.

I'll say it this way, "I prefer a system college-based athletics that has 1 foot in the collective reality that it is still college athletics".

The untethered spending you seem to be advocating for is what the rest of the country refers to as the SEC Championship. As The Big 10 and SEC have established a mini cartel to access this "free market" money. Should Alabama be in, over Notre Dame, Texas or Duke? Should James Madison and Tulane be in it at all?

The conferences have to be the equivalent of the leagues in euro soccer. And the playoff is the Champions League. Of course, the Playoffs are an invitational, not a Champions League.

The ridiculous "Cinderella" fantasy I've heard blathered about with Madison and Tulane is just that. As this isn't basketball.

Right now they have plenty of money, but the reason they have a cap and collective bargaining in the NFL is as much a product of the first couple years of free agency and a few owners spending like drunken sailors as it does the players "winning" the right to have it.