How? Players were getting paid before. Now it's simply out in the open and other schools know what the actual amounts are that they are competing against.
Yes, but the under the table aspect kept things reasonable. Now in 1 season we have gone from getting paid for likeness to multi-million dollar deals before they show up on campus. Since football is so competitive it will not stop there. They are already thinking about starting them out in high school. Pandora's box has been opened and nothing can stop college footballs self-destruction.
Marcus Lattimore
Yes, but the under the table aspect kept things reasonable. Now in 1 season we have gone from getting paid for likeness to multi-million dollar deals before they show up on campus. Since football is so competitive it will not stop there. They are already thinking about starting them out in high school. Pandora's box has been opened and nothing can stop college footballs self-destruction.
I love college football as much as anyone, but it was built on a horrible business model (free labor). If football can't survive without the players seeing some of the money, then destruction is what it deserves.
I agree. NIL is going to be what busts up the conferences. The big programs are finally going to look at the Vandy's and the Baylor's and the Stanford's and decide it is NOT in their best interest to divvy this TV money up equally with these minnows no one wants to watch and bring no eyes to the deal and lock horns with each other for the REALLY BIG money TV contracts of the future, Wrestlemania style.I'm glad that NIL appears to be a windfall for UT. It has the power to cut years of pain out between what we've experienced the last few years and where Bama has been during the same period.
Overall though, it isn't good for the game. It is important to have programs that are competitive enough to show up... like Vandy, UK, Arkansas, Mizzou, Northwestern, Wake Forest, etc. When NIL is in full bloom, the best players will almost always go to programs that have the strongest NIL support. Players who are missed out of HS will quickly hit the portal for the best deal. So even if Vandy happens to find an overlooked player... they'll be gone as soon as the world knows it.
UT seems to be ahead but top tier programs from Michigan to Miami and Penn State to UCLA will model Spyre soon enough. Very quickly the disparity between the haves and have nots is going to widen significantly.
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing the top tier of CFB becoming a separate league if NIL is going to stay as it is. There are maybe 4 or 5 ACC programs that can compete from an NIL standpoint. Maybe 8 or even 9 SEC programs. Five or 6 Big 10. One maybe 2 Big 12. Maybe 4 or 5 Pac12 teams. Take those and make a super league with a real playoff.
Otherwise, competition is about to get ugly between the top and bottom. There won't be much of a middle class- if any. There also won't be much class mobility.
In the long run, this isn't going to make the game better. It may or may not serve the players. But it is important to remember that for every Marcus Lattimore out there who would have been paid (and has a job now as a direct benefit of his playing days) there are dozens of kids with similarly devastating injuries from CFB who were never stars or starters. There are scout team guys who have a permanent scar of some type that would never command an NIL deal.
It was not free labor, a 4 year scholarship including room and board is a big deal. Then they have the chance to get the attention of the NFL catapulting them to millionaire status. The school provided a free launching pad. The problem started when TV money started growing and the schools started competing for coaches due to the need to win. No coach is worth 7 million to do what he would be doing anyway for $250K, but services can be auctioned to the highest bidder. Once those salaries started to climb it became a bad business model. How can you support paying a coach millions but not the players? Now they are both being over-paid and greed will destroy it.
We'll just have to agree to disagree. A 4 year scholarship including room and board is not a big deal and hasn't been for a long time. It's a rounding error for any P5 athletic department, and the schools make such significant profit margins on nearly every other student that writing off the tuition and housing for a few hundred student athletes is a drop in the bucket at a 25,000 student university (or 70,000 like some schools have). As for your last statement, the SEC just signed a $3B deal with ESPN (which the players have access to $0). I don't think I'd call the players greedy for wanting to sell a few $30 tshirts...
There is no disagreement. The players are being paid the fair market value and the price is no more college football.
You obviously don’t see the good in getting a education into a particular field you may want to go into after your career. Even in power 5 most players don’t make the nfl, many more are there to get a degree that was paid for by their athletic scholarship. Get your binders off, most college players at Power 5 do not end up in the nfl. Many players get into coaching or teaching or enter a entirely different field. They couldn’t do that without a degree. The vast amount of college athletes at Bama and Georgia or anywhere else aren’t never going to play in the pro’s. They can’t afford nor want to throw away their free ride paid for by a free scholarship. GBO!That's not really relevant if your argument is that the education itself is what is valuable. They can still get the same education without a scholarship.
No. They aren't getting paid to play football (or whatever sport). They are getting paid because they happen play football (or some other sport). NIL is a system that is simply allowing players to get their own sponsorships, just like any other pro athlete does. While there is undoubtedly ties from sponsors to certain programs, this all stems from the popularity of a particular recruit.
What are you even talking about? The vast majority of football players still aren't seeing any income and won't...
If you're saying tuition + room and board is "fair market value" well then that's just flat out wrong.
You obviously don’t see the good in getting a education into a particular field you may want to go into after your career. Even in power 5 most players don’t make the nfl, many more are there to get a degree that was paid for by their athletic scholarship. Get your binders off, most college players at Power 5 do not end up in the nfl. Many players get into coaching or teaching or enter a entirely different field. They couldn’t do that without a degree. The vast amount of college athletes at Bama and Georgia or anywhere else aren’t never going to play in the pro’s. They can’t afford nor want to throw away their free ride paid for by a free scholarship. GBO!
What happens if the NIL deals become so massive that they rival coaching salaries? You think that’s a good idea? It’s not.
Because that isn't how NILs work. Aaron Rodgers doesn't get paid any more money by State Farm by how many TDs he throws or MVPs he wins.
NIL and Aaron Rodgers' earnings are as different as warp drive engine and impulse drive engines. And ole Aaron does get paid for his MVP and TDs. The more he does this, the greater his attraction to his sponsors AND his team. He gets the power to renegotiate his contracts for more money. Aaron for one isn't stupid, he insists on as much as he can get from sponsors because he knows if he sneezes instead of cough, or his playing level degenerates, they can and will drop him like a red-hot iron potato.