Brutal takedown of the state of college athletics

[Deleted11512]

Very true. The game has become entirely monetized. It is fully a business.

The odd thing, nobody involved seems to really like it. I have yet to hear many fans who like the direction it's heading. You don't hear many coaches offering full support for it. Those who do speak will lament the loss of tradition. Most see expansion as bad for the history and tradition of the game. History and tradition have long been essential components of college football. The vast majority of articles I read are written from the perspective that all the changes are detrimental to the game.

But it keeps moving forward, in spite of the fact that nobody seems to really want to see it happen. Even some of those who say they don't like expansion on the one hand, will panic and say the SEC needs to get involved with further expansion to ensure survival (whatever that means).

Coaches love it. Their salaries are doubling every 7 years or so. They don't want to tell us that b/c they want to be on the same side as the fans. They're making more money than ever, have more shiny toys to go recruit with, private jets, etc...

 

[18IsTheMan]

Coaches love it. Their salaries are doubling every 7 years or so. They don't want to tell us that b/c they want to be on the same side as the fans. They're making more money than ever, have more shiny toys to go recruit with, private jets, etc...

Indeed.

Nick Saban purchases Jupiter Island home for $17.5 million

Alabama football coach Nick Saban has purchased a waterfront home on Jupiter Island, the listing agent for the property tells WPTV.

www.wptv.com

Nobody can resist the allure of money, even if means the death of something they love.

The article I linked in the OP highlighted the hypocrisy of college administrators bagging 6 and 7 figure salaries and lobbying for expansion and billion dollar media rights deals and then arguing before Congress for college sports to retain amateur status.

I suppose we're all guilty to some degree. Who among us doesn't love being able to see every Gamecock football game on tv? Increased visibility seemed like a good thing for the game. But it was a deal with the devil.

 

[Deleted11512]

I don’t understand why people would want to give money to these kids. If they need to be paid it should be done my the school or the conference. It’s my understanding they were all getting around $13k every year anyway, not to mention having their school paid for. I’m a huge fan of football but all this is going to kill the college game.

This is my biggest issue with it. The schools are recording massive amounts of revenue increases. We're now talking about schools taking home $100M/yr just in TV distributions, not including what they make off of home games. The amount of money flowing through these ADs is baffling. But when it comes to NIL, once again, it falls on the backs of the consumers. The players generate the TV revenue. THAT's their NIL. Not fans paying to show up for an autograph signing. Now you have people giving up their season tickets so they can help fund collectives. You have infighting within fan bases of who gives to collectives and who doesn't. Meanwhile, the rich get richer. It's sickening.

 

[18IsTheMan]

This is my biggest issue with it. The schools are recording massive amounts of revenue increases. We're now talking about schools taking home $100M/yr just in TV distributions, not including what they make off of home games. The amount of money flowing through these ADs is baffling. But when it comes to NIL, once again, it falls on the backs of the consumers. The players generate the TV revenue. THAT's their NIL. Not fans paying to show up for an autograph signing. Now you have people giving up their season tickets so they can help fund collectives. You have infighting within fan bases of who gives to collectives and who doesn't. Meanwhile, the rich get richer. It's sickening.

The game has been so mangled and distorted, it's not possible to see any path back to restoration.

The only path could be enough big-time programs stepping up to band together and peel things back to 20 years ago. But there's just too much money at stake for anyone to be motivated to do that.

Alternatively, fans could band together and refuse to watch games on TV or attend games in person. But we're too weak for that. Fans feel an obligation to support their team, even if everything the team is doing is detrimental to the fan.