Gus, I do appreciate you responding. I am not trying to be obtuse and if you carefully read what I wrote I am not making things up. However, I do feel like we are both genuinely trying to understand our disagreement, but to some extent we are talking past each other. Given that I will try again.

There are several things I agree with you on (trying to use your exact same wording when I can below):
- this system is unsustainable
- Schools were not suppose to be involved, but it was laughable to think this way
- the current system has players signing with the highest bidder
- unlimited transfers will destroy college sports as we know it

Some of the things disagree with you on are:
- I believe college football players have been being mistreated in a college football market value sense for that last 20-30 years , their earnings from the college football business were a pittance compared to what the coaches and administrators received.
- I believe Saban wants another system just like the failed one that has existed for the past 20-30 years. A set of rules (NCAA regulations) with an enforcement agency (the NCAA). I would rather have free markets letting institutions pay what they want for players ( they already do this with coaches, and Saban personally benefited from that).
- let the players go play where they want, it is supposed to be a free country, I sure as hell do not want someone to tell me where I can or cannot go to work for money
- NIL and the money flowing through it are just a small symptom of a much larger problem, it is like a small crack in a hugely out of balance business system that is college football today.

Some ideas that I have heard/considered for the future of college football that could be examined more:
- separate college football teams from the education institutions, they are separate organizations that have vastly different goals and they end up corrupting each other.
- let players contract with a team, they could sign a contract for 4 years and “x” million dollars with penalties if they leave, or a contract for 1 year for less money
- maybe things are so bad with college football that it does need to be destroyed as we know it now, and then if it is something that people truly value it will be resurrected in a more pure form.

This post was edited on 3/13/24 at 10:56 pm

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Posted by GusAU

Member since Mar 2014

3673 posts

Posted on 3/13/24 at 11:17 pm to FlyDownTheField83

quote:
Gus, I do appreciate you responding. I am not trying to be obtuse and if you carefully read what I wrote I am not making things up. However, I do feel like we are both genuinely trying to understand our disagreement, but to some extent we are talking past each other. Given that I will try again.

I get heated because something I, along with MILLIONS of alums, sidewalk and actual, have an incredibly strong passion for is being destroyed by people that think they understand, but really don't seem to. I do apologize for coming across as uncivil at times. That said, by reading the rest of your response, I can now see we are literally WORLDS apart in our view of this issue.

I will try to briefly

respond to each one:

quote:
- college football players have been being mistreated in a college football market value sense for that last 20-30 years , their earnings from the college football business were a pittance compared to what the coaches and administrators received.

This quote alone is why I now know that you and I will never see things the same way FOR THIS SUBJECT.

There is no way in hell anyone will ever convince me that college football players are MISTREATED in any college football market at any time.

If you want to dismiss the value of a scholarship, then I can't help you. If the value of a scholarship is so overvalued in your opinion, then why are so many college students in major debt from college loans? Many of them are going to be stuck in debt for many, many years to come.

quote:
I believe Saban wants another system just like the failed one that has existed for the past 20-30 years. A set of rules (NCAA regulations) with an enforcement agency (the NCAA). I would rather have free markets letting institutions pay what they want for players ( they already do this with coaches, and Saban personally benefited from that).

I'm almost speechless after reading this. This proves my point that you think college football players should be paid a salary, which will absolutely destroy the college sports environment that has created the very fanbase that has created the demand. I guarantee you that they will lose MILLIONS of fans. Look at the attendance of minor league baseball, G-League basketball and the USFL/XFL. That is what college football and basketball arenas will look like in 10 years if the players become employees. The strong connection to the schools that MOST fans have is the reason for the passion for their school's athletic teams. If you can't understand that, then you will never understand my perspective (which I would bet the vast majority of fans agree with).

As far as what coaches make, the vast majority of their salaries are NOT paid by the schools. They are paid by alumni groups. I really don't see how much money the coaches are being paid can be used to push for players being paid. They are really not related.

Do you think every Walmart employee should make at least $100,000 since the higher ups make millions?

quote:
let the players go play where they want, it is supposed to be a free country, I sure as hell do not want someone to tell me where I can or cannot go to WORK for money

No one is telling ANYONE where they can or cannot WORK for MONEY. That is a major flaw in your reasoning. College football is NOT SUPPOSED TO BE A JOB, no matter how much money is involved. Look at the money that Little League Baseball makes. Should all of those "mistreated" kids be paid a salary to "work"?

quote:
NIL and the money flowing through it are just a small symptom of a much larger problem, it is like a small crack in a hugely out of balance business system that is college football today.

Not to be rude, but people that want to turn college athletics into professional athletics are THE problem and it is a HUGE crack in the system that is college football today.

After responding to all of that, I realize I was wrong when I said we are WORLDS apart in our outlook of this issue.

We are actually UNIVERSES apart in our outlook.

All of that said, I do apologize again if I come across as uncivil and do appreciate your civility. We are just going to have to agree to disagree.

War Eagle!