I don't really understand the people who think a salary cap is coming or would fix anything.

College football is different than the NFL in that we have boosters who are willing to spend stupid amounts of money to see the school they graduated from (or support without graduating from) succeed.

The courts have made it clear that it's going to be okay going forward for these boosters to give money to recruits and players dependent upon them playing for a school and that no restriction by the colleges or NCAA (or any other organization) will be allowed to limit that.

That means even if you pay players and institute a salary cap on what their paid from the school, the boosters will still be able to set up NIL deals to pay the players above the salary cap to play at the school.

As long as it's legal to do that and boosters still want to pay stupid amounts of money for their team to succeed, no salary cap will work for college football. Professional teams don't have boosters like college football does. The professional model of balancing the playing field only works if boosters disappear.

There's never really been any logical reason for boosters to exist. It doesn't make sense to give prospects thousands or millions of dollars just for your alma mater to win football games any more than giving money to pro-players through advertising deals to sign with your favorite pro-team makes sense. That's completely legal, but it's a non-factor in the pro game because pro football fans don't have the mentality of throwing money at pro athletes just to get them to sign for their favorite team.

But that mindset exists in college. And as long as it does, with the courts decisions on NIL, salary caps in college serve no purpose.

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Posted by BigBro

Member since Jul 2021

9661 posts

Posted on 4/23/24 at 7:02 pm to DawginSC

quote:
But that mindset exists in college. And as long as it does, with the courts decisions on NIL, salary caps in college serve no purpose.

From my point of view, it isn’t about the money.. it is about making the “athletes” an employee so that you can actually make rules and enforce them..

Ie contracts.. transfers.. etc

Part of making them an employee will be some kind of salary.. and therefore there will be a salary cap.. perhaps a draft as well..

I believe this would eliminate all the legal challenges that are going on today.

I also may be completely wrong.. just my opinion that something like this is brewing..

This post was edited on 4/23/24 at 7:04 pm

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Posted by twk

Wichita Falls, Texas

Member since Jul 2011

2182 posts

Posted on 4/24/24 at 11:24 am to DawginSC

quote:
I don't really understand the people who think a salary cap is coming or would fix anything.

College football is different than the NFL in that we have boosters who are willing to spend stupid amounts of money to see the school they graduated from (or support without graduating from) succeed.

The courts have made it clear that it's going to be okay going forward for these boosters to give money to recruits and players dependent upon them playing for a school and that no restriction by the colleges or NCAA (or any other organization) will be allowed to limit that.

That means even if you pay players and institute a salary cap on what their paid from the school, the boosters will still be able to set up NIL deals to pay the players above the salary cap to play at the school.

As long as it's legal to do that and boosters still want to pay stupid amounts of money for their team to succeed, no salary cap will work for college football. Professional teams don't have boosters like college football does. The professional model of balancing the playing field only works if boosters disappear.

There's never really been any logical reason for boosters to exist. It doesn't make sense to give prospects thousands or millions of dollars just for your alma mater to win football games any more than giving money to pro-players through advertising deals to sign with your favorite pro-team makes sense. That's completely legal, but it's a non-factor in the pro game because pro football fans don't have the mentality of throwing money at pro athletes just to get them to sign for their favorite team.

But that mindset exists in college. And as long as it does, with the courts decisions on NIL, salary caps in college serve no purpose.

This. The NFL has a salary cap, but it doesn't limit what Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce make on their sponsorship deal with State Farm. But, as you point out, in college football, those sponsorship deals are driven by booster egos, not by economic decisions.