re: Has anybody else lost interest in college football now that teams cost 50 million

I still enjoy it, but it’s getting harder.
-Ole Miss made us give up our Grove spot of 20+ years so they could lease it for corporate parties.
-If kids start regularly pulling a “Nico”, it’s going to result in a loss of fans. We Southerners have always had heroes on our teams, not mercenaries. Especially QBs.
-Going to a game is getting harder and harder. The cost keeps going up, tickets, concessions, T-Shirts all of it. I’ve got plenty of disposable income, but that doesn’t mean I want to pay those prices!
-we’ve quit going to the directional school games altogether. I’m just not going to sit in humid hot weather and watch paid blue chip player pummel kids who are glad to have a scholarship. It’s perverse!

The whole thing just seems sleazy and tainted. I don’t mind the kids getting paid, but combined with the transfer portal, it’s a disaster!

I'll still watch the games but y interest has dropped off dramatically.

Recruiting is meaningless, most of those guys you sign will transfer.

The guys who are really good, some will transfer, the rest will go to the NFL early.

Your roster is a complete shite show year to year, absolutely no team chemistry, no time to get attached to anybody.

Watching every single QB in the sport play for at least 2 teams, sometimes 3, is just f'ing absurd.

Still waiting to see how it plays out for maybe another few years but it definitely feels ugly and superficial to a degree. It must change to have a future.

I won't miss another Saturday hunt due to us having an early Saturday game. Not sure what that means to anyone else but it was a sacrifice I've made continously in the past.

Yes

The years my kids started walking and talking are the same years this stuff started going down with college football so they gave me an easy offramp with how much I care. I watch games here and there but my time priorities have shifted greatly. They want to go to the park during a game, off to the park. My interest undoubtedly would have dropped off without kids but they made it way easier.

I'd say I care less than half as much. Maybe even a quarter of what I cared before. Knowing these guys are just annual (sometimes less) mercenaries just kills it for me. Maybe some sort of CBA, salary cap and longer contracts (with exceptions for HC or coordinator changes and some playing time benchmarks) will provide me some fantasy that these players are actually going to that program for that program instead of cash. I can say my Saturdays has become way more productive and fulfilling since NIL so I guess I should thank them for that.

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I wonder about this. What happens when the mega-wealthy donors at top 10-15 programs stop paying for this stuff? Eventually those folks want some ROI, and if they’re fronting millions of dollars a year without winning much of anything (particularly now that the public commentary is almost entirely focused on the playoffs and NC), even the people with that much cash to burn are going to stop. Either they just lose interest, or they decide they’d rather their kids have the additional $5M cushion when they die rather than paying some football player they don’t know

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That is why the SEC and Big 10 likely will enforce a salary cap a few years down the line (but need to treat them as employees and unionize first or else you get a bunch of antitrust lawsuits). They know these donors will start thinking the way you say as everything settles out and certain few programs are in a financial arms race that leaves the other 125 FBS teams in the dust. It was happening before with the top programs but only a few really saw how the sausage was made and there was an illusion of a level playing field. Showing the public the ground up meat getting stuffed into sheep intestine is ruining it. We just want to see it on the meat aisle and throw it on the grill.

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But for many programs, the donors will always be there. They've already always been there. It's a cultural practice, and a $30 million roster that loses football games will only lead to a $35 million roster that (hopefully) wins football games. And so on and so on

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Maybe, but I have my doubts. I certainly don’t think the current college football environments are likely to create that sort of loyalty in the next generation of boosters.

You mention rivalries, but if the players themselves start to devalue the rivalries (unquestionable at this point), any rational adult will start to question why they would pay so much money for that reason.

Going to start watching the Ivy League and service academies. I’ll still watch a few minor league (rest of CFB) games but if I want to watch real pros I’ll just buy Sunday Ticket

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reliant on the middle class.

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America's Middle Class IMHO will pony up the dough needed to sustain championship college football teams. Many are true fanatics.