I feel like we have lost sight of the original benefit to the athletes…FREE EDUCATION THAT YOU MAY NOT GET OTHERWISE.

TexasAggie_97 said:

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It's not work it's a game. They are not employees they are students, and they are paid in the form of tuition, books, tutors, food, training, housing, training, medical, etc.

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A lot of semantics and virtual signaling.

Who cares if they are not "employees". If someone is willing to give them $$$ for whatever reason, you have no right to restrict them.

If the university wanted to give my kid $4M to cough, what right do you have to restrict him? His cough may not be valuable to you but unless you are footing the $$$, you have little right to any say.

This isn't in the players.

It's on the institutions (both the school and the industry). If you don't want NIL and the portal, then don't expect to have a 100,000 seat stadium with luxury suites, don't expect a $10 million coach, don't expect world class training facilities, and absolutely don't expect your team to be on TV each week.

A big pile of money is what got us into this mess -with sumlin, and then jimbo.

Medaggie said:

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TexasAggie_97 said:

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It's not work it's a game. They are not employees they are students, and they are paid in the form of tuition, books, tutors, food, training, housing, training, medical, etc.

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A lot of semantics and virtual signaling.

Who cares if they are not "employees". If someone is willing to give them $$$ for whatever reason, you have no right to restrict them.

If the university wanted to give my kid $4M to cough, what right do you have to restrict him? His cough may not be valuable to you but unless you are footing the $$$, you have little right to any say.

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The "university" is not paying nil collectives. It's all donor based.

Does not matter. We had some of the best classes in history and found ways to mess it up.

We have a who's who list of busts here.

mulch said:

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Why don't we just put a pile of money at midfield?

That's all that matters to these "players"

Skip the plays and the refs and just let them fight over the money like dogs.

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OK, Catniss. Happy Hunger Games or whatever.

IslanderAg04 said:

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Medaggie said:

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TexasAggie_97 said:

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It's not work it's a game. They are not employees they are students, and they are paid in the form of tuition, books, tutors, food, training, housing, training, medical, etc.

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A lot of semantics and virtual signaling.

Who cares if they are not "employees". If someone is willing to give them $$$ for whatever reason, you have no right to restrict them.

If the university wanted to give my kid $4M to cough, what right do you have to restrict him? His cough may not be valuable to you but unless you are footing the $$$, you have little right to any say.

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The "university" is not paying nil collectives. It's all donor based.

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Again, semantics but I know this.

So if Phil Knight gives the university $20M/yr to "fund" scholarships is the same as Phil Knight giving the Knight foundation $20M/yr to do NIL.

Its all shuffling around money anyhow.

The point is, ITS NOT ABOUT FOOTBALL ANYMORE

Fans are leaving.

Already happened to the NBA.

Think it won't happen here?

Watch…..

mulch said:

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The point is, ITS NOT ABOUT FOOTBALL ANYMORE

Fans are leaving.

Already happened to the NBA.

Think it won't happen here?

Watch…..

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Agree. If nothing else putting yourself in competition with the NFL for fans has never been wise.

mulch said:

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The point is, ITS NOT ABOUT FOOTBALL ANYMORE

Fans are leaving.

Already happened to the NBA.

Think it won't happen here?

Watch…..

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Fans turning their back on professional sports is more due to the woke agenda they push so hard.
The NBA went completely off the rails with it during COVID.

I have watched very little professional sports since COVID and I haven't really missed it.

I wonder how many here would be complaining about the portal and NIL if we had won the SEC champ game and were playing for a natty? My guess is none. Which tells me what people really care about and what they just like to complain about.

ElephantRider said:

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I'm fine with calling it a job, but they need to be employees of the school with contracts if that's the case

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One can have a job without being an employee….its called an independent contractor. And that's what they are.

Jeff99 said:

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The only people truly bothered by NIL are socialists (they just don't realize it yet) and racists.

Happy to help.

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NIL is not the problem. It's the combination of NIL and the transfer portal that is the issue.

At work money isn't #1 or #2 on your list right? It's how good the snacks are in the break room.

I won't debate whether this is a net positive or negative. But, I'll eventually stop watching.

As the majority of Americans recognize the health consequences of football, they will stop having their kids play. I played but if I had a son, I would encourage him not to play.

Those kids and their families will be less inclined to watch. Then what we will have is essentially a gladiatorial sport when kids without opportunity put their health on the line for a payday. At some point, people will start asking the moralistic questions of whether we should support this and continue watching.

We should pay players for results / outcomes, not potential. Same for coaches.

rootube said:

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I wonder how many here would be complaining about the portal and NIL if we had won the SEC champ game and were playing for a natty? My guess is none. Which tells me what people really care about and what they just like to complain about.

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I don't complain about the portal and NIL, I complain about what collegiate football has become that leads to the portal land NIL.

I've been complaining since the old conf champ/bowl tie-ins were sacrificed to the notion of a "true champion".

Always will, although I hardly care now. Winning this years would've changed nothing.

The current NIL / portal system sucks. At some point, the college players will have contracts, which will make it a little better. But, if the amount universities can spend on players isn't capped or regulated, college football won't be competitive. So, it will be a lower level of play, and also not as competitive as the NFL. I think it will become less and less popular.

There's also the question of why should a state-funded school run a professional football (or basketball, etc.) team? This is getting further and further from the purpose of the university.

Whaler said:

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The current NIL / portal system sucks. At some point, the college players will have contracts, which will make it a little better. But, if the amount universities can spend on players isn't capped or regulated, college football won't be competitive. So, it will be a lower level of play, and also not as competitive as the NFL. I think it will become less and less popular.

There's also the question of why should a state-funded school run a professional football (or basketball, etc.) team? This is getting further and further from the purpose of the university.

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Bragging rights are very important.

Schools invest millions and millions of dollars in their facilities and fan amenities. All of this is for the chance at being able to call yourself the National Champion.

What is a man willing to sacrifice for a Natty?
This is what ultimately determines the schools that people consider to be championship caliber, and all the others.

Many of you speak from a position of having money, even lower middle class. Many of these players grew up below the poverty line and you act like they should care more about a trophy or showing more commitment than is often shown to them than earning a larger sum of money in 1 year than their family has ever seen.

Money ain't everything but not having it is

ahpetty33 said:

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Cinco Ranch Aggie said:

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Quote:

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if they didn't pay you, would you go to work?

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Playing college football is a job?

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40+ hours a week to generate billions in revenue for a corporation? Sounds like a job to me

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As the 2023 season approaches, the NFF anticipates that more than one million students will take the field at 15,810 high schools and another 81,000 will play college football at 773 four-year institutions with another 16 colleges and universities having announced plans to add teams in the coming years.

81,000 employees generating 1.3 billion in revenue. Not impressive.

If some of you have solutions, go for it.

Most of the solutions I hear basically amount to trying to prevent these kids from earning money that folks want to give them for what they do. Nowhere else do we tell people they are not allowed to use their skills to make money (assuming those skills are legal), so if somebody has a solution that doesn't require somebody to agree to be underpaid, then I'm all ears.

If there is a true imbalance (and I think there is), then the market will start to work itself out, but the idea that these kids are just students is silly. Guys like Johnny, Mike Evans, Von Miller, Myles Garrett, etc. made this university far more than pretty much any student has or could.

Jeff99 said:

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The only people truly bothered by NIL are socialists (they just don't realize it yet) and racists.

Happy to help.

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So if someone has enjoyed college football for decades before as it existed, now see players leave without any repercussions, and now see them get paid hundreds of thousands (or more), and all of it makes you leave that form of entertainment for other sports, that makes you racist?

boyfriend said:

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College football is a billion dollar industry. The players deserve to be paid. We're just in this transition phase right now and every player is basically on a one year contract. It is what it is until the players become employees and have to sign multiyear contracts.

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Kind of makes you wonder who was really lining their pockets with cash prior to the NIL.

Kellso said:

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Whaler said:

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The current NIL / portal system sucks. At some point, the college players will have contracts, which will make it a little better. But, if the amount universities can spend on players isn't capped or regulated, college football won't be competitive. So, it will be a lower level of play, and also not as competitive as the NFL. I think it will become less and less popular.

There's also the question of why should a state-funded school run a professional football (or basketball, etc.) team? This is getting further and further from the purpose of the university.

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Bragging rights are very important.

Schools invest millions and millions of dollars in their facilities and fan amenities. All of this is for the chance at being able to call yourself the National Champion.

What is a man willing to sacrifice for a Natty?
This is what ultimately determines the schools that people consider to be championship caliber, and all the others.

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The paradigm of worth may change.

100% based upon ego. The whole "front porch of the university" thing. Many years ago I asked the question here "would you rather have regular football NCs or Aggie researchers cure cancer but the football team always loses?" Believe it or not a few answers were "I'd take the football NCs, because I'm a part of that, I'm not a part of that research."

That feeling of it being "MY team" is what drives most of team sports. College has always been special because it really was "MY team" for all but the tshirt fans. If that is diluted or lost, especially the part where students/alumni feel that way - will the value still be there? 10 years from now - probably. 50 years from now - maybe not.

I root for my NFL football team rather than the players. Almost never do true fans root for the players after they leave. Do you really think NE fans really care after TB12 left? I can tell you most could care less.

Same thing with college. If one of our stars went to the portal, we would not care how they did other than in passing.

JWinTX said:

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Jeff99 said:

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The only people truly bothered by NIL are socialists (they just don't realize it yet) and racists.

Happy to help.

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So if someone has enjoyed college football for decades before as it existed, now see players leave without any repercussions and now see them get paid hundreds of thousands (or more), and all of it makes you leave that form of entertainment for other sports, that makes you racist?

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Repercussions?

walton91 said:

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JWinTX said:

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Jeff99 said:

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The only people truly bothered by NIL are socialists (they just don't realize it yet) and racists.

Happy to help.

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So if someone has enjoyed college football for decades before as it existed, now see players leave without any repercussions and now see them get paid hundreds of thousands (or more), and all of it makes you leave that form of entertainment for other sports, that makes you racist?

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Repercussions?

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It doesn't hurt them to leave...as a matter of fact, they often make more money and/or get the playing time they seek. No sitting out a year anymore.

Why should it hurt them to leave? What is the with the attitude of wanting to punish players for transferring?

You guys don't care that they get paid.

You guys care about players transferring because of NIL.

It sucks as a fan but that's just how it's going to be until the players get contracted and paid by the university.

I'm with you. I made my living by working on commission.
If I didn't sell I didn't eat…. Plus I would get fired.
Make them work for it. You get paid by your stats per position played. Period.
It will never be that though. It's out of control and doubt it can be fixed at this point.
Soon we will be paying them in high school…. then all the way down to Pop Warner and Mighty Mite leagues.
Sadly… as these kids go through life and find out that money can't really buy happiness it will be too late for many of them.

mulch said:

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That's all that matters to these "players"

Skip the plays and the refs and just let them fight over the money like dogs.

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Are you implying that you wouldn't watch that?

aggiesundevil4 said:

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We should pay players for results / outcomes, not potential. Same for coaches.

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Other issue with NIL, it cant be performance based. Literally giving money hoping they pan out and dont run to the portal.