What I don't understand is how state universities that are partially funded with taxpayer money can operate what will be pro football teams. Whether one wants a pro football team affiliated with their university or not, I don't know how it can be allowed… pro football really doesn't have anything to do with the mission of the school (academics), except possibly to raise more money for the school. But if it's all spent on coaches and players… idk, it's not making sense to me…

Hell yeah. Time to diversify my portfolio: software, chips, and now college fb!!!

mrfun83 said:

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Welcome to Kyle Field…home of the Texas Aggies brought to you by Bain Capital - where we "embrace possibility and realize potential".

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That's not going to leave a lot of room for putting "Fightin' Texas Aggies of Texas A.M.C." back in the endzones.

Whaler said:

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What I don't understand is how state universities that are partially funded with taxpayer money can operate what will be pro football teams. Whether one wants a pro football team affiliated with their university or not, I don't know how it can be allowed… pro football really doesn't have anything to do with the mission of the school (academics), except possibly to raise more money for the school. But if it's all spent on coaches and players… idk, it's not making sense to me…

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To be clear: neither internal nor external NIL is based on performance in the field nor any performance metrics…

You are spot on.

Blue star.

College football will be just fine. The problem is we've all romanticized it to the point that we believe in the good ol' days of amateur college football like we believed in Santa Claus when we were kids.

Do you really think Bear Bryant, Barry Switzer, Tom Osborne, Darrell Royal, Jimmy Johnson, Urban Meyer, and Nick Saban (just to name a few) were that much better coaches and recruiters than everybody else? Really?

Think about this. The 2001 Miami team that absolutely dominated that year could have gone 8-4 without scoring an offensive touchdown. Look it up. Who was their genius coach? Larry Coker. Who the hell is Larry Coker?

Gene Chizik won a national championship at Auburn. Gene. Chizik. Career coaching record? 38-38.

If you believe Nick Saban won seven national championships in 18 years without cheating, say hi to the Tooth Fairy for me the next time you see her.

Now, it's all out in the open. Yes, the transfer portal has proved to be a bit of a train wreck for team continuity, but so be it. I don't really care. Now the players have the same right to change schools as the coaches always have. Good for them. And NIL is perfectly fair in a capitalist society. In 2012 when you strolled into the bookstore and bought a #2 jersey, you bought it because it was JFF's number. Why shouldn't he get a cut?

rootube said:

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College football has seen record viewership this year and the playoffs are probably going to smash records. So even though you think it's dying. The exact opposite is true.


Last year there were two regular season games with over 10M viewers in the regular season. This year there were seven games over 10M.

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I never once said college football is dying. But it is changing and I'm not sure into what just yet, nor whether people will be interested in sustaining the current model. I suspect not, and most ADs agree with me. I think college football could be bigger than ever with some common sense fixes from the top.

Ugly said:

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AgLA06 said:

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I just don't get the over dramatics. I guess ignorance truly is bliss.

The only thing that has changed in decades is the transparency.

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Sorry to target you, but this is a dumb comment that has run its course.

• Money has always been involved in this sport behind closed doors, but never to this extent.
• Transfers used to effectively require graduation, which meant that the average fan could follow a player's development and develop a real rooting interest in individual players.
• Roster turnover of >1/3 of the team used to be rare.
• There were (occasionally) penalties for doing the things that are happening today, which meant that only some players were focused primarily on the financial side. This meant a larger core of the team was focused on the performance of ... well, the team.

I understand that all of these changes have made things better for the players, but they are also creating a much worse product for the fans, and the fans are ultimately the ones that pay the bills. As with other areas that have experienced such changes, the decision makers will either have to figure that out very shortly, or college football will go the way of NASCAR and pro wrestling.

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Shamateurism always is corrupt and corrupting. It was always a house of cards and if it needs to collapse so be it.

gabehcoud said:

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Welcome back from your coma. Colorado tried to get Saudi money

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We've take a lot of money from Qatar.

It's pretty sickening.

The new NIL rules, transfer portal, and conference alignments have turned major college sports into semi-professional leagues. The conference leaders are prioritizing TV network revenue over the welfare of athletes and fans. The athletes are no longer students, and college education has become an afterthought. Many traditions have been eliminated. Still, I will stay interested in the major Aggies sports until I die. My excitement level fluctuates, but I will never lose interest.

Whaler said:

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What I don't understand is how state universities that are partially funded with taxpayer money can operate what will be pro football teams. Whether one wants a pro football team affiliated with their university or not, I don't know how it can be allowed… pro football really doesn't have anything to do with the mission of the school (academics), except possibly to raise more money for the school. But if it's all spent on coaches and players… idk, it's not making sense to me…

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Its a myth, at least in Texas, that university ATHLETIC programs are funded with taxpayer money -- at least to any large extent and on the state level. Pell Grants MAY still be involved in athletic financial aid packages and it is true that in Louisiana, they've come up with a convoluted system of scholarships that effectively allow them to give every athlete at their state universities (I'm told; LSU for sure) either a full scholarship or a large one by calling it "academic." Other than that, in Texas, no public funds go for college athletics so private equity coming into A&M, t.u., or wherever probably isn't a public/private issue.

NIL may have changed some or all of that scholarship stuff. Texas as a state was late to the NIL party due to not allowing HS kids to partake and still remain eligible (for HS). I honestly don't know if that's still the case. But its different than the issue at hand other than the fact that the NIL world is a completely new one.

Speaking of LSU, the state of Louisiana is using some of the money from vape settlement to fund NIL.

Schools can't pay players NIL (yet), so younger this. Whats next? Abbott going to have TexDoc put Arch in a "don't mess with Texas" commercial?

This divorce would mean teams can no longer use on campus facilities they have built, be attached to fundraising goals and who knows what else. They'll never divorce.

Exactly. It's fantasy to think otherwise.

Enormous changes are still to come for football. But this "divorce" thing is something literally no one in charge wants or is even contemplating.

greg.w.h said:

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Ugly said:

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AgLA06 said:

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I just don't get the over dramatics. I guess ignorance truly is bliss.

The only thing that has changed in decades is the transparency.

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Sorry to target you, but this is a dumb comment that has run its course.

• Money has always been involved in this sport behind closed doors, but never to this extent.
• Transfers used to effectively require graduation, which meant that the average fan could follow a player's development and develop a real rooting interest in individual players.
• Roster turnover of >1/3 of the team used to be rare.
• There were (occasionally) penalties for doing the things that are happening today, which meant that only some players were focused primarily on the financial side. This meant a larger core of the team was focused on the performance of ... well, the team.

I understand that all of these changes have made things better for the players, but they are also creating a much worse product for the fans, and the fans are ultimately the ones that pay the bills. As with other areas that have experienced such changes, the decision makers will either have to figure that out very shortly, or college football will go the way of NASCAR and pro wrestling.

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Shamateurism always is corrupt and corrupting. It was always a house of cards and if it needs to collapse so be it.

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There is a big difference between "shamateurism" collapsing and what we are seeing right now. Or at least, there is no requirement that it has to be this bad.

I have been a year-round fan of college football for some time now, but can't generate any interest in an NFL game at all. A large part of that is the feeling in the NFL that it is just a team some guys have pieced together with no connection to the city they are "playing for", where your favorite player could be traded away tomorrow because of a business deal. None of that is engaging to me in any way, and I have no reason to invest interest in it.

College football has certainly had some of these issues for a while, but with a few exceptions you could be invested in the players and recognize the majority of the team playing on the field from what you saw the previous year. JUCO and graduate transfers were always a thing, but there was always the notion that there was at least some penalty/work required from the players to transfer (kind of like there is a penalty on coaches swapping jobs, via their buyouts).