Bill Connelly makes two points in one here:
Competitive disadvantage done left the barn, people, and paying players isn’t gonna change that.
- Bloviation for the Dawgnation
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Quote Of The Day
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“We remember the Sugar Bowl, I think it my junior year of high school, we let Alabama beat us twice,” Brinson said of a team that also lost to the Crimson Tide in the SEC Championship game. “We’re not letting Alabama beat us twice. In the Sugar Bowl in 2018, they… thought they should have been in the playoffs and lost to Texas.” -- AB-H, 12/27/23
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Get The Picture · Bloviation for the Dawgnation
Get The Picture 
Sure, but if you go to the pro model you’ll notice that the worst teams always get the first picks. That is one way pro leagues spread out talent evenly.
So maybe paying players solves the problem of Alabama loading up on talent.
Increase pay, limit choices, everyone gets rich.
Why not?
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CFB isn’t going to the pro model. The NFL is a monolithic organization. P5 commissioners aren’t giving up their power any time soon.
There are ways for colleges to spread out talent without a draft. Transfers and scholarship reductions are a couple of them.
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I think the transfers are probably as good as we’re going to get toward leveling the playing field. All I see with scholarship reductions is more aggressive roster management for the higher end programs.
Beyond that, you’re really encroaching on a kids freedom to decide where they want to attend college.
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Wouldn’t scholarship reductions just lead to more turnover at the big schools where they process players more quickly without allowing the players more than a year or two to show that they can play at Bama, OSU, or Georgia?
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The schools at the top aren’t going to agree to disarm unilaterally in the war for talent by agreeing to scholarship reductions.
Now the transfer rules are a completely different story.
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Oh, I agree about scholly reductions. As for transfer rules, we’ll see.
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I’m doubtful about the transfer rules. Using Netori Johnson as an example, he didn’t appear to have a bunch of P5 programs clamoring for him to transfer there. He’s going to MTSU (good for him, by the way). I can see a kid who is at a G5 program who is proving he can play jump to a strong P5 program.
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Perhaps, but money, ease, control and certainty always reigns.
The only reason the Jets and the Jags got any attention this fall was the issue of who gets the 1 pick.
If Lawrence was being recruited by the pro teams, the Jets and the Jags would not be in the conversation.
Making bad teams competitive is seen a financial plus. Detroit, Cleveland, the Jets etc… going belly up is not part of a sustaining business model. Right now the public perception is that Alabama just tries harder. When the public perception becomes Alabama spends more and my team doesn’t have the $ to keep up, ever, the sport spirals down the shitter or we fix it in a way that keeps neyland stadium full and tv checks being signed.
You can pretend that profitable college sports can go pro and get all the good and none of the bad, but you won’t.
Whether we allow schools to contract with players for money or whether we allow businesses to contract with players for money, there will be both foreseen and unforeseen consequences. None of which are either good or necessary.
We’ll just have to live with the shortsightedness I suppose.
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Depends on your point of view.
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I know I don’t share the point of view of “I’m going to ignore everything but ‘colleges are greedy, so share the money. Somehow. Will everything be ok? Sure, but it will help if you don’t discuss it.”
The ramifications of NIL and player salaries are “fight club” around here. First rule, don’t talk about it. Its also rule 2 through infinity.
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LOL. You talk about it every time I post something about it.
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I know I’m not censored on it.
I have tried repeatedly to have a discussion about the concerns I’ve expressed.
I know you’ll let me keep trying.
Will I get that discussion? TBD…. It doesn’t appear so.
After all this time we may skip all that discussion and get to “I told you so.”
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How many do we have? I already give ESPN too much of my money. Not paying for that article.
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We have 61 (“2nd place”)
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(insert 9 commercial ads here)
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Second, 61.
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(Insert 6 commercial ads here)
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70 out of 1500
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^^^ This is the correct math.
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Wouldn’t it be 70 out of 1800 with the extra year of eligibility due to COVID?
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yes, I suppose it could.
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Fun with numbers! Why, when I first looked at this headline, I thought it said Alabama had 70 of the Top 300.
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In theory, there could be 20 Alabamas out there.
If one wanted to make a more convincing case for the clustering of talent they wouldn’t use the top-300 metric and instead opt for the conglomeration of 5 star talent at select schools.
The reality is that these young men want to play for Saban and players will always gravitate towards schools with the best coaches.
Who wouldn’t want to play for the best coach in the history of college football?
Where pay-for-play will make a difference in consolidating talent will be at schools like Oregon and Maryland with boosters who are owners of major athletic apparel companies that would be able to sign as many athletes to endorsement contracts as they like.
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Hot take from the Twitter comments I haven’t seen before. Wishful thinking me thinks.
“The 4 team playoff is a huge part of this. Only 5-6 schools get to sell playing in the playoffs to recruits. Which lets them effectively hoard talent. It’s bad for the sport.”
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Win the CFP, lose 10 scholarships. 5 for making the playoffs. 2 for your conference championship. Doesn’t hurt the kids who won, simply restricts the reloading advantage a school gets for winning. Doesn’t help a Jackson St. but probably expands the CFP group from 5-6 to 9-10.
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I hope you’re kidding about this.
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You want a pro league, you’ll eventually get pro league regs.
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At least in the NFL, they don’t reduce roster size based on performance. The Super Bowl champions may select last in the draft, but they aren’t told they now only have 48 roster spots.
If you’re saying I want a pro league, I only want pay for play as a true last resort for the NCAA failing to reform itself.
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Just f’ing around knowing it would create some sparks. I’m intrigued folks see this as a punishment for success. Bama succeeds and gets rewarded with more top players wanting to play there. Bear Bryant gamed the system until they fixed it with the cap. It makes sense to revisit this artificial rule again. This would simply be a balance to the benefit Saban has developed (yes..by winning). And no (to Debby below), it doesn’t hurt a single player. They can walk on at Bama or go elsewhere for a scholarship, which is the point of spreading the talent around which is what the schools limit sought to do.
The NCAA is so quickly losing control of the entire situation that some new structures for establishing a level playing field (which is not the same as parity) need to be considered. Especially those that let UGA win and Bama lose as far as I’m concerned. 😜
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Wait? You want to punish success?
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Like every other pro league? Shame!
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The only punishment is draft position and for the NFL, strength of schedule. They aren’t told they have fewer spots or that they can’t sign free agents.
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Tomaato, tuh-mato.
Point being is that success is punished and failure rewarded. Its a collective. Meanwhile, the players are in the state of nature.
Owners stay rich and are insulated from their stupidity. (AD’s are worse btw.)
Meanwhile the players are fighting through hell trying to keep the money spigot open for themselves and their loved ones.
Can’t we just let them get a fucking education? Why can’t the real world wait? These are gotdam teenagers!
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Hmmm. It’s ok for 18 year olds to sign minor league contracts after getting selected in the MLB or NHL amateur draft. It’s ok for teenagers to become professional tennis players, golfers, gymnasts, or swimmers. It’s not ok for high school football or basketball players to be eligible for those leagues’ draft. What’s different?
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Recruiters.
If the nfl wants to draft 18 year olds, I’m all for it.
If UGA wants to sign Brock Vandergriff to a 100k deal to play qb, then I’m not.
Its no better if UGA is doing it through proxies like car dealerships.
UGA is an educational institution not a football club.
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Recruiters is not the right answer. The problem is the NCAA has take advantage of the fact that those leagues have a closed shop collective bargaining agreement that doesn’t allow those out of high school until 3 or 1 year after to be eligible for their draft. There’s no minor league option in football. You must go to college to have a chance to make it in the NFL. You can go to Europe or the NBA developmental league, but those don’t offer the opportunity that CBB does. Anthony Edwards should have had the same opportunity LeBron James did to go directly into the NBA. It’s funny you hear James talk about the exploitation of college student-athletes who overwhelmingly are black, but he’s quiet to the fact that the CBA has shut that door to the kids who look to follow LeBron and buy his shoes.
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Oh and by the way, how does getting paid for trading on name, likeness and image affect a college student-athlete’s ability to get a college education?
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‘Cause they’d spend all their time capitalizing on their social media popularity and would neglect their studies?
/s
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Or they would just spend it on weed, tats and kicks 😉
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The affect is about changing the focus of why they are on campus in the first place. And if you could limit to Nike signing Tiger while he plays golf for Stanford I don’t have a moral objection per se. He signed a huge contract at a young age that was clearly arms length and ONLY benefited Nike and Tiger, not Stanford.
I do have a problem with Oregon approaching a five star 16 year old or his family and telling him: “come to oregon, you’ll get a Nike contract, we know a guy.”
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Did Michael Dell learn to build a computer because of the University of Texas or did he figure it out how to do it profitably while he was in his dorm room? His business certainly likely took away from his time to study at the University of Texas. Even if he was on a full-ride scholarship, what right did the UT have to restrict his ability to build a business? It’s the same thing. Why do you not care if Tiger signed a contract with Nike and Titleist while he played golf at Stanford (guess what, college golfers can accept equipment from the manufacturers without losing their amateur status)? That’s ok in your mind, but there’s nothing different about any other athlete. If Nike started paying every Oregon athlete and every other school Nike does business with walked away from them because they wouldn’t do the same, do you think Phil Knight would be happy with that?
Derek, it would just be better to admit you’re an amateurism romantic and wish it was admitted students playing sports because of the love of old State U. I was in that camp once until I came to the realization that those athletes don’t have the same rights that every other student has.
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No its not. You can pretend it is but its not.
I buy my wife expensive jewelry.
If I buy a politician expensive jewelry is it the same thing?
You can ignore and oversimplify all you want but Brock Vandergriff wasn’t engaged in commerce when he went to a football camp at 14. He just wasn’t.
He was trying to earn a scholarship to get a free education on the hopes that when he was eligible to be engaged in commerce he’d be well prepared to take advantage of that AND have an education to fall back on.
If he wants to be in commerce now, skip college and sign with an agent or try the CFL.
UGA need not have a pro football team. And it doesn’t run one. And it shouldn’t. Ever.
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Such bs. Tiger can sign with Nike but Brock can’t? Walk us through that logic first, then we can address the role UGA might play in helping Brock get a deal or a better deal than he could on his own.
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Flyingpeak,
What was Stanford’s interest in the contract? Other than it meant they lost Tiger.
If the university benefits from the contract between the player and the business, thats your problem. Disentangle that and I’ll listen to your bs.
My point with Tiger was:
1) he earned it
2) stanford did not bring the parties together
3) Nike wasn’t signing him for or because of the connection between Tiger and Stanford.
The problem you have is that if you allow the ones that make sense and are conducted at arms length, crooks will take the opening and go hog wild. Boosters will be buying 16 year olds and placing them at their alma maters so their team beats your team.
Is that what you want?
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“If he wants to be in commerce now, skip college and sign with an agent or try the CFL.”
Can’t do it. American players are not eligible for the CFL draft until they have completed their senior season in college. “A U Sports (formerly CIS) player is eligible for the Canadian draft three years after completing their first year of U Sports eligibility while NCAA and NAIA players are eligible following their senior season of college eligibility. Prospective draftees must submit paperwork to the league showing they meet the criteria for National status. Players who meet this criteria must pass through one Canadian Amateur draft or supplemental draft before they can be signed as a free agent as a non-drafted player.”
We all get it. You want your college football players to be students and believe that the scholarship is enough. I think it’s really dumb for these guys not to take advantage of the opportunity they have earned for an education. Maybe NLI marketing won’t solve the problem, but at least we’re trying to find a better way.
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Derek, the crooks are already buying these kids. I don’t want that, but it’s happening and it’s not fair to the kids. The crooks are paying a black market rate. I’d rather have Todd Gurley at a public on campus signing day setting his own price than some shithead swindling him in the backseat of his car.
The schools already compete with each other for talent with “permissible” economic incentives that are not on a level playing field. Texas offers gold plated lockers, Deion Sanders can’t get everyone a modern helmet. That’s 100% the difference in donor/booster funding.
Give these kids a scholarship, stipend, opportunity and education. Leave them their NIL rights WITH the benefits of the school helping on the legal and negotiating side of things. Big Bob car dealer is going to pump the same amount of money either way, but now we’ll all be able to see it. The schools are NOT going to benefit anymore disproportionately from these kids making above the board NIL money than they do now. I want a system that puts the schools, the kids, the agents and the car dealers in the spotlight rather than pretend I don’t see what’s already been going on since football was invented (which it has).
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I understand that you think that Mac Jones would only sign autographs for a market rate to bama fans. Sounds nice. Sounds fair.
The sad truth is that a group of Clemson alum will pay 200k for Lawrence’s autograph and call it a public appearance and all that can be arranged to take place right after signing day when he picks the ugly ass orange hat.
I am not against fairness. I am against opening Pandora’s box and naivety.
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Off topic a bit, but I got a chuckle out of this.
Tubbs – shining example of democracy, once again.
https://www.al.com/news/2021/01/tuberville-says-delay-inauguration-but-date-is-set-by-constitution.html
The Constitution is not a long read, and you don’t even have to purchase a copy from Lower Alabama Books-A-Million. It’s free! I am sure someone of his intellect could get it read in say, at least a weekend on the lake or at the beach??
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Tubs is a well known dumbass, but this is a topic for the Playpen.
I would prefer not to shut this comment thread down.
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You are correct, and I didn’t even consider that. Apologies all. Cheers.
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I let my blind & burning hatred of all things past, present & future Auburn cloud my once self proclaimed lucid judgement.
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Oddly, the NFL draft and rookie contract scale doesn’t necessarily punish success. Player value per contract dollar is often highest in the late first round.
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College football has cycles, Bama being dominate (at least to this degree) will cycle out, likely when Saban retires.
If you extract Bama from this ‘problem’ and we are #2 with zero national championships, is it really a problem?
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Quick PSA about the COVID vaccine if the Senator doesn’t mind. My wife ended up having 48 hours of fever, chills, myalgias, and generally feeling crappy. She was able to work, but it was definitely not nothing. I had no side effects whatsoever. It’s completely antidotal, but I thought some here would like to hear the experience of someone they know and love.
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Take it from me, the vaccine is far better than actually getting Covid. My wife was hospitalized for a week, sick for a month. My bout was 2 weeks.
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Definitely, everyone who can, should get the vaccine.
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I’ve had it, and I suffered nothing but redness around the injection site. I’m now a week out from the injection and all systems are still operating at peak efficiency (graded on the curve at my age, anyway).
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Gonna throw a hypothetical out there. Just interesting in responses.
Say scholarships are reduced a substantial amount to create more parity.
Does the NFL get pissed since less players are in the best facilities? Less players getting coached by the best coaches? That last one is a bit of a stretch and is subjective, I get it.
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Scholarship reduction is a horrible idea. We can pretend Mac Jones does the exact same thing at Kentucky, but we’d be fooling ourselves.
We’d be limiting opportunity for a ton of players in more ways than one.
Which is why I’m not entirely comfortable with elite programs being capped at 25/85. If transfer rules get relaxed, I’d up the caps.
Give programs like Miss St more bites at the development apples. Give players more freedom to take a shot at an elite program. Yeah, it would be chaotic at first, but it would settle down as everyone figured out the new market.
Parity in the NFL exists to maximize franchise resale value for owners. Jimmy Haslam pays more for the Browns if he thinks they have a legit shot to win.
Once the P5 realizes that expanding rosters enhances conference value (at the expense of G5 rosters), which is where they make money, I could see support for that growing.
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As far as I’m concerned the NCAA should only make the rules for play of the sports and get the heck out of everything else. The problem is, just like for every bureaucracy, the more rules they can make the more jobs they can fill and the bigger the bureaucracy can become. The NCAA has reached Empire status in this game.
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With NIL, what good will Scholarship reductions make? Why wouldn’t a team load up on walk ons with endorsements in hand for them.
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Any answer that limits the ability of kids to get to college is a no for me. Malcolm Mitchell would never have gotten to where he is without a college scholarship. I am for kids controlling their likeness and image and being able to capitalize on their talent.
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