NCAA Settlement

[AuH2O]

I agree with most of your post, and that there hasn’t ever been parity in CFB. I would disagree there’s more parity now than ever.

The game is more consolidated and isolated to two regions more than it’s ever been.

From 1976-1999, 18 different schools claimed national championships, from 2000-2024 there have been 14. Pre-2000, 4 different teams west of the Texas/Oklahoma border won nattys, post-2000 only 1. Pre-2000 8 different teams north of the Mason-Dixon Line won nattys, post-2000 only 2.

Not to mention there are fewer kids playing the sport with new science on concussions, and the smaller pool of talent is getting aggregated in two regions (but primarily 1, the southeast).

I’m sure everyone recognizes this, but CFB is in trouble. People look at the ratings and say, well the sport is strong. But the ratings aren’t growing (they’re actually going down if you look at the CFP) and the sport itself is becoming more isolated.

National titles are one thing. Yes, it has concentrated geographically as well. Another difference pre BCS was that these were determined by multiple polls, and there were few inter conference big matchups, so I think the potential for paper tiger national title teams that ran up good records in mediocre conferences was possible.

But mostly I’m talking about week to week competitiveness in games. I’m expecting lots of blowouts. There’s just no way you can have an environment that concentrates talent unlike ever before and not have it happen.

 

[Clonehomer]

And destroy their developmental league? Zero chance

They have the UFL now. And in todays environment, no one cares about the future if they can get a few billion $ more now. The $10B they get now seems kinda low compared to the $7B the NBA just got considering the popularity of the sports. Throw a couple games on Saturday and watch Apple and Amazon write you a blank check for them.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

They have the UFL now. And in today’s environment, no one cares about the future if they can get a few billion $ more now. The $10B they get now seems kinda low compared to the $7B the NBA just got considering the popularity of the sports. Throw a couple games on Saturday and watch Apple and Amazon write you a blank check for them.

Hahahahha “They have the UFL now” thanks I needed a good joke this morning.

 

[AuH2O]

And destroy their developmental league? Zero chance

It wouldn’t destroy CFB. It would be a hit in ratings and dollars, but it would still be perfectly fine as a developmental league.

The NFL is leaving lots of viewership on the table by having a bunch of games doubled, tripled and even quadrupled up into regional coverage. They’ve been pushing the anti-trust limits the last couple years. The UFL and full pay for play in CFB starts questioning the need for an antitrust exemption that keeps them off Saturdays.

Ideally the NFL would rather get into other days of the week rather than lose some viewers to big CFB games. But the reality is right now a majority of their games are competing against themselves in a sense by being divvied up into regional coverage.

Eventually I think we get the biggest few college games on flagships on Saturday, plus some more NFL, with the rest of college games outside that moved to the lower level stations and streaming.

 

[ClubCy]

They have the UFL now. And in todays environment, no one cares about the future if they can get a few billion $ more now. The $10B they get now seems kinda low compared to the $7B the NBA just got considering the popularity of the sports. Throw a couple games on Saturday and watch Apple and Amazon write you a blank check for them.

This is good. Let’s get all the bad takes out before the long holiday weekend.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

It wouldn’t destroy CFB. It would be a hit in ratings and dollars, but it would still be perfectly fine as a developmental league.

The NFL is leaving lots of viewership on the table by having a bunch of games doubled, tripled and even quadrupled up into regional coverage. They’ve been pushing the anti-trust limits the last couple years. The UFL and full pay for play in CFB starts questioning the need for an antitrust exemption that keeps them off Saturdays.

Ideally the NFL would rather get into other days of the week rather than lose some viewers to big CFB games. But the reality is right now a majority of their games are competing against themselves in a sense by being divvied up into regional coverage.

Eventually I think we get the biggest few college games on flagships on Saturday, plus some more NFL, with the rest of college games outside that moved to the lower level stations and streaming.

You hit the ratings and take over their spots and hurt the dollar value you hurt the development. This is a pretty stupid argument the NFL loves their relationship with having a free developmental league and won’t jeopardize that in any major way.

 

[Pope]

We like to think that but if you look at what goes on in the portal that doesn't happen. We see all sorts of guys that transfer up for a reduced role for the allure of playing in the 'big time'. There are so, so many guys that would rather play 8-10 minutes a night in a power league than 30 in a league where they could be all league type players.

Completely agree on the second part.

I've heard the vast majority of athletes in the portal end up transferring down, not up.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

The focus should be for ISU to be able to play to the game based on the rules of the Big 12 conference. Be competitive in our conference and we will all enjoy the product and the experience.

Iowa State has figured out, with current coaches and AD, how to be competitive even with big budget OU and UT in the conference. I have good confidence we can stay competitive in the new Big 12.

If we have a limited amount of money to pay players in football and basketball, I would rather have 70 football scholarships so we can pay a higher amount to the players and give them more time on the field. If others in the Big 12 want to have 110 football players getting paid, the pay will get diluted. It is hard for the NFL to draft you if they never see you play!

My last point, we don't have that many sports compared to some of our conference peers. The southern schools are going to have to use some of their payroll money on sports like baseball, which in some schools is a profit center.

We will have to adapt, and I think we have good leaders in the conference and at Iowa State to focus on a level playing field in the Big 12. At least at Iowa State we will have a chance to win conference titles compared to many of the BIG and SEC schools.

Isn’t there some saying about cooking the goose that lays the golden eggs? This feels like that…very short-sighted on the Big 10 and SEC’s part. They’re going to destroy the good thing they have going.

Personally I would love to let them have a top tier for football and separate off and be a dominant league in basketball…and a second tier in football. I’m still not 100% certain football is going to be a thing in 20 years (due to the violence/CTE). And realistically while I love watching football, we’re never winning a championship in that anyway…not against those teams anyway.

I’d love to see us go all in on something we can help create that we could be super successful in…and as a bonus maybe we can see a scenario where the SEC and Big 10 schools wish they were us in 10-20 years.

 

[Pope]

With all the craziness and uncertainty that the future of collegiate athletics holds, I am especially grateful that Jamie Pollard is steering our ship. Wherever we up in this mess, I believe Jamie will guide us to the best possible outcome.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

You hit the ratings and take over their spots and hurt the dollar value you hurt the development. This is a pretty stupid argument the NFL loves their relationship with having a free developmental league and won’t jeopardize that in any major way.

Why would this hurt their development? Kids are still going to have to play college football if they want to get to the NFL. Whether CFB is making billions or not.

The NFL loves money more than fostering a developmental league. You think CFB cares if they’re hurting high school football viewership by playing on Fridays?

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Why would this hurt their development? Kids are still going to have to play college football if they want to get to the NFL. Whether CFB is making billions or not.

The NFL loves money more than fostering a developmental league. You think CFB cares if they’re hurting high school football viewership by playing on Fridays?

You hurt the amount of money they make by cratering rankings and you lose support staff, coaching staff, facilities, etc.

The NFL has only one developmental pipeline compared to other sports and they aren’t going to seriously threaten it.

 

[CycloneSpinning]

This feels basically like the country club-ification of college sports. The wealthiest are just separating themselves from the pack based off monetary considerations off the field. In the past, the economic divide fueled rivalries and begot the underdog stories. Now, the self-concieved "big dogs" are just locking out their "lessers".

I agree with this, but to that point…I don’t really want to belong to those types of clubs (or play their courses anyway). Won’t this be a situation where there is a portion of the country that is all in on this super league…but that ultimately they fall short of the viewership needed to justify the big dollars ESPN and Fox are paying/looking for in return?

 

[SolterraCyclone]

You hurt the amount of money they make by cratering rankings and you lose support staff, coaching staff, facilities, etc.

The NFL has only one developmental pipeline compared to other sports and they aren’t going to seriously threaten it.

That is as hilarious as the UFL comment. I can promise you the NFL doesn’t care if CFB has nice facilities or if Ohio State has 6 Quality Control analysts and 3 associate directors of nutrition.

Not to mention all of those things are going to be hurt by having to pay the players anyway. If college football kills itself as a development league it’s going to do so itself, not because the NFL is playing on Saturdays.

 

[AuH2O]

You hurt the amount of money they make by cratering rankings and you lose support staff, coaching staff, facilities, etc.

The NFL has only one developmental pipeline compared to other sports and they aren’t going to seriously threaten it.

CFB was a perfectly effective developmental league when ADs had 10% of the current budgets to work with. The NFL displacing a few of the mid CFB games from Fox to FS1 isn’t going to wipe out CFBs value to the point that it doesn’t function as an effective developmental league.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

That is as hilarious as the UFL comment. I can promise you the NFL doesn’t care if CFB has nice facilities or if Ohio State has 6 Quality Control analysts and 3 associate directors of nutrition.

Not to mention all of those things are going to be hurt by having to pay the players anyway. If college football kills itself as a development league it’s going to do so itself, not because the NFL is playing on Saturdays.

Not for the schools that are regularly supplying the NFL with talent, they will be just fine. I guarantee you the NFL loves being able to add 100 guys every year who are immediately ready to play. They get ready by having access to top level support staff and facilities.

Feel free to come back when the NFL is playing regularly on Saturdays and tell me I’m wrong but it’s not happening anytime soon.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

CFB was a perfectly effective developmental league when ADs had 10% of the current budgets to work with. The NFL displacing a few of the mid CFB games from Fox to FS1 isn’t going to wipe out CFBs value to the point that it doesn’t function as an effective developmental league.

Disagree; the talent coming into the NFL now is night and day different then what it was 15-20 years ago

 

[1UNI2ISU]

I've heard the vast majority of athletes in the portal end up transferring down, not up.

In today's world, you're right.

In a world where Michigan has a $25M pool to pay players and Oklahoma State has a $12M pool, the math changes drastically.

 

[SolterraCyclone]

OK. I’ll mark this thread and return in 5 years or so.

That reminds me, I should probably go back and respond to the 3-year old posts that USC/UCLA won’t be going to the Big 10

 

[FriendlySpartan]

OK. I’ll mark this thread and return in 5 years or so.

That reminds me, I should probably go back and respond to the 3-year old posts that USC/UCLA won’t be going to the Big 10

100% was wrong with that one, caught everyone off guard

 

[ClubCy]

In today's world, you're right.

In a world where Michigan has a $25M pool to pay players and Oklahoma State has a $12M pool, the math changes drastically.

So you think that Michigan will just roster 130 players because they can and OSU will roster 70 because that’s what they can afford?