Grasp the Difference

[CajunT]

I'm old and tired.

Y'all didn't get the I-AA/FCS experience. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great. One thing though is teams CAN draw crowds. If anyone saw Montana vs NDSU, packed house, rowdy as all get out and frankly the crowd, atmosphere, and actual game is likely to be better than the three playoff games this year.

If LSU and their SEC brethren and Michigan, Ohio State and B1G brethren want to expand themselves into a 36-40 team pro circuit of football, more power to them, Godspeed, go on and do your thing.

Think of it from this angle. Who sits around grumbling that the Cajuns don't get a crack at the Saints? If LSU goes full on pro in football, they are closer to the Saints than the Cajuns, for the old farts, they are basically the New Orleans Breakers circa 1984.

You go full pro, why bother with "five to play four" just require that they be enrolled for at least 12 hours during the season, maintain a 2.0 GPA and make progress towards a degree whether it's your first bachelor's, second one, or masters degree, or PhD, pick a degree plan and successfully navigate it. Why give up a quality player just because they've played four seasons? Replacing them is a crapshoot.

Look at the salaries paid in B1G and $EC. They can compete with late second round NFL Draft salaries if they really want to. They can beat round 6-8 salaries if they choose to.

It will be a fascinating turn. Remember you can't get together and agree to limit compensation but you CAN limit compensation on your own.

There may be some schools that choose to remain "amateur". It's happened before. The Ivy League schools were once dominant and opted to step out of the rat race.

Wouldn't bet on it happening but the leadership at Notre Dame might surprise us and opt to not go full pro.

I don't think the leadership at a lot of schools is going to be agreeable to sending a team to play a full pro team that has guys with 8 years of playing experience at that level.

Already ESPN and Fox are pushing the top leagues to cut back on the filler games. Going full pro they are going to be working hard to up their TV money and getting a boost will mean cutting back on non-conference games.

The question is will Big XII and ACC try to chase them. They can't offer the same money across the roster. They might be able to outbid on some players but they won't have as big of a spend.

The AAC tried to chase for years labeling themselves P6 and all they got out of it was losing Cincinnati, UCF, and Houston to the P4. They've replaced them with teams with lower budgets.

If it goes full pro AAC, Sun Belt, MAC, CUSA, Pac2/MWC won't be able to throw anything close to similar roster money.

I am perfectly fine with being stuck in a group that doesn't include $EC and B1G and mostly OK losing ACC and B12.

During the I-AA now FCS days for AState the hard thing was explaining the difference between I-A and I-AA. People didn't really understand that. People can grasp the difference in being NFL Lite vs playing college football.

I think becoming NFL Lite runs some really big risk for schools like USC, UCLA, Washington, Northwestern, Maryland, Vanderbilt, etc., who run the risk of no longer being compared vs college peers but rather compared against the local NFL teams. I doubt OU wants people comparing their basketball team to the Thunder instead of Kansas and Texas.

They need to LEAVE and make it clear the shop is closed so presidents don't foolishly spend trying to get invited to the club.

Mark,

This was inevitable. Their endless greed will lead to another reclassification as many of us thought. Once that happens as you stated, we should create our own playoff system. At that point if you are not a member of the 40 or so programs that reclassified, we will all be in the same boat regardless of what conference you remain in.

[CajunNation]

Mark,

This was inevitable. Their endless greed will lead to another reclassification as many of us thought. Once that happens as you stated, we should create our own playoff system. At that point if you are not a member of the 40 or so programs that reclassified, we will all be in the same boat regardless of what conference you remain in.

I just want them to get on with it so the rest of us can begin fixing everything the bastards broke. We will still be at the top level of collegiate athletics.

Their NFL lite will not end the way they think it will.

[ZoomZoom]

I just want them to get on with it so the rest of us can begin fixing everything the bastards broke. We will still be at the top level of collegiate athletics.

Their NFL lite will not end the way they think it will.

It will legally crash and burn. Just look at the BCS, CFP, and name du jour. They cannot even settle on that. Unbridled greed.

[CajunT]

I don't disagree with your super league conclusion, but the SL will be more likely to include Clemson, Florida State and Oklahoma State than Vanderbilt, Purdue and Mississippi State.

I think that is correct Charlie. There is no way many of these programs will be able to fund a number of the requirements that they are discussing including unlimited scholarships or pay every athlete a yearly income of $30K plus.

[SlickRick]

I think that is correct Charlie. There is no way many of these programs will be able to fund a number of the requirements that they are discussing including unlimited scholarships or pay every athlete a yearly income of $30K plus.

It all depends on how much money is thrown at the SL members from the networks and or streaming services.

[Duggie35]

The term Student Athlete should never be uttered again by any University administrator, anyone associated with the NCAA or anyone in the media!

[Turbine]

Student Athlete

[RaginCajun77]

I think that is correct Charlie. There is no way many of these programs will be able to fund a number of the requirements that they are discussing including unlimited scholarships or pay every athlete a yearly income of $30K plus.

The super league concept is filled with flawed thinking. The SL universities will need boat loads of cash from collectives for NIL offers and athletic foundations for coaches/facilties to win SL Championships. We are no longer in the days of the "bagman", the SL universties will have to find ways to pay their athletes or expect transfers. Today, SL university collectives and athletic foundations are fishing for $$$ from the same donors, that isn't sustainable.

The SL universities discussing unlimited scholarships for athletes or paying every athlete a yearly income of $30K plus becomes an incredibly slippery slope when compared to non-student athletes. At some point I expect non-student athletes to push back against these universities due to the focus on athletics over academics.

Finally, the SL will hit networks and streaming services for big money broadcast rights deals. However, the networks and streaming services will want top tier games filling their broadcast schedule for top dollar. The SL will lose its luster when you have a lot more .500 teams.

[JMV JustMyView]

Student Athlete

School apparently doesn't matter anymore.

[Arkstfan]

If it evolves into semi-pro, then why even have the football teams associated with those schools? Have those athletes who desire such a setup play on teams that don’t bear a university name on the jersey.

And then hey! They don’t even have to worry about going to class!

Those athletes who still want to be actual student athletes can still get athletics scholarship to the university of their choice that sponsors football, and I’m not even opposed to some sort of NIL with rules and boundaries. However, the no-sit transfer portal needs to be eliminated. You want to transfer, you sit out a year.

Maybe an exception if the head coach that recruited you opts to leave to go to another school.

There have been high level folks talking about the possibility of something similar to the Major League Soccer model. Technically speaking MLS teams don't have "owners", the league owns the teams and hires the players. Teams have "operators" you buy the right to operate a team in a market and the league gives you a budget but the operator is allowed to spend above the budget for a number of slots.

Basically, schools would sell the right to operate a pro-football and maybe a men's basketball team using the school name, logos, and facilities. The school would most likely get an upfront payment then some percentage of various revenue streams.

Freed of football and the big spending on men's basketball, neither sport would be offered by the school. School in theory is freed of counting football and men's basketball as educational opportunities and therefore excluded from Title IX. School athletic departments still have some sports with big followings at least in some areas like baseball, softball, hockey, volleyball, and women's basketball. Since the school is getting a cut of gross revenue more schools can take the Stanford and Ivy approach of offering more sports rather than figuring out how to pay for gold leaf for the Amazon Rosewood lockers with magnetic phone chargers and usb ports for 105 football players or paying to charter a jet for women's basketball because men's basketball travels by jet charter.

[Arkstfan]

It all depends on how much money is thrown at the SL members from the networks and or streaming services.

The financial side is going to be fascinating.

The big run up of money was fueled by carriage fees. ESPN went from demanding 10 cents to something $7.65 per subscriber. If you've got cable, satellite, streaming

Your cable bill is
$7.64 for ESPN
$2.20 for TNT
$2.00 for Fox News
$1.79 for NFL Network
$1.04 for FS1
$1.04 for ESPN2
$0.99 for TBS
$0.93 for SEC Network*
$0.67 for ACC Network*
$0.59 for Big Ten Network*

* These are averages, for example BTN charges 10 cents to be shown in Arkansas and Louisiana but $1.50 to be on in states with a Big Ten team. Adding California, Oregon and Washington will be massive. SECN reportedly is 25 cents in non-SEC states and $1.30 in SEC states, adding Texas and OU only brings new SECN money in Oklahoma.

That is on average $215.52 per year per subscriber. Pay tv linear distributors lost 2.3 million subscribers in the first three months of 2023, that's around $240 million in annual revenue lost for ESPN and ESPN2.

Big XII went to market early and it paid off. Pac-12 opted to wait thinking time passing would drive up their value and by the time they went to market, the bean counters at ESPN and Fox were sitting around asking if they were going to end up upside down on existing deals and low balled Pac-12 fearing they couldn't afford more or could but the ROI would drop and Wall Street would pound them (see Disney stock, no matter what the political nuts tell you, worries about ESPN being unable to maintain its ridiculously high profitability has been a big factor in the stock price.

If future revenue is more dependent on a subscription model, that's fine if you are LSU or Alabama, not so great if you are Mississippi State or Vandy.

[Arkstfan]

The super league concept is filled with flawed thinking. The SL universities will need boat loads of cash from collectives for NIL offers and athletic foundations for coaches/facilties to win SL Championships. We are no longer in the days of the "bagman", the SL universties will have to find ways to pay their athletes or expect transfers. Today, SL university collectives and athletic foundations are fishing for $$$ from the same donors, that isn't sustainable.

The SL universities discussing unlimited scholarships for athletes or paying every athlete a yearly income of $30K plus becomes an incredibly slippery slope when compared to non-student athletes. At some point I expect non-student athletes to push back against these universities due to the focus on athletics over academics.

Finally, the SL will hit networks and streaming services for big money broadcast rights deals. However, the networks and streaming services will want top tier games filling their broadcast schedule for top dollar. The SL will lose its luster when you have a lot more .500 teams.

I'm skeptical the future is based on the "tip jar" model of NIL collectives. It will be paid directly by the schools and it might not be possible to get $9 million to coach Kentucky football in the future. Notice coaches are screaming at fans to fund NIL collectives. They aren't stupid. They know the coaching budget is the biggest expenditure that can be redirected to paying players.