Why I Now Just Like — Not Love — College Football
Freddie Maggard on why the NCAA, not the players, has made him fall out of love with the sport of college football.
Freddie Maggard article……
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I agree with Freddie's sentiment that the love of the sport is more accurate a like of the sport (and waning).....but he sounds like another player butt kisser that about every media pundits say the same things and are counter intuitive.
Freddie has two quotes below that just can't both happen. I can't find a way for players to have freedom to make all the money they can as well as have freedom to transfer one-time and then bitch about recruit and develop is thing of past and teams can just go to portal and buy dudes they need (i.e. team with most money wins).
Tell me why a player should have any right to transfer without sitting out a year? Make a better decision on the program you go to in the first place....or sit a year like it always has been. There is zero rationale for free agency every single year. No pro sports have such roster fluidity in place.
As the rules have changed to empower the "player"....it's done so at the expense of the "team". I love rooting for Benny Snell, CRod, Will Levis, Mike Edwards, Josh Allen, Darrian Kinnard, etc....but mostly because they played for my "team". If I care less for my "team".....I'm going to care less for those players. And my hunch is this is going to multiply for the vast majority of other programs big and small and the pot of money the players have been chasing is going to grow less due to the rule changes that were put in place to empower them to chase it.
I was all for Name, Image, and Likeness. The same can be said of the one-time transfer rule. Both were long overdue and provided player ownership in the hullabaloo that is now a multibillion-dollar racket.
“Recruit and Develop” is nearly gone. Of all my issues with college football, this is by far the most upsetting to me. Developing a winning team using that philosophical culture required vision, dedication, discipline, and strategy. Today, two-deep upgrades are remedied by the portal and checkbook. The most money usually wins.
Freddie has two quotes below that just can't both happen. I can't find a way for players to have freedom to make all the money they can as well as have freedom to transfer one-time and then bitch about recruit and develop is thing of past and teams can just go to portal and buy dudes they need (i.e. team with most money wins).
Tell me why a player should have any right to transfer without sitting out a year? Make a better decision on the program you go to in the first place....or sit a year like it always has been. There is zero rationale for free agency every single year. No pro sports have such roster fluidity in place.
As the rules have changed to empower the "player"....it's done so at the expense of the "team". I love rooting for Benny Snell, CRod, Will Levis, Mike Edwards, Josh Allen, Darrian Kinnard, etc....but mostly because they played for my "team". If I care less for my "team".....I'm going to care less for those players. And my hunch is this is going to multiply for the vast majority of other programs big and small and the pot of money the players have been chasing is going to grow less due to the rule changes that were put in place to empower them to chase it.
I was all for Name, Image, and Likeness. The same can be said of the one-time transfer rule. Both were long overdue and provided player ownership in the hullabaloo that is now a multibillion-dollar racket.
“Recruit and Develop” is nearly gone. Of all my issues with college football, this is by far the most upsetting to me. Developing a winning team using that philosophical culture required vision, dedication, discipline, and strategy. Today, two-deep upgrades are remedied by the portal and checkbook. The most money usually wins.
In fairness to Freddie….if NIL was really NIL and not just buying players AND if the one-time transfer rule was really just one time then the whole thing would look totally different. Regardless, the genie is out of the bottle now. We ain’t going back.
His article plus the whole portal /nil takes me back to free agency in Major League Baseball. I was a huge fan. Not so much afterward
I also have gravitated to high school sports
I also have gravitated to high school sports
Totally understand Freddie or anyone disgusted with the portal & guys playing 6 yrs for 3 or 4 schools. My advice? Don't pay attention to it, follow the sport & cheer for jersey colors & helmet decals. Don't worry about who is in them.
Best thing I can say about the current situation is that everyone: Coaches, ADs, conference commissioners, et al, say the current situation is crazy and unsustainable and must be changed. Sooner rather than later, I hope.
But what can they truly change? Or is it going to be all talk.
1. NIL....I just dont' see a way you can stop it. Kids are going to expect to get paid, Supreme court has ruled (unfortunately) and it's the law of the land. And schools that buy kids will be the rich get the most and lesser schools will not.
2. Portal....I still have no idea why a no sit transfer is allowed. That rule could change at any time but it feels like it's looked at as a right not a privilege. But I can see the portal window changing a bit of when kids can enter and leave....not sure that is a huge help.
3. To Freddie's article...why we have so many 26+ year old dudes playing college is bizzare. This Covid freebie feels like it's extending to kids that started college after 2019. I am sure the conference can make a rule to get back to mainly 18-23 year old college athletes competing with each other.
But other than those things....I don't see how you can make many changes to the notions that Freddie states in his article that are ruining the sport for some segment of the fanbase.
It won’t be on as wide of a scale at that level but hs has nil now too. Just rarely hear about it publicly much but the smith twins had a deal in place at Corbin and my understanding is schools like LCA work some NIL. Not to zero in on those two but those are ones I’m familiar with.
I’m frustrated with how all of it has turned out because it hasn’t been done in any orderly fashion. But I’m probably most perturbed by 25 year olds still being able to play with new classes of kids coming out of high schools getting fewer opportunities because of this system and an organizationally lazy Covid response of just granting extra years of eligibility no questions asked and taking spots at their 4th school in 5 years. I’m all for kids getting opportunities but this new system isn’t rewarding any they are just taking them from new kids coming out and letting spots go to adults that are really just sucking the last drop out of what they can and should already have 3 degrees by the age they are.
A few thoughts:
1. The NCAA has got to enforce the rules established for NIL...specifically the following rules the NCAA has in place, "While opening name, image and likeness opportunities to student-athletes, the policy in all three divisions preserves the commitment to avoid pay-for-play and improper inducements tied to choosing to attend a particular school. Those rules remain in effect." That's the issue.
2. They need to enforce the 1 time transfer rule without sitting out. How a guy like Jemarl Baker does the following makes no sense to me:
2017-18 Kentucky
2018-19 Kentucky
2019-20 Arizona
2020-21 Arizona
2021-22 Fresno State
2022-23 Fresno State
2023-24 New Mexico
That should not happen under their current rules. They need to enforce it.
3. Unfortunately the 26-27 year is the final year of the COVID extension, although there will not be many athletes who will be using it then. I know it seems like that's not possible, but the rule gave athletes 6 years to play 5 seasons. Anyone who was a freshman in Fall 2020 would get this exemption. Their 6th year would be the 26-27 season.
It is funny and ludicrous to even ask, and I heard someone talking about it on a CFB podcast....but how the heck do these 4 & 5 school guys stay anywhere near eligible? Of our guys, Ray Davis started at Temple, transfers to Vandy, and I think (?) graduated, then does grad school a year at UK?
Take Beau Allen. Was at UK 3 yrs, then Tarleton St a yr, then Georgia Southern a yr, now back to UK. What the heck does his transcript look like?? I'm not saying he is dumb, but I remember enough of my college years that classes transferred between schools can be kind of a problem.
Maybe it is like everything else, the NCAA has thrown in the towel and nobody now bothers checking grades or progress towards a degree anymore. When is the last time you heard on the news an important CFB starter somewhere was academically ineligible for the upcoming season because they flunked a class or 2 in the Spring? That really did happen, not just 1 or 2 guys! But not anymore, not since covid.
Take Beau Allen. Was at UK 3 yrs, then Tarleton St a yr, then Georgia Southern a yr, now back to UK. What the heck does his transcript look like?? I'm not saying he is dumb, but I remember enough of my college years that classes transferred between schools can be kind of a problem.
Maybe it is like everything else, the NCAA has thrown in the towel and nobody now bothers checking grades or progress towards a degree anymore. When is the last time you heard on the news an important CFB starter somewhere was academically ineligible for the upcoming season because they flunked a class or 2 in the Spring? That really did happen, not just 1 or 2 guys! But not anymore, not since covid.
Personally, I really gave up on college basketball other than the Elite 8 and FF4 weekends once 1AD became all the rage. UK exploited that rule to the fullest but I lost interest in trying to learn a whole new roster of players every single season. Plus, the team spent the majority of Dec-Feb learning how to play together, what the rotations were, etc. Basically, it devolved into high level AAU ball for much of the season and I had/have no intention of watching that style of play.
With unlimited transfers, seemingly, and NIL, the rich will get richer, the rosters will undergo quite a transformation every year and it has severely diluted my enthusiasm for CFB. I was always one of those guys who cleared the calendar for Labor Day weekend so I could watch multiple games. On Saturdays when there were several good, big intersectional games on, I'd watch almost every play of every game. Now, I watch UK's game, part of the SEC Game of the Week and, maybe, part of a prime time game but, even then, it's not Must See TV. Part of it may be getting older but I think a bigger part is the product and the essence of CFB has irrevocably changed. Conference realignment has been ridiculous (see: Cal and Stanford to the ATLANTIC COAST Conference along with Rutgers, MD joining the B10, etc.). Is there really any CFB fan that's been pining for Cal vs. Wake Forest or UCLA vs Rutgers?
I can see in just a few more years perhaps if no changes are made, CFB becomes 32 (maybe a few more) teams that split off and become a glorified NFL minor league while the remaining schools realign geographically into conferences that make sense. For example, assuming none of these schools would be in the 32+ minor league, UK might align with IU, Purdue, WVa, VA, Va Tech, Vandy, IL, MO, maybe UC or UofL and play 10-11 games. Maybe some sort of bowl structure (or playoffs) would remain for these conferences, they could crown a NC of that level of program (sort of FCS on steroids) and life would go on. I don't see a future where 64+ teams are able and willing to spend the money to keep up with the college teams that can and will spend millions on NIL year after year.
With unlimited transfers, seemingly, and NIL, the rich will get richer, the rosters will undergo quite a transformation every year and it has severely diluted my enthusiasm for CFB. I was always one of those guys who cleared the calendar for Labor Day weekend so I could watch multiple games. On Saturdays when there were several good, big intersectional games on, I'd watch almost every play of every game. Now, I watch UK's game, part of the SEC Game of the Week and, maybe, part of a prime time game but, even then, it's not Must See TV. Part of it may be getting older but I think a bigger part is the product and the essence of CFB has irrevocably changed. Conference realignment has been ridiculous (see: Cal and Stanford to the ATLANTIC COAST Conference along with Rutgers, MD joining the B10, etc.). Is there really any CFB fan that's been pining for Cal vs. Wake Forest or UCLA vs Rutgers?
I can see in just a few more years perhaps if no changes are made, CFB becomes 32 (maybe a few more) teams that split off and become a glorified NFL minor league while the remaining schools realign geographically into conferences that make sense. For example, assuming none of these schools would be in the 32+ minor league, UK might align with IU, Purdue, WVa, VA, Va Tech, Vandy, IL, MO, maybe UC or UofL and play 10-11 games. Maybe some sort of bowl structure (or playoffs) would remain for these conferences, they could crown a NC of that level of program (sort of FCS on steroids) and life would go on. I don't see a future where 64+ teams are able and willing to spend the money to keep up with the college teams that can and will spend millions on NIL year after year.
If NIL was actually that this wouldn’t be an issue. The one time free transfer is fine to me but it’s not really one time. But because of these court rulings I’m not sure what anyone expects. Every time they try to enforce something they lose in court
Yeah it’s gone from grad transfer ok then add way more ‘special circumstances’ approved then add the one time free transfer. Special circumstances approval has to have gone from less than 1% approval to about everything being approved. And of course you have court cases on multi transfers being blanketed and now asking why is there even a limit to years. If it’s not careful the product perception will actually start to diminish some if you have 28 year olds out there that aren’t perceived as good enough for the pros and just keep hanging around taking classes to play and 8 years into cfb.
How could transferring schools and playing immediately be anything but a right? Coaches can do it, AD's can do it, students don't have to sit out a semester when they transfer, why should a player be treated differently than anyone else. This is most fair situation for the players that we have ever had and not only will it not go backwards, it shouldn't. Just because something might make it less entertaining for a fan doesn't mean its wrong. The fan should come last in this equation or at the bare minimum after the player.
Why do nba and mlb players not get the freedom to change teams annually? Why do rookies have to play on rookie contracts at lower pay and not get to jump to a better deal the minute they csn?
Your putting a standard on college that no pro league has freedom to come and go
Plus this freedom is hurting rhe fan appeal and will ultimately Lewis to less fans and thusly less revenue
Your putting a standard on college that no pro league has freedom to come and go
Plus this freedom is hurting rhe fan appeal and will ultimately Lewis to less fans and thusly less revenue
So your saying their true NIL value will drop because no one knows who they are yet….. They are getting paid more NIL to play??? Got ya. Makes perfect sense.
The NBA can place limits because the players agreed to those limits during CBA negotiations. In exchange for agreeing to those limits, the NBA has to share ~50% of all of the teams’ revenues with NBA players.
If the NCAA/schools want to impose similar limits, then they can negotiate with the student athletes and agree to share their revenues with the athletes.
Can someone with a lot more knowledge than me about this explain if it is or isn't going to be possible under the current way that players are going to be able to force their way into staying in College and get paid? I had read a while back that Tua's brother (sp?) at Maryland was possibly going to try this but haven't heard anything else either way about it other than he's simply applying for an extra year right now.
Can’t believe Matt let him write that. He screams at everyone who calls into his show and says anything about how they prefer the previous landscape.
Hahaha, welp I'm just offering my personal viewpoint!
No doubt the big money spending NIL fanbases have zero problem paying for mercenaries who are on their 3rd school in 3 yrs, 4th in 5 yrs. Knoxville, Auburn, Louisville, Miami.
Because a coach can coach at a different school every year for his entire career if he wants (and, obviously, has the opportunity).
Without collective bargaining, very few player restriction rules that the NCAA can come up with would hold up in court. The only way to stop it would be to make the players employees (they already fit the definition, they just aren't for reasons), give them a piece of the b-b-b-billions they generate in revenue, and sign them to contracts.
I think a lot of people are feeling this way.Why I Now Just Like — Not Love — College Football
Freddie Maggard on why the NCAA, not the players, has made him fall out of love with the sport of college football.www.on3.com
He's late to the party, but yeah.
The degree progression hasn't mattered to the ncaa since some time before the UNC scandal, or there would have been repercussions in that regard and a loss of victories and any titles. The ncaa lost their "C" when they refused to act in that case.
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I agree to a degree but there are restrictions in contracts for coaches and admins that require buyouts, term lengths, terms of performance, etc. there is none of that for a player which is why this ultimately about has to end in collective bargaining some years down the road unless they find a way with NIL to put parameters in there but they’re already playing with fire with collectives being so closely associated to the schools.
Do the athletes get a bill for those programs operating at a loss?
1. Sure if you want to go this way…..but this model assumes a ton rhe arhlete side does not as of today
- The cost of upkeep , marketing, facilities, regulations etc…the athlete friendly side takes for granted and in a negotiation….the revenue is shared and the headaches. So all that cost assumed by university….has to be shared
- as usual these arguments focus on football only…which makes most money…..but what about women sports and lower men sports? Since rhe Supreme Court stuck their nose in all of this….title 9 either needs to go away …or male athletes need to have as part of this revenue sharing all the women sports are mandated to equal funding
Now do athletes really want to go down this road?
My final point is 99% of adults work in companies everyday that we don’t share in revenue…..it’s called a job. We agree to a set wage for a set time of our days and if we don’t like it….we csn find a better job. Why some demand for athletes to this degree is getting silly to me. A kid gets a free education (granted it means less), housing, food,‘clothing and healthcare. Add to it now 100k+ for some athletes and if the dude doesn’t want to play in all the games….he should not have to…..and if he wants to leave every year…he should be able to…..where does the athletes rights end vs team (which is fans preference)!begin?
No, because it’s a revenue sharing agreement and not a profit sharing agreement. Players get a cut of the top line, and that wouldn’t change even if a team lost money.
It’s the owners’ responsibility to take their half of the revenue and figure out how to run a profitable business.
Look how the NFL operates! Power to the People! Well, except for a draft. And a salary cap. And no free agency until Year 5, etc.
Or just quit following the sport a ton less (feels like other fans are more and more disenchanted as well)
Nike used the slave labor, marketing, and over pricing method.
...and people ate it up. In fact they still do. It's not about their product. It's not about the slave labor they employ. It's only about the brand because people really ARE that shallow
Just to add some content to this topic, 25 million folks watched the national championship Mon night. Fox & ESPN set ratings records this season.
Totally understand those uncomfortable where CFB is going, and individually it hurts their interest. But fans overall are saying CFB has never been more popular and want to watch. And a whole lot of network executives bet a whole lot of money the watching will only go up in the future.......not stay the same, certainly not go down.
Totally understand those uncomfortable where CFB is going, and individually it hurts their interest. But fans overall are saying CFB has never been more popular and want to watch. And a whole lot of network executives bet a whole lot of money the watching will only go up in the future.......not stay the same, certainly not go down.
