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Doyel: Let's enjoy this delicious CFP game while we have it, before college football eats itself


Muda69

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https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2022/01/10/doyel-college-football-playoff-championship-alabama-georgia-cfp/9131551002/

(Note: Commentary is behind a paywall)

Quote

College football is coming together Monday night in downtown Indianapolis. College football is falling apart around us.

Some of you will tell me to shut up, to stop shaking my fist at clouds, to celebrate Alabama playing Georgia for the 2022 College Football Playoff championship at Lucas Oil Stadium. Move over, old man! Players deserve to be paid, you’re saying. They deserve basic human rights such as  switching schools without penalty, you’re saying.

You’re right, about most of it anyway. I’m not old, and that hurts. Baldness is genetics. But you nailed the rest.

If a college football coach can make upwards of $10 million a year, then hell yes his starting quarterback deserves some compensation, as does anyone on roster who can find a deal. And if college coaches can leave one school to work immediately for another, even as their former school has a shot at the College Football Playoff – good grief, Brian Kelly – then hell yes their players should have similar flexibility.

But stop seeing this issue as black-or-white. No, that’s not a racial commentary. It’s a commentary about extremes, about the world we live in today, where it’s All or it’s Nothing and there’s no room in the middle. You see it in politics, on social media, in sports. It’s everywhere, this need to say I’m Right because You’re Wrong, with no room for negotiation. It’s not getting smarter, this world. Just meaner, angrier.

 

The transfer portal was meant to give players freedom, and I don’t have a major problem with it, I really don’t, though this seems excessive:

The starting quarterback at UCF, Dillon Gabriel, entered the transfer portal and announced he was going to UCLA, then changed his mind a few weeks later and announced he’s going to Oklahoma after the starting quarterback at Oklahoma, Caleb Williams, entered the transfer portal shortly after the starting quarterback he replaced, Spencer Rattler, entered the transfer portal to go to South Carolina, where the starting quarterback, Jason Brown, entered the transfer portal to go to Virginia Tech, after the Hokies’ top two quarterbacks, Braxton Burmeister and Knox Kadum, entered the transfer portal. Don’t ask me where those two are going. Before starting this paragraph, I’d never heard of Braxton Burmeister or Knox Kadum. I’ve stopped looking.

 

The college football world is spinning fast, thanks to the transfer portal, and from the outside it looks confusing and even a little ridiculous, but whatever. Players have rights. They can go. We’ll adjust.

But what’s happening with Name, Image and Likeness?

Not sure we can adjust to this. Not without breaking apart college football as we know it.

 

While it’s here, however long it lasts, can we please not take the 2022 CFP title game for granted? Maybe I’m speaking to me, and probably am, but there’s no way I’m feeling this way alone. This game has been barreling down on Indianapolis for years, and it feels so easy, like this is how it’s meant to be, so this is how it always will be.

Meant to be? Yes. Nobody else does big sporting events like Indianapolis. Downtown, hotels, stadium and arenas, volunteers – nobody has a more perfect set-up or follow-through than we do. You know this.

How it always will be? Indianapolis is the best possible setup for the NFL scouting combine, with so many hospitals and hotels and the stadium and convention center in a compact area. But the NFL is looking to move the combine next year, because money. This isn’t about convenience or even effectiveness. The NFL will sacrifice some of that for just a little more money.

.......

Eastern Michigan alum Charlie Batch offers QB $1M to transfer to EMU 

An Eastern Michigan alumnus with a lot of money, former NFL quarterback Charlie Batch, has offered the previously mentioned Caleb Williams a $1 million NIL deal to transfer to Eastern Michigan. That’s legal, according to NCAA rules, near as I can tell.

When the NCAA announced its NIL change, opening up the free market for players, we knew this would happen. Well, some of us did. In the black-or-white world too many find easier to navigate, NIL was never going to be a threat to college sports. Here’s a burger endorsement for Trayce Jackson-Davis. There’s an autograph session for Michael Penix Jr. Those guys are already on campus. It’s pocket money. What’s the harm?

Right.

Now we have a rich booster publicly offering a player $1 million to switch schools, and soon the offers will be made under the table, before a player even thinks about entering the transfer portal. You can see that coming. Where does it go from here? Don’t know. But know this: It’ll go somewhere.

At Texas, rich boosters are enticing high school kids to Hook ‘Em by pledging $10 million in seed money – consider it an endowment – into something they’ve called the Clark Field Collective. NIL was never supposed to be used as a recruiting tool, but here we are. If someone in Texas could find a way to effectively overturn Roe v. Wade, as someone in Texas did, well by golly they were going to find a way around NCAA recruiting rules.

That's Texas. What will be Texas A&M's counter proposal? We’ll see what’s what, but you know Alabama and LSU and Ohio State boosters are about to get serious. Texas and former EMU quarterback Charlie Batch have shown the way toward chaos, which is where this was always going to go. Seems like we’re getting there ahead of schedule, but that’s the world for you: Why ruin something tomorrow that you can ruin today?

It’s up to the NCAA to make sense of Batch’s $1 million indecent proposal and the Clark Field Collective’s $10 million slush fund, but the NCAA is terrified. The folks at 700 W. Washington St. have big salaries and a beautiful view of the White River, with just one way to keep them: Don’t rock the boat. The biggest college football schools have been itching to break away from the NCAA for years, wanting all of the college football postseason revenue for themselves. If that means pocketing much of that $11 billion March Madness TV contract, destroying the NCAA Tournament along the way, well, things happen.

The NCAA is powerless to stop college football from ruining itself, is my point, and may not have the stomach to try.

College football is fine, today. You understand that distinction, right? Today, with Alabama and Georgia preparing to play for the 2022 national championship, with the eyes of the world on Downtown Indy – the world will love what it sees – college football seems better than ever.

But the winds are blowing. College football is starting to shake. And there’s not enough sand in those bags.

So has NIL opened a true Pandora's Box that will shake the college football landscape to it's core?

 

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5 hours ago, Muda69 said:

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2022/01/10/doyel-college-football-playoff-championship-alabama-georgia-cfp/9131551002/

(Note: Commentary is behind a paywall)

So has NIL opened a true Pandora's Box that will shake the college football landscape to it's core?

 

Oh, it’s going to be much more than a “landscape shaker.” It’s going to be a complete game changer. Very shortly, schools will center recruiting pitches around the program’s ability to act as a sports agent for the players, managing and maximizing NIL opportunities. An entire industry is springing up around NIL.

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45 minutes ago, Bobref said:

Oh, it’s going to be much more than a “landscape shaker.” It’s going to be a complete game changer. Very shortly, schools will center recruiting pitches around the program’s ability to act as a sports agent for the players, managing and maximizing NIL opportunities. An entire industry is springing up around NIL.

I wonder how big the NIL "market" will actually be for the vast, vast majority of college players. How many Bryce Young Alabama football jerseys, for example, have been sold nationwide?  How about Trevion Williams Purdue basketball jerseys?

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The next few years will be crazy. Change on the level that is taking place in college athletics is bound to have some bumps along the road. I do believe things will settle down when people like Charlie Batch realize that paying $1 Million to one guy to go to a MAC school will not be possible year after year after year. Realistically, he will have to offer several players that kind of money to see any kind of impact; otherwise,, Williams will be running for his life every game. It is a much higher risk to be paying college aged kids than it is pros; and some are realizing that already. I had mentioned 2 notable instances with Spencer Rattler and Quinn Ewers. Rattler signed a nice endorsement deal and Ewers could not get the QB job at osu. People and businesses will not be so willing to shell out big bugs for guys who bust. Like I said, we will see some crazy things happen; the transfer portal is one; and what kind of money players make will be another. I do believe there will be some leveling out. I also think there are things the NCAA can do; reducing the number of scholarships in football has been long overdue, and would be a great starting point. I know basketball is a different animal, but when scholarships were reduced there, we saw a large number of mid majors start competing and winning games in the tournament that were not happening before. There are probably things being considered that people will be thinking 'huh; never thought of that'. 

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Hate agreeing with this douche Doyel but he’s right here.

I have wondered what this will do to the youth sports model in non-revenue sports.

Why play tennis when I can make thousands playing football/basketball?

A lot of potential failures.

Edited by temptation
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21 hours ago, Irishman said:

The next few years will be crazy. Change on the level that is taking place in college athletics is bound to have some bumps along the road. I do believe things will settle down when people like Charlie Batch realize that paying $1 Million to one guy to go to a MAC school will not be possible year after year after year. Realistically, he will have to offer several players that kind of money to see any kind of impact; otherwise,, Williams will be running for his life every game. It is a much higher risk to be paying college aged kids than it is pros; and some are realizing that already. I had mentioned 2 notable instances with Spencer Rattler and Quinn Ewers. Rattler signed a nice endorsement deal and Ewers could not get the QB job at osu. People and businesses will not be so willing to shell out big bugs for guys who bust. Like I said, we will see some crazy things happen; the transfer portal is one; and what kind of money players make will be another. I do believe there will be some leveling out. I also think there are things the NCAA can do; reducing the number of scholarships in football has been long overdue, and would be a great starting point. I know basketball is a different animal, but when scholarships were reduced there, we saw a large number of mid majors start competing and winning games in the tournament that were not happening before. There are probably things being considered that people will be thinking 'huh; never thought of that'. 

I struggle with the entire NIL concept, knowing how hard my wife and I had to work, sacrifice and save to help our children with their educations.  (and they invested as well academically, jobs, etc)  We have seen to forgotten the value of an education.  Also, that university football program develops that athlete and helps him/her to make it to the professional level.  The athlete does not do it on their own.  They get coaching, use facilities, get athletic and medical treatment, food/training tables, academic tutoring, etc.  In football, they don't make it to the next level without the collegiate program investing big time in them individually and collectively.

But I also see the issue of universities making big bucks using the athlete's name....and being fair.  Where I really struggle with the NIL is 3 fold.  1) recruiting in general such as bait for transfers...what Charlie Batch is doing is what the NCAA has been chasing down for years...boosters gaining advantages  2) high school players getting nice payouts and they haven't done squat at the college level...ie, Quinn Ewers.  3) its not a level playing field...no way an IU can compete in football against OSU in providing bucks/payouts to prospective recruits and transfers.

Let's face it....universities continue down the path as lucrative minor league systems, with unequal playing fields.

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18 minutes ago, southend said:

Even Saban is chiming in on the unfair benefit  this will have on the already prosperous top football programs. 

He doesn't like the fact that it is now legal to do what he's been doing for decades and the playing field is about to change.

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2 hours ago, temptation said:

He doesn't like the fact that it is now legal to do what he's been doing for decades and the playing field is about to change.

Unless schools have the resources or the connections to provide dollars to recruits, I am not sure it will change as much as we think.  I think the rich schools like Texas, etc. will really make out big.  It may provide some additional competition for Saban, but it won't be a fair table by a longshot.

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32 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

Unless schools have the resources or the connections to provide dollars to recruits, I am not sure it will change as much as we think.  I think the rich schools like Texas, etc. will really make out big.  It may provide some additional competition for Saban, but it won't be a fair table by a longshot.

Still waiting for Texas to wake up.  They have been a huge disappointment and joining the SEC is the next step to irrelevance (on the field) if things don’t change soon.

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14 hours ago, temptation said:

Still waiting for Texas to wake up.  They have been a huge disappointment and joining the SEC is the next step to irrelevance (on the field) if things don’t change soon.

I agree....the Longhorns have their work cut out for them.....

But they are taking advantage of NIL....that is for sure.  I love its being called "Charitable work".....

https://apnews.com/article/college-football-sports-football-austin-texas-1578609cf8697681db5a97389a715d3c

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Six months after one of the biggest rule changes in the history of college sports, money for athletes is being pledged by the millions in a development that has raised concerns about the role of wealthy alumni eager to back their beloved alma maters.

At Texas, one group is dangling $50,000 a year for individual offensive linemen while another says it already has $10 million promised for Longhorns athletes. At Oregon, billionniare Nike founder Phil Knight is part of group helping Ducks athletes line up deals — just one of many interested parties with deep pockets jumping in alongside the apparel companies, energy drink companies, car dealerships and restaurants already signing athletes to endorsement deals.

More than a dozen “collectives” have sprung up around major college programs like Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, Tennessee and others to connect athletes with marketing opportunities.

At Texas, two new initiatives launched with the promise of big money just two weeks before signing day.

 

Clark Field Collective, which is officially unaffiliated with the school, claims it already has $10 million pledged to support NIL deals for Longhorns athletes. Days later, a new nonprofit called Horns With Heart said it would pay $50,000 annually to Longhorns offensive linemen for work supporting community charities.

The Clark Field group said its board of directors includes former NBA star T.J. Ford and former NFL player Kenny Vaccaro, two Texas alumni.

“The University of Texas at Austin maintains the largest, wealthiest alumni donor base in the entire country,” Clark Field Collective CEO Nick Shuley said. “It’s time a network like this existed to support our college athletes.”

Horns With Heart is a new kind of player in the athlete compensation field and it drew almost immediate outrage from rival fan bases amid larger questions about NIL’s role as a recruiting enticement.

Horns With Heart was announced as Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was publicly pursuing offensive line recruits; he called the position a critical need after a disappointing 5-7 season. Within days, he scored two big commitments from blue chip players.

Rob Blair, one of the founders of Horns With Heart, said his organization doesn’t cross any lines.

“Pay for play is a deal breaker under NIL,” Blair said. “This isn’t pay for play. This is for actual charitable work.”

The nonprofit aims to start its $50,000 payments to offensive linemen in August 2022 with a max of $800,000 per year for the entire unit. For a five-year player, that could mean $250,000 over their college career.

Blair said the required charity work could be in-person appearances, promotion or representation, but the work has to be done to get paid.

“This organization was started for purely altruistic means,” Blair said.

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27 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

I agree....the Longhorns have their work cut out for them.....

But they are taking advantage of NIL....that is for sure.  I love its being called "Charitable work".....

https://apnews.com/article/college-football-sports-football-austin-texas-1578609cf8697681db5a97389a715d3c

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Six months after one of the biggest rule changes in the history of college sports, money for athletes is being pledged by the millions in a development that has raised concerns about the role of wealthy alumni eager to back their beloved alma maters.

At Texas, one group is dangling $50,000 a year for individual offensive linemen while another says it already has $10 million promised for Longhorns athletes. At Oregon, billionniare Nike founder Phil Knight is part of group helping Ducks athletes line up deals — just one of many interested parties with deep pockets jumping in alongside the apparel companies, energy drink companies, car dealerships and restaurants already signing athletes to endorsement deals.

More than a dozen “collectives” have sprung up around major college programs like Ohio State, Penn State, Washington, Tennessee and others to connect athletes with marketing opportunities.

At Texas, two new initiatives launched with the promise of big money just two weeks before signing day.

 

Clark Field Collective, which is officially unaffiliated with the school, claims it already has $10 million pledged to support NIL deals for Longhorns athletes. Days later, a new nonprofit called Horns With Heart said it would pay $50,000 annually to Longhorns offensive linemen for work supporting community charities.

The Clark Field group said its board of directors includes former NBA star T.J. Ford and former NFL player Kenny Vaccaro, two Texas alumni.

“The University of Texas at Austin maintains the largest, wealthiest alumni donor base in the entire country,” Clark Field Collective CEO Nick Shuley said. “It’s time a network like this existed to support our college athletes.”

Horns With Heart is a new kind of player in the athlete compensation field and it drew almost immediate outrage from rival fan bases amid larger questions about NIL’s role as a recruiting enticement.

Horns With Heart was announced as Texas coach Steve Sarkisian was publicly pursuing offensive line recruits; he called the position a critical need after a disappointing 5-7 season. Within days, he scored two big commitments from blue chip players.

Rob Blair, one of the founders of Horns With Heart, said his organization doesn’t cross any lines.

“Pay for play is a deal breaker under NIL,” Blair said. “This isn’t pay for play. This is for actual charitable work.”

The nonprofit aims to start its $50,000 payments to offensive linemen in August 2022 with a max of $800,000 per year for the entire unit. For a five-year player, that could mean $250,000 over their college career.

Blair said the required charity work could be in-person appearances, promotion or representation, but the work has to be done to get paid.

“This organization was started for purely altruistic means,” Blair said.

Maybe this will contribute to their bowl eligibility goals in 2022-23.

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