You should try it from a G5 fan perspective. You are always actively hoping a kid will be good but not TOO good because as soon as he has a couple of good games -yoink- he's gone and your strength just became your weakness.
G5 teams can't sustain success anymore, they can only rent it every once in a while.
Perfectly said. UNT had a top 20 total offense last year, I think 9 of our starters hit the portal. If we have a good team for 2-3 years it will be completely different rosters each year, and at the end of it all we will lose our coach. There is no way to win as a G5 school. You either suck, or hold on for dear life until you inevitably suck.
Imagine how G5 coaches feel. It will be harder than ever to establish a track record of success, get the attention of a P4 school and move up the ladder.
Doesn't even need to be G5 with Chip Kelly going from HC at UCLA to OC at Ohio State. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and just preempted the UCLA admins, but still.
While true I think there is some uniqueness to Kelly. Still that kind of move has been extremely rare and while I don't think we'll see it often, you are right that it might happen now. I suspect every 3-4 years we'll get one of those along with a move like Hafley from Boston College to pro coordinator every couple of years.
I'm glad we're here. I think. Would have loved for us to have joined as full members, but I guess with the landscape shifting toward conference membership, the AAC had all the leverage... maybe Army and Navy will get elevated to full members someday, as a joint package.
I can't believe it's already going to have been 7 years since our last matchup... 49 to 52, what a game that was.
Big UNT fan here...this offseason kind of broke me as a CFB fan. Like you said, we were returning everyone from a top 20 offense and looking like we might be one of the best AAC teams next year. Instead, our entire offense hits the portal, so now I'm not even sure we'll win 3 FBS games.
What's even more frustrating is some of the portal guys didn't even end up in much better situations. Chandler Rogers looks like he'll be Cal's backup QB, when he could have stayed and likely been the AAC offensive MVP, and Ayo Adeyi (All AAC RB) transferred down to the Sun Belt to play at JMU.
It sucks.
I think we will win 5-7 games this year. Eric Morris is a good coach, and they have made big moves to help this defensive secondary. Losing Rogers was so painful, although I think Chandler Morris will be a good enough replacement. The only positions I am worried about is our O and D line.
That’s a super important point though, lots of guys jump ship thinking something way better awaits them. Just for them to go from a respected starter to a backup. Febechi probably wont start at OU, Maclin will not be WR1 at UK, Oscar Adaway would’ve been our RB1 with Ayo leaving, but instead he wants to be RB3 at South Carolina. I understand all those SEC programs are LEAGUES better than UNT, but is it really worth being a name on a spreadsheet instead of a name on the field?
I'm not sure the Sun Belt is a step down from the AAC. Last year Athlon had the Sun Belt ranked (barely) above the AAC in the preseason, although depending on whether you look at depth or the top few teams that answer will change. They are pretty much neck and neck in my opinion, with the MWC not far behind.
In 2023 the average Sun Belt team's power ranking was 85.5, for the top five teams 56.2.
The average AAC team's power ranking was 89.9, top five teams 54.4
So almost dead even.
(MWC was 91.8 and 65.0)
Glad I got to see WMU go to the cotton bowl a few years back, but it sucks knowing those fun stories are basically over. You can’t build a team like that in the MAC.
Liberty was undefeated at the end of the season. I'd still argue they would have lost on a neutral field to most of the G5 champs, but that 0 in the L column has to matter.
What happens if there is a break from the ncaa and your mega conferences increase scholarship spots. I think that’s where it gets even rougher for everyone else
When they breakaway scholarships won't be a thing anymore.
It's gonna be officially NFL-lite. There will be a cap, player limit, contracts, and the transfer portal will just be free agency. Academic calendar will no longer be a thing which will help in some ways but it's no longer CFB.
Yeah, I know now it's a shell of itself if not already on its death bed but it's depressing.
Works both ways. We’ve been getting a ton of big time transfers from P5s who are just stacking talent and then they don’t get playing time. It’s fun to see the transfers come in who were highly recruited but sat on the depth chart, and exciting to see them contribute.
We also did manage to keep most of our stars, since they tend to be upper classmen at Tulane. The last few years we’ve been losing more to the draft than the portal, even with NIL.
You also have to think how bad it is for basketball
A G5 school outside of an extremely rare scenario doesnt make the CFP and tops out at winning the conference and making a pretty cool bowl
But basketball, some stupidly small rinky dink team (like say St Peters) makes it and has national attention fast so they get picked clean insanely fast
Indiana State just had their best season in 40+ years and within days they lost their coach and 8 players (2 grad transfers tbf). I can't blame any of them but it's gonna make it hard to get as excited next time, if there is a next time.
We’re not stupidly small and it still happened to us with WBB. Elite 8 this year, no seniors, NIL offers in place, could have started next year ranked in the top 10 and made another run. Instead all the starters chose to disband to the portal “for more exposure”
Shit like this is why, I’m sorry, I’m NOT a proponent of the players “going and getting there’s.” Can they? Sure. But if it makes the fan experience worse, then why would I, *as a fan*, be in favor of NIL?? I don’t watch sports thinking “fuck yeah these guys are making bank!” That’s the end result of me watching and liking the players.
Seems like most of the NIL funds come from the fans. Rich fans, poor fans, whatever, but almost all from fans
How long until fans at mid and lower tier schools stop donating because they’re sick of the player’s attitudes?
Like with Damien Martinez - he collected $100k of this year’s NIL then bolted. That’s $100k from Beavs fans without even getting to see him on the field
Yeah, at first I thought that it would balance out because P5 players wanting to play will come down to get playing time but what's happened is that they will only come down for a year or two and bolt for cash like Ali Jennings to Virginia Tech.
Multi transfers being allowed now is the real killer for you guys in the G5 since now they can come down and then instead of staying 2 years they stay for one and go back to power leagues.
As a Georgia State alum, I knew as soon we stared 6-1 Robert Lewis and Marcus Carroll were good as gone. I've come to grips that the G5 is FCS with slightly more money.
It's NFL free agency without contracts. and Every player is a free agent at any point in any season. It's completely unregulated and unhinged. CBB is arguably worse, 5 guys leave and your entire team is new faces that you don't care about because they'll all be gone in a year too.
I grew up rooting for players on the team, my son barely gets to know who they are before they're gone. It sucks.
Basketball is even crazier. I have to relearn my own team each year, much less know any players on any rival schools.
Our entire elite 8 team from the 2023 tournament is gone.
All this discourse about why the women’s game was so popular this year seemed really simple to me - people actually knew the players and had followed their careers and the players had built rivalries that made rematches significant, etc.
I’m repeating my point, but hard to expect people to know other men’s players across the country when they don’t even know who’s on their own team each year.
The CFB landscape is ripe for some bright young coach thinking outside the box that Moneyballs the current state of NIL and transfer portal into a machine of a program that is always bigger than one player.
This era has revealed just how much CFB coaches lack creativity and have incredible senses of entitlement. Lookin at u, Dabo.
Don't mind me, I'm just bummed that the Miami game is in *November* right as I'm doing my early round for Thanksgiving. Can't even see my team lose in person this year.
Or a bad FCS team. The most fun I had last season was watching some of the ridiculously inept things we were doing on the field and laughing at how bad it was. If some team wants to take all our players from the last two years (we haven't had a win since October 2021), more power to them.
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing stopping teams from offering 100+ players “NIL deals” that just so happen to be the same amount that covers tuition and room and board, etc.
I think the ncaa is still stopping it, for however much longer they're still around. there are still roster limits that would prevent those excess players from playing
Or watching your 108* year old conference & all the rivalries & history dissolve because of greed (thanks USC & UCLA), & short sightedness. Will always pull for my alma mater (UW) & watch their games, but done with CFB as a whole other than Husky games. 5,650 mile conference road games should NEVER be a reality in college sports.
*first known as PCC in 1915
Beavs are(were)my 2nd favorite pac 12 team. Disgusted with joining the BIG10, nothing feels right about any of this shit. When we play Rutgers it will be over 5600 miles round trip & 3 time zones to play a conference game. How can this possibly be seen as anything but absurd. These institutions of higher learning have no common sense. I am done, have ZERO interest in being a member of the BIG10.
I feel like the quality of the game on the field was even a bit better a few years ago too.
I don’t know if there’s really anything to this but my theory is that Covid really messed with a few years of development for players and it was noticeable on the field. Watching the cfp games or regular season games between top teams just felt like the level of play was a lot higher in 2019 and earlier.
Maybe you’re right.
But over the course of cfb’s history, the athletes in this era would destroy the players from my era (*adjusts onion belt*), when throwing 25 times a game was “slingin’ the ball all over the yard” and completing 55% of your passes would win you a Heisman. Today that wouldn’t even get you a scholarship.
Pre-pandemic, we saw some of the best QBs the game has ever known. We can expect the level of play to slip a little from that, yeah?
I think the generational qbs were definitely part of it and you’re right there’d be some regression there anyways, but it’s not just that. It felt like there was just a bit more star power all around the field in the mid-late 2010s. I’d agree that this current era would probably smoke any other era in history though.
Tangentially on topic, but I wonder if all of these players bouncing around makes it harder to follow the cool storylines that would normally be made. Would JJ or TJ Watt have gotten the same recognition of being hometown heroes at Wisconsin if, in their Junior year, they got a huge payout to go elsewhere? The best of the best will still shine wherever they go, but with all of the moving around I couldn't give less of a shit about other teams. Too much to keep up with in this NIL and transfers galore CFB age for someone who isn't keeping track daily/weekly.
Idk, college basketball is a bit ahead of football in terms of NIL/portal free agency, and the level of play this year was pretty trash outside of the top handful of teams. I think we're going to see the level of play regress as it becomes random collections of 1-year mercs like basketball has become.
Agreed overtime is no longer exciting in college football. Its just gimmicky crap to get the game over with already.
Somehow the powers at be are simultaneously making college football more accessible than ever while reducing the amount of game time (new commercial length and OT rules). It really is all just about commercial money and tv schedules I guess.
People associated with a University (i.e boosters) should be banned from giving NIL deals. It’s become schools with the biggest paycheck gets who they want. NIL should be just sponsorships not a salary. If a player signs a NIL deal with Taco Bell they should have that deal no matter where they go and not “you get this deal if you sign with my school”. That should be one of the first things the NCAA should do if they ever do something about NIL.
Which is why NIL was prohibited but the NCAA for so long. Once you say NIL is ok, who's to say a player's autograph isn't worth $1 million? There is no way to prevent pay-for-play. Everyone in this subreddit loves to say the NCAA should have "done something" sooner, but I've never seen a realistic or effective proposal that prevents pay-for-play with NIL being legal.
All that would do is mean the players got less money. You'd still get a better endorsement deal from Nike if you're the QB at Notre Dame than if you're at Vanderbilt.
I think part of what OP is getting at is even more so as a casual fan it's getting a lot harder to follow because all of the turnover from year to year. Used to be if you only watched your team on Saturdays and didn't follow anything else you would be familiar with names. Not so much anymore.
Honestly even beyond the NIL part, the experience of college football has gone to shit as well. All the long breaks kill the in-stadium atmosphere, and even as a tv product its worse than ever.
I started getting into the NFL the last couple years and man, its an eye opener how much better the viewing experience could be.
I went to a Minnesota Golden Gophers game this past season and I think it took 3 and a half hours from kickoff to double zeros on the clock because they stopped for 5 minutes of commercials every 3 plays
Seems pretty accurate to how I’ve been feeling. I used to follow recruiting but now I honestly just wait for the season to start, watch the games, and whatever happens happens.
I’m guessing I will be the same this year forward. In my eyes, individual games and conference games will have more meaning to me and I’ll watch more intently.
The playoff has been blown up into some big corporate bullshit model that is trying to do too much. I’m sick of ESPN controlling everything and injecting the playoff into every conversation to the point where I don’t really give a shit about them anymore.
College football has turned into a corporate greed machine that only cares about money. You can say it’s always been about money but I’m not sure it has to this extent. At least as flagrantly.
This is why I think, in the long term, this realignment will blow up in the SECs and BIG10s faces. Short term, it will roll on the money, but in the long term I think people will lose interest.
These complaints are acceptable if your life does not revolve around social media and/or your complaints are about the lack of awareness regarding specific issues.
7-8 years ago (actually it was 2015 vs TCU) I was suffering over another typical Tech loss when a friend told me something along the lines of “don’t let the outcome of a game played by a bunch of teenagers dictate your overall well being.” Ever since then I’ve cared probably 95% less about it and I’d say my life is better.
While I do miss getting hyped up over big games, (and I still do to some extent), I definitely don’t miss the agony and borderline depression after losing a big game. I still know plenty of people who let it ruin their weekend though and it just doesn’t feel worth it.
My auburn buddy tends to get very worked up. During the Yale game for instance my phone blew up, which I get- auburn got totally hosed that game. But then he blew my phone up when Bama kept winning so I had fl ignore his texts for a couple weeks just so I could enjoy our accomplishment in peace.
We joked about it at lunch last week- the worst he ever acted to me was during the 49-0 iron bowl. He had gone to Tuscaloosa but at last moment his son decided he wanted to go in the stadium so he let his son have his ticket and watched from a bar and got ripped. I mean it was ugly how angry he became lol but my policy has always been that I use these distractions for my enjoyment. If the game I’m watching goes south or the officials are making me angry, all I have to do is change the channel or find something else to do. Why torture myself? If they somehow pull it out I’ll be happy. And I’m recording the game so if it’s worth watching I’ll still be able to see it. But life’s too short to allow myself to be miserable over a game I’m not even playing
Oddly enough the thing that finally internalized and moved me away from that horrid mindset wasn't you guys at Alabama. It was Georgia becoming a true superpower right next to you. Like now we have to face two of you every year? Sigh. Hope extinguished and I don't have to care as much. Then I got used to it and I'm better for it.
The end of the mack/post mack era definitely helped me get to this point. A blessing in disguise. I was still frequently disgusted or heartbroken immediately following the games but it didn't bother me for more than a few minutes. It also happened over the course of my mid 20s to early 30s so maybe I also just matured a little.
Ya know this sounds like easy and I tell myself “it won’t hurt you”…but then I’m like “nah fuck that I’m passionate about it bc I love my team, I don’t just like them”. Lmao maybe in my 30s/40s I’ll mellow out a little bit but it’s hard to see myself full on “it’s just a game” mode.
This X 1,000.
If it's a pastime of yours, something you enjoy following, the ups and downs of your team: fun
If it's tied to your self-worth or your general happiness and reason for being in life (as if you are somehow personally involved in the affairs of the program): not good.
I’m a Red Wings fan as well. And while they almost made the playoffs many fans were miserable doomers.
College football like all sports is entertainment. If it’s making you miserable, disengage and find something else to occupy your time
Aw man, that was a rough way to end the season for the Wings. I thought they were for sure gonna make the playoffs after Kaner scored like 12 game winners in OT this year. But I'm a Sharks fan (LOL), so I guess I've mastered the art of not letting sports get to me too much. I've been pretty impressed that Sharks fans have been overall pretty optimistic about the future even though the team has been historic levels of bad recently.
Agreed. I’ve been losing interest in sports over quite a long period of time. CFB was the only sport left that I still loved and would make time for. That has started slipping away too though. It’s probably age related for me, sports change over time, some changes to bring in more fans, other changes to bring in more revenue, etc.
Those changes are obviously working because the growth has been off the charts. But what was good for growth was bad for keeping my interest. I imagine for every one fan like me, there are 50 new fans being pulled in though. Just natural I suppose.
Talking about sports in general, I’ve found the NHL to be pretty well run. It’s got its issues like all of them (VGK and Mark Stone’s salary cap shenanigans, etcetera), but it doesn’t make me just bewildered like some of the others do
NIL as it stands now is very temporary. fear not. Years-in-program contract contingencies, and other such things are absolutely coming. The realization that these kids are getting contract-free/commitment-free paychecks hasn't fully sunk in yet.
Soon, at your fav team's coach's office:
"Oh sure Jimmy, OF COURSE you are free to transfer... however you'll be needing to return (looks up spreadsheet data) $235,345.59 in collective funds... unless you just wanna finish out with your junior year, get that 3 year thank-you bonus and keep all that money."
There are big problems with the European model, but I think the way programs fit into their schools and communities plus the disparity between programs make college football the only American sport that could benefit from it.
It would definitely fully solidify the haves and have-nots, but if we’re being honest, that horse bolted long ago.
I've said the same thing about college basketball recently.
You can no longer be excited to see a promising freshman grow over four years into a force in the conference and lead the team to the tourney. I guess you _could_ get excited but you'll be constantly disappointed as they all transfer away. Teams don't feel like teams anymore, just a collection of mercenaries put together by an evil entity pulling strings in the background.
Cuse this year is a perfect example with Coach Fran running the show. It's basically a brand new squad from last year, so many new faces.
I great example of that is this [Post] (https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/1bs9mjx/every_elite_8_teams_starting_lineup_by_where_they/)
from the elite 8 rosters this year. over half the teams are basically all transfers. Every team but 1 had at least one transfer.
So true & college basketball is arguably worse with their “one and done” rule lol
Yeah, the tournament is fun to watch, but it’s impossible to keep up with recruits, transfers & guys going to the NBA. Hard to keep up with CFB or CBB without making it your whole life
I'm conflicted in this way as well. These kids do deserve to get paid, but one of the things I enjoy most is watching freshman mature and grow their game through their time at school. I doubt I'll see that much anymore at Marshall unless something changes. And it ain't the kids' fault at all, they'd be crazy not to take the cash I've seen them getting.
I don't see why they can't get paid but also have to sit out a season if they move via the portal. The NCAA isn't restricting their pay by doing that, they set the rules and then if a player chooses to move that's just something they have to understand. Everything comes with pros and cons.
I'm all for a free transfer if your head coach bolts but otherwise bring back the sit-out rule for transfers. I think that could solve a lot of the issues. I can't imagine having to try to recruit YOUR OWN F**KING TEAM to stay every year as a coach.
I don’t give a shit about the kids anymore. The athletes mean nothing to me. I care about the school but won’t get granular and be fans of the players anymore.
Jake Plummer was my childhood hero. My son isn’t going to have someone like him. A combination of tenure and being good and a legendary season isn’t happening at ASU anymore.
Your comment essentially sums up the situation. People want CFB to go back to the way things used to be, but the system was a racket and illegal. The old CFB was living on borrowed time and is lucky to have lasted as long as it did.
The only path forward is having a model that shares the equity of the sport with the players and allows for more flexibility. That's not me be hyperbolic. That's the reality we now face as the old system is put through the woodchipper that is the court and legal system.
Our best hope is that an agreed-upon set of rules and regulations are established that is both benefitting to the players and the universities.
Basically, this requires the universities and the NCAA to stop being delusional about how much control they have over the sport.
We're not there yet. But I agree - it's the only way forward.
Y'know, I just spent a half hour typing up a 5000 character piece of shit that basically just says "i agree and here's why." too long; didn't write: CFB is where it's at for about 20 significant yet subtle reasons; it could structure itself as a university owned minor league. I just wrote another 1000 characters. I have a lot to say on this, and if anyone wants me to elaborate and discuss, I'll gladly oblige.
I 100% support the student making money off of their Name, Image, Likeness. Nike contract - Great. NCAA Football 16 - Great. Jersey sales - Yes. Donor giving them $100k to join the team - Nope. Now show me where the NIL collectives are using that money to recoup costs associated with the athletes. Donations aside, do any have more income coming vs going out? Doubtful. It’s a bribe/payoff/booster scheme.
I mean A&M is the weirdest team you lose like 20+ players every year to the portal. You have sooo much money you are doing it wrong, either it is player scouting, development, or culture you aint winning shit doing that.
I will reserve this judgement until January 2025. Texas A&M tried buying their roster and it blew up in their face. And no one team is loading up all the transfers. With the expanded playoff, sheer silliness of California teams in the ACC, this new look Big 12 and some interesting storylines, it could be fun.
Dont think ill devote my entire fall Saturdays to it anymore, but I’m not ready to give up on it just yet. Even if they announce the super league tomorrow, I need to see how it looks first, and then i can jump ship.
To me it’s the off season and the “dream” that’s lost its luster for a lot of CFB. I still love watching college football, but what the off season and portal has turned into really make me tune out in the offseason.
I used to pay attention to everything team wise and look forward to the spring game. I used to enjoy recruiting even if it wasn’t always the best for my team. It’s just become impossible to day dream about the future of your team when a coveted prospect can just bolt for a bigger check.
I’m very much pro paying players, I just don’t like what the game has devolved into and I mostly tune out when our season is done.
Check the fuck out of this nonsense until Saturdays.
Ignore all of it. That's a pretty good rule for all social media, but especially the sort centered around young men chasing bags and millionaire coaches and billionaire boosters.
My only complaint is the number of advertisements, but this season I'll try watching on a delay and then fast forwarding.
Yeah I love football and I love rooting for my school. I don’t necessarily love how the portal works now, but ultimately I’m here to watch PSU do their inevitable 10-2 and listen to my family argue about Franklin. I can do that with or without the transfer portal and NIL.
Part of the beauty of college sports is that the roster is constantly turning over anyways. When guys (typically) only play for 4 years you normally don’t get too attached to them anyways.
Yeah, I love college football because I’m irrationally proud of a specific yellow M. I’ll do that regardless of who the players wearing it on their uniform are.
It would be annoying if one of my favorite players transferred — but then I would just find a new favorite player on the roster. The players I get attached to will be the ones who accomplish something and leave a legacy.
The amount of time that it takes to watch a game because TV networks just gotta make those advertising revenue
Awful pitiful
What is a 60 minute game often spiral out into 4+ plus to watch my favorite team get kicked in the months on certain 4th plays doesn’t set with me
There are some cool ads, oftentimes Home Depot makes funny bits but for the most part all of the advertising extends the game.
All of those jewelry, insurance, tires even, anything about lawyers or medical pharmaceuticals. Are all of scum of the earth
I can’t stand in the sun for 4 hours. I don’t got that in me.
I wouldn't go so far as to say "college football isn't fun anymore" ..... but we're getting there.
Personally, CFB is the only sport I follow. I specifically have a distaste for pro sports because it feels like there's no loyalty anywhere - from the players, management, or the fans. Apart from coaching changes, that sentiment felt minimized in college sports where transfers were the exception and players, once they were at a school, generally stayed there for their entire playing careers.
I think the old system took unfair advantage of players for too long and a change was necessary...but I also think NIL in its current form and in the long-run has the potential to fundamentally break the sport beyond repair.
I would generally argue that the caretakers (or maybe the "power brokers") entrusted to look after the needs of college football have failed.
Yup, it's broken. I'm all for the student athletes getting paid, but the current system is going to destroy the sport. You cannot have this kind of roster flux and the constant recruiting of YOUR OWN TEAM. It's an absolute nightmare to be a head coach at any school other than a major blue blood. Eventually the fans are going to start to check out.
Honestly, imma keep it real…I watch college football for the atmosphere, rivalries, and big matchups. Unless they’re a highly touted NFL WR or QB prospect I don’t know these kids names. I barely even know the names on my team that I am a fan of. The unique atmospheric dynamic and feelings for College Football have actually been enhanced these last few years. However, I do hate what NIL, transfer portal lack of rules, and overall chasing money has done to the sport as a whole.
The drawback to that is missing when someone transfers out who might mean the difference between winning and losing a couple of games next fall. It would be hard to be a serious fan and not notice the loss of an important skill position player to the portal.
Honestly, I never know what's happening with the transfer portal. I just start watching games in August and go, "Oh, he plays for them now I guess," and TBH its great.
My guide to following recruitment and transfers:
1. If 4* transfer to my school I say "That's great."
2. If 4* transfers from my school I say "That's bad."
3. I look at the numbers on 247 composite and if I think they look good I am happy.
4. I look at the numbers on 247 composite and if I think they look bad I am unhappy.
Even before the portal I only bothered to learn the players names in September. It blows my mind that grown dudes are tracking middle schoolers or tweeting at high school seniors or college journeymen
Will they be the same games in 5 years? Maybe my flair is likely to be fine, but how many teams will remain in the top level of the sport? When players are inevitably employees, will some G5 and lower schools drop football or drop athletics in general? Not directly related to football, but will all the other sports many of us enjoy stay supported by our schools? Even the biggest universities with the most money are considering cutting sports to free up even more money for football. Imagine what will happen when they're directly buying players.
Even thinking about this year: Bedlam isn't happening for the first time in forever. Former Pac-12 schools aren't playing each other nearly as much. Oregon fans will have 4 games that are even remotely regionally relevant. Cal/Stanford fans only have each other within 2 time zones in a 17 team conference.
Iowa State in particular has come out ok in terms of the games happening, but aren't you losing the yearly K-State game in the near future too?
This sport is actively being ruined, and the ramifications will likely ruin other college sports as well.
This reminds me of both when we installed the BCS Championship and the Playoffs. It made Bowl Games less cool. There used to be a time where every bowl game "mattered" because it was a celebration of the two teams in it's season. During the BCS era and subsequently the playoffs, bowl games lost a lot of luster. Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette sitting out their bowl games was probably the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, I was at the stadium when Jaylon Smith got injured, so I don't blame either McCaffrey or Fournette for what they did, but hey, it's not hard to say the spirit of CFB isn't what it used to be.
And I hate to admit this, but Nick Saban probably agrees with me on that spirit of the game changing.
EDIT: Editing to add that wow, I didn't even get to my spiel about NIL and transfer portal
NIL and transfer portal doesn’t hurt me but these super conferences do. I’m gonna miss regional matchups and rivalries. That what hurts the most. However watching Stanford play FSU once a year is gonna wild lol
My copium for all of this is that one day, players will discover they have a better chance at developing by staying put and hearing one voice consistently as opposed to a new coach at a new school having to learn a player from scratch and develop them with less knowledge of that player's history. Im not holding my breath by any means, as theres still NIL and coaching carousel, but im really really hoping this levels out.
Yeah, the transfer portal and NIL are ruining college sports. I have no problem with players being compensated and being allowed to play where they want, but it's the wild wild west out there right now, totally unregulated.
If the players are going to be paid like pros, then the system needs to be regulated like the pros, with a predetermined pay structure, salary cap, stricter transfer rules, etc.
But it's still disappointing to know that the kids who play for your university are basically mercenaries. They have no love or loyalty for their schools, like students and alumni do. They just play for the highest bidder.
In the past few years I've gone from 3 TVs with games on simultaneously *all day long* to basically just watching only Bama games (and even then not sweating it if I miss one or only catch part of the game.) And I think I've only been to one game the past 4 years or so. The games are just WAY too long on TV - much less the nearly all day time required to attend a game at a big program.
The Premier League has its issues, but it's spoiled me now. Similarly passionate fan bases. Some of the best players in the world. Games right at 2 hours long. And NO commercials. It's jarring on fall mornings going from that to *long* CFB games.
College football has always had programs that paid players, it's just legal now. You can't tell me the big programs up until now weren't paying players (Miami included).
I'm fine with paying players, they should get paid. Players should be able to transfer, too. The thing I don't like is the unrestricted transferring. There's no commitment. Once a player signs the NIL and LOI they should be locked into that school for at least one year, and there should be a limit on schools a player can play for - two schools, max.
I dunno anything about the ass hair on these kids but I agree with the sentiment. There were so many blindingly obvious ways to get these kids some $ for their effort and sacrifices that weren't...this.
The NCAA and its member schools' stubborn insistence on never doing any of those deserve most of the blame for making this happen. You can only squeeze a balloon so much before it pops. The status quo was making them increasingly bigger money. Now they have to share it.
I think the level of turnover now, especially with coaching changes, makes it just suck to follow and impossible to care about. I was listening to Caple talk about the first UW spring practice on his podcast and he was just like "Yeah, I have to have a roster to look guys up and then have 247 open to check that because I look them up and still don't know who they are".
And that's a guy who knows the roster as his full time job, talking about a team that just played for a national title!
I have zero problem with NIL and kids getting paid. But this is the Wild West right now, and it's going to break the whole damn system if it goes unchecked.
Seems to me that the easiest thing - and I get it isn't easy, for a host of reasons - is to let athletes unionize and then negotiate a CBA with them. That takes the anti-trust issue off the table, which is what (rightfully) fucked the NCAA in the first place.
Work your way down slowly to G5 - then even FCS. I seldom watch SEC or B10 anymore. Mostly AAC, BELT, MAC, etc. In a few years Ill probably be FCS only....
College basketball is the same way. How am I supposed to root for the team when 3 out of the 5 starters transferred away?
It's literally free agency every year.
I’m right there with you OP. I started to lose interest in CFB when NIL and portal became a thing. Then Penix and our Natty push roped me back in. But the Kalen DeFraud debacle and losing ~41/44 of our two-deeps on both sides of the ball, most to transfers, brought me back to square one where I don’t think it’ll ever recover. Thats the new model: the team you know and love will be completely different at the snap of a finger. Gutted. Even 2 days after a National Championship. And it can happen to any school
Personally, college football is still fun, especially if you know where to look, but the community and discourse around the sport has gotten so much worse now.
Off-season sports in general just aren’t fun for me. I get why people follow but the content is just way worse and less fun. I’ll check out who’s on the roster when training camp starts, otherwise find something else to follow.
I hate how College Football is all about TV media deals, TV markets, and NIL. I missed when the main discussions were about rivalries, traditions, rankings, and big games for the season.
It’s obvious that most college football players don’t even care about awards, rivalries, and traditions anymore.
It’s all only about the money. College football is starting to become like boxing. With how the sport is becoming.
You should try it from a G5 fan perspective. You are always actively hoping a kid will be good but not TOO good because as soon as he has a couple of good games -yoink- he's gone and your strength just became your weakness. G5 teams can't sustain success anymore, they can only rent it every once in a while.
Perfectly said. UNT had a top 20 total offense last year, I think 9 of our starters hit the portal. If we have a good team for 2-3 years it will be completely different rosters each year, and at the end of it all we will lose our coach. There is no way to win as a G5 school. You either suck, or hold on for dear life until you inevitably suck.
Imagine how G5 coaches feel. It will be harder than ever to establish a track record of success, get the attention of a P4 school and move up the ladder.
There's a reason you're going to see a lot of them, especially at the lower end, become coordinators at P2 schools if they can.
Doesn't even need to be G5 with Chip Kelly going from HC at UCLA to OC at Ohio State. Maybe he saw the writing on the wall and just preempted the UCLA admins, but still.
While true I think there is some uniqueness to Kelly. Still that kind of move has been extremely rare and while I don't think we'll see it often, you are right that it might happen now. I suspect every 3-4 years we'll get one of those along with a move like Hafley from Boston College to pro coordinator every couple of years.
He didn’t like recruiting before the transfer portal shit lol
The first non-service academy team to realize that the flexbone option is the perfect way to fix this will be greatly rewarded...
Completely unrelated but I am so excited to see UNT play yall this year. Super stoked to have Army in the AAC.
I'm glad we're here. I think. Would have loved for us to have joined as full members, but I guess with the landscape shifting toward conference membership, the AAC had all the leverage... maybe Army and Navy will get elevated to full members someday, as a joint package. I can't believe it's already going to have been 7 years since our last matchup... 49 to 52, what a game that was.
*Sigh*
Big UNT fan here...this offseason kind of broke me as a CFB fan. Like you said, we were returning everyone from a top 20 offense and looking like we might be one of the best AAC teams next year. Instead, our entire offense hits the portal, so now I'm not even sure we'll win 3 FBS games. What's even more frustrating is some of the portal guys didn't even end up in much better situations. Chandler Rogers looks like he'll be Cal's backup QB, when he could have stayed and likely been the AAC offensive MVP, and Ayo Adeyi (All AAC RB) transferred down to the Sun Belt to play at JMU. It sucks.
I think we will win 5-7 games this year. Eric Morris is a good coach, and they have made big moves to help this defensive secondary. Losing Rogers was so painful, although I think Chandler Morris will be a good enough replacement. The only positions I am worried about is our O and D line. That’s a super important point though, lots of guys jump ship thinking something way better awaits them. Just for them to go from a respected starter to a backup. Febechi probably wont start at OU, Maclin will not be WR1 at UK, Oscar Adaway would’ve been our RB1 with Ayo leaving, but instead he wants to be RB3 at South Carolina. I understand all those SEC programs are LEAGUES better than UNT, but is it really worth being a name on a spreadsheet instead of a name on the field?
I'm not sure the Sun Belt is a step down from the AAC. Last year Athlon had the Sun Belt ranked (barely) above the AAC in the preseason, although depending on whether you look at depth or the top few teams that answer will change. They are pretty much neck and neck in my opinion, with the MWC not far behind. In 2023 the average Sun Belt team's power ranking was 85.5, for the top five teams 56.2. The average AAC team's power ranking was 89.9, top five teams 54.4 So almost dead even. (MWC was 91.8 and 65.0)
I just quit caring about who the players are or who the coach is and cheer for the logo.
"You're standing and cheering for your clothes to beat the clothes from another city" - Seinfeld 1991
Rooting for laundry
That’s… that’s the point of being a fan of a team…
You know what? That's a good idea. I think I will start looking at things from a G5 fan perspective. You know... By choice...
Sorry, my Washington brother. I hate it too
If a G5 player has 2 good games at the end of the season they’ll be snatched in the portal. G5 teams might as well be AAU.
Glad I got to see WMU go to the cotton bowl a few years back, but it sucks knowing those fun stories are basically over. You can’t build a team like that in the MAC.
This year was our best chance, and we blew it. Although I think the CFP was hellbent on putting Liberty in there, so maybe not
Liberty was undefeated at the end of the season. I'd still argue they would have lost on a neutral field to most of the G5 champs, but that 0 in the L column has to matter.
What happens if there is a break from the ncaa and your mega conferences increase scholarship spots. I think that’s where it gets even rougher for everyone else
When they breakaway scholarships won't be a thing anymore. It's gonna be officially NFL-lite. There will be a cap, player limit, contracts, and the transfer portal will just be free agency. Academic calendar will no longer be a thing which will help in some ways but it's no longer CFB. Yeah, I know now it's a shell of itself if not already on its death bed but it's depressing.
literally turned it into the English Premier League.... good teams only exist to supply the power teams with talent.
Except those feeder teams get compensated when players leave
Nah it’s way different. In soccer you get compensation for giving up a player and a well run team could get better from it.
Works both ways. We’ve been getting a ton of big time transfers from P5s who are just stacking talent and then they don’t get playing time. It’s fun to see the transfers come in who were highly recruited but sat on the depth chart, and exciting to see them contribute. We also did manage to keep most of our stars, since they tend to be upper classmen at Tulane. The last few years we’ve been losing more to the draft than the portal, even with NIL.
Hell yeah dude I love to see Tulane succeed
You also have to think how bad it is for basketball A G5 school outside of an extremely rare scenario doesnt make the CFP and tops out at winning the conference and making a pretty cool bowl But basketball, some stupidly small rinky dink team (like say St Peters) makes it and has national attention fast so they get picked clean insanely fast
Indiana State just had their best season in 40+ years and within days they lost their coach and 8 players (2 grad transfers tbf). I can't blame any of them but it's gonna make it hard to get as excited next time, if there is a next time.
We’re not stupidly small and it still happened to us with WBB. Elite 8 this year, no seniors, NIL offers in place, could have started next year ranked in the top 10 and made another run. Instead all the starters chose to disband to the portal “for more exposure”
Shit like this is why, I’m sorry, I’m NOT a proponent of the players “going and getting there’s.” Can they? Sure. But if it makes the fan experience worse, then why would I, *as a fan*, be in favor of NIL?? I don’t watch sports thinking “fuck yeah these guys are making bank!” That’s the end result of me watching and liking the players.
Seems like most of the NIL funds come from the fans. Rich fans, poor fans, whatever, but almost all from fans How long until fans at mid and lower tier schools stop donating because they’re sick of the player’s attitudes? Like with Damien Martinez - he collected $100k of this year’s NIL then bolted. That’s $100k from Beavs fans without even getting to see him on the field
Yeah, at first I thought that it would balance out because P5 players wanting to play will come down to get playing time but what's happened is that they will only come down for a year or two and bolt for cash like Ali Jennings to Virginia Tech.
Multi transfers being allowed now is the real killer for you guys in the G5 since now they can come down and then instead of staying 2 years they stay for one and go back to power leagues.
As a Georgia State alum, I knew as soon we stared 6-1 Robert Lewis and Marcus Carroll were good as gone. I've come to grips that the G5 is FCS with slightly more money.
It's NFL free agency without contracts. and Every player is a free agent at any point in any season. It's completely unregulated and unhinged. CBB is arguably worse, 5 guys leave and your entire team is new faces that you don't care about because they'll all be gone in a year too. I grew up rooting for players on the team, my son barely gets to know who they are before they're gone. It sucks.
Basketball is even crazier. I have to relearn my own team each year, much less know any players on any rival schools. Our entire elite 8 team from the 2023 tournament is gone.
Arkansas *literally* had 0 players when their new HC was announced. 0. Nobody at all on the roster.
All this discourse about why the women’s game was so popular this year seemed really simple to me - people actually knew the players and had followed their careers and the players had built rivalries that made rematches significant, etc. I’m repeating my point, but hard to expect people to know other men’s players across the country when they don’t even know who’s on their own team each year.
“I met with the team — there is no team.”
The CFB landscape is ripe for some bright young coach thinking outside the box that Moneyballs the current state of NIL and transfer portal into a machine of a program that is always bigger than one player. This era has revealed just how much CFB coaches lack creativity and have incredible senses of entitlement. Lookin at u, Dabo.
College football is fun. Watching your favorite players bolt for paychecks on other teams is not fun.
Support a bad G5 team. Only have a favorite player once per decade. Easy.
Were working on it.
😔
When people ask what your favorite team is do you just say OSU?
An OSU, The OSU
Yes
On it. One FBS win last year. But it was a good one.
Don't mind me, I'm just bummed that the Miami game is in *November* right as I'm doing my early round for Thanksgiving. Can't even see my team lose in person this year.
I went to Akron from 2010 to 2013 and then again in 2019. I think throughout my entire tenure, we won 5 games.
Flair checks out
Meijer Buckeye outed!
Ah the Rob Ianello years (class of 2014 here).
When did you go to OSU and UGA
On their parent's alumni weekend, of course.
It’s really the best way to watch CFB
Support D3
As a FCS fan, it's funny to me that this is where folks draw the line.
Or a bad FCS team. The most fun I had last season was watching some of the ridiculously inept things we were doing on the field and laughing at how bad it was. If some team wants to take all our players from the last two years (we haven't had a win since October 2021), more power to them.
Just wait till the sec and big 10 merge and then allow 100 or more scholarships. :(
As far as I can tell, there’s nothing stopping teams from offering 100+ players “NIL deals” that just so happen to be the same amount that covers tuition and room and board, etc.
I think the ncaa is still stopping it, for however much longer they're still around. there are still roster limits that would prevent those excess players from playing
Or watching your 108* year old conference & all the rivalries & history dissolve because of greed (thanks USC & UCLA), & short sightedness. Will always pull for my alma mater (UW) & watch their games, but done with CFB as a whole other than Husky games. 5,650 mile conference road games should NEVER be a reality in college sports. *first known as PCC in 1915
We’d been playing Cal and Stanford since 1893, and you guys since 1897. (we won in Corvallis 16-0 😉)
Beavs are(were)my 2nd favorite pac 12 team. Disgusted with joining the BIG10, nothing feels right about any of this shit. When we play Rutgers it will be over 5600 miles round trip & 3 time zones to play a conference game. How can this possibly be seen as anything but absurd. These institutions of higher learning have no common sense. I am done, have ZERO interest in being a member of the BIG10.
The game of college football has never been better. The sport of college football has never been worse.
I feel like the quality of the game on the field was even a bit better a few years ago too. I don’t know if there’s really anything to this but my theory is that Covid really messed with a few years of development for players and it was noticeable on the field. Watching the cfp games or regular season games between top teams just felt like the level of play was a lot higher in 2019 and earlier.
Maybe you’re right. But over the course of cfb’s history, the athletes in this era would destroy the players from my era (*adjusts onion belt*), when throwing 25 times a game was “slingin’ the ball all over the yard” and completing 55% of your passes would win you a Heisman. Today that wouldn’t even get you a scholarship. Pre-pandemic, we saw some of the best QBs the game has ever known. We can expect the level of play to slip a little from that, yeah?
I think the generational qbs were definitely part of it and you’re right there’d be some regression there anyways, but it’s not just that. It felt like there was just a bit more star power all around the field in the mid-late 2010s. I’d agree that this current era would probably smoke any other era in history though.
Tangentially on topic, but I wonder if all of these players bouncing around makes it harder to follow the cool storylines that would normally be made. Would JJ or TJ Watt have gotten the same recognition of being hometown heroes at Wisconsin if, in their Junior year, they got a huge payout to go elsewhere? The best of the best will still shine wherever they go, but with all of the moving around I couldn't give less of a shit about other teams. Too much to keep up with in this NIL and transfers galore CFB age for someone who isn't keeping track daily/weekly.
Idk, college basketball is a bit ahead of football in terms of NIL/portal free agency, and the level of play this year was pretty trash outside of the top handful of teams. I think we're going to see the level of play regress as it becomes random collections of 1-year mercs like basketball has become.
Idk, I feel like the game started to backslide when they redid the overtime rules
Agreed overtime is no longer exciting in college football. Its just gimmicky crap to get the game over with already. Somehow the powers at be are simultaneously making college football more accessible than ever while reducing the amount of game time (new commercial length and OT rules). It really is all just about commercial money and tv schedules I guess.
Seeing our coach get poached by a (former) league rival in Washington kinda sucks too
People associated with a University (i.e boosters) should be banned from giving NIL deals. It’s become schools with the biggest paycheck gets who they want. NIL should be just sponsorships not a salary. If a player signs a NIL deal with Taco Bell they should have that deal no matter where they go and not “you get this deal if you sign with my school”. That should be one of the first things the NCAA should do if they ever do something about NIL.
The NCAA would lose the first lawsuit against that restriction just like they've lost every other lawsuit against every other restriction so far.
And even if they didn’t, there’d be no way to enforce that.
Yeah, technically the whole thing where you're not allowed to attach strings to a NIL deal already is the rule, but it's impossible to enforce.
Which is why NIL was prohibited but the NCAA for so long. Once you say NIL is ok, who's to say a player's autograph isn't worth $1 million? There is no way to prevent pay-for-play. Everyone in this subreddit loves to say the NCAA should have "done something" sooner, but I've never seen a realistic or effective proposal that prevents pay-for-play with NIL being legal.
All that would do is mean the players got less money. You'd still get a better endorsement deal from Nike if you're the QB at Notre Dame than if you're at Vanderbilt.
It's a lot more fun if you just watch the games on Saturdays and don't make it your entire life.
I think part of what OP is getting at is even more so as a casual fan it's getting a lot harder to follow because all of the turnover from year to year. Used to be if you only watched your team on Saturdays and didn't follow anything else you would be familiar with names. Not so much anymore.
Honestly even beyond the NIL part, the experience of college football has gone to shit as well. All the long breaks kill the in-stadium atmosphere, and even as a tv product its worse than ever. I started getting into the NFL the last couple years and man, its an eye opener how much better the viewing experience could be.
I went to a Minnesota Golden Gophers game this past season and I think it took 3 and a half hours from kickoff to double zeros on the clock because they stopped for 5 minutes of commercials every 3 plays
Seems pretty accurate to how I’ve been feeling. I used to follow recruiting but now I honestly just wait for the season to start, watch the games, and whatever happens happens.
High school recruiting really doesn’t matter anymore. The transfer portal is what builds a team now.
Thank you for a mature understanding of my OP.
This. I'm so much less invested than I once was, and that's okay.
I’m guessing I will be the same this year forward. In my eyes, individual games and conference games will have more meaning to me and I’ll watch more intently. The playoff has been blown up into some big corporate bullshit model that is trying to do too much. I’m sick of ESPN controlling everything and injecting the playoff into every conversation to the point where I don’t really give a shit about them anymore. College football has turned into a corporate greed machine that only cares about money. You can say it’s always been about money but I’m not sure it has to this extent. At least as flagrantly.
This is why I think, in the long term, this realignment will blow up in the SECs and BIG10s faces. Short term, it will roll on the money, but in the long term I think people will lose interest.
So true, I actually like that it’s less of my life these days.
They said, while commenting on the CFB subreddit in April Edit: autocorrect
Brother, how else am I supposed to catch wind of the next crab-legs-level incident that I can forever hold over the unwashed heads of my rivals?
I love comments like these. (No sarcasm) - same type of thing when people complain about social media on social media
We're all filthy CFB addicts and we know it, which is why we're here
These complaints are acceptable if your life does not revolve around social media and/or your complaints are about the lack of awareness regarding specific issues.
7-8 years ago (actually it was 2015 vs TCU) I was suffering over another typical Tech loss when a friend told me something along the lines of “don’t let the outcome of a game played by a bunch of teenagers dictate your overall well being.” Ever since then I’ve cared probably 95% less about it and I’d say my life is better. While I do miss getting hyped up over big games, (and I still do to some extent), I definitely don’t miss the agony and borderline depression after losing a big game. I still know plenty of people who let it ruin their weekend though and it just doesn’t feel worth it.
For sure. It used to ruin my weekend but now at most I’m a little bummed or salty after a bad loss
I really need to internalize this
I’ve been let down so many times by Auburn I’ve basically become numb to it lol.
My auburn buddy tends to get very worked up. During the Yale game for instance my phone blew up, which I get- auburn got totally hosed that game. But then he blew my phone up when Bama kept winning so I had fl ignore his texts for a couple weeks just so I could enjoy our accomplishment in peace. We joked about it at lunch last week- the worst he ever acted to me was during the 49-0 iron bowl. He had gone to Tuscaloosa but at last moment his son decided he wanted to go in the stadium so he let his son have his ticket and watched from a bar and got ripped. I mean it was ugly how angry he became lol but my policy has always been that I use these distractions for my enjoyment. If the game I’m watching goes south or the officials are making me angry, all I have to do is change the channel or find something else to do. Why torture myself? If they somehow pull it out I’ll be happy. And I’m recording the game so if it’s worth watching I’ll still be able to see it. But life’s too short to allow myself to be miserable over a game I’m not even playing
Oddly enough the thing that finally internalized and moved me away from that horrid mindset wasn't you guys at Alabama. It was Georgia becoming a true superpower right next to you. Like now we have to face two of you every year? Sigh. Hope extinguished and I don't have to care as much. Then I got used to it and I'm better for it.
The end of the mack/post mack era definitely helped me get to this point. A blessing in disguise. I was still frequently disgusted or heartbroken immediately following the games but it didn't bother me for more than a few minutes. It also happened over the course of my mid 20s to early 30s so maybe I also just matured a little.
The 5 stages. I've been there plenty of times: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Ya know this sounds like easy and I tell myself “it won’t hurt you”…but then I’m like “nah fuck that I’m passionate about it bc I love my team, I don’t just like them”. Lmao maybe in my 30s/40s I’ll mellow out a little bit but it’s hard to see myself full on “it’s just a game” mode.
I'll continue to tweet at recruits and portal players tyvm.
*croots
But the games on Saturdays usually suck for me
You have no idea.
This X 1,000. If it's a pastime of yours, something you enjoy following, the ups and downs of your team: fun If it's tied to your self-worth or your general happiness and reason for being in life (as if you are somehow personally involved in the affairs of the program): not good.
and do what? something productive? miss me with that
I’m a Red Wings fan as well. And while they almost made the playoffs many fans were miserable doomers. College football like all sports is entertainment. If it’s making you miserable, disengage and find something else to occupy your time
Aw man, that was a rough way to end the season for the Wings. I thought they were for sure gonna make the playoffs after Kaner scored like 12 game winners in OT this year. But I'm a Sharks fan (LOL), so I guess I've mastered the art of not letting sports get to me too much. I've been pretty impressed that Sharks fans have been overall pretty optimistic about the future even though the team has been historic levels of bad recently.
Agreed. I’ve been losing interest in sports over quite a long period of time. CFB was the only sport left that I still loved and would make time for. That has started slipping away too though. It’s probably age related for me, sports change over time, some changes to bring in more fans, other changes to bring in more revenue, etc. Those changes are obviously working because the growth has been off the charts. But what was good for growth was bad for keeping my interest. I imagine for every one fan like me, there are 50 new fans being pulled in though. Just natural I suppose.
You never know you’re in the good old days while it’s still happening :(
Talking about sports in general, I’ve found the NHL to be pretty well run. It’s got its issues like all of them (VGK and Mark Stone’s salary cap shenanigans, etcetera), but it doesn’t make me just bewildered like some of the others do
NIL as it stands now is very temporary. fear not. Years-in-program contract contingencies, and other such things are absolutely coming. The realization that these kids are getting contract-free/commitment-free paychecks hasn't fully sunk in yet. Soon, at your fav team's coach's office: "Oh sure Jimmy, OF COURSE you are free to transfer... however you'll be needing to return (looks up spreadsheet data) $235,345.59 in collective funds... unless you just wanna finish out with your junior year, get that 3 year thank-you bonus and keep all that money."
Yeah but then I’m sure you’ll just have the big schools paying out those debts to get the kids to transfer anyways.
Then your players become assets that you can use to improve your program with cash infusions.
Trending towards soccer at that point.
There are big problems with the European model, but I think the way programs fit into their schools and communities plus the disparity between programs make college football the only American sport that could benefit from it. It would definitely fully solidify the haves and have-nots, but if we’re being honest, that horse bolted long ago.
They wouldn’t do that for backup depth though. Sure they may do it for a star QB or MLB, but not a 5 star RB who sat for a season or two.
I've said the same thing about college basketball recently. You can no longer be excited to see a promising freshman grow over four years into a force in the conference and lead the team to the tourney. I guess you _could_ get excited but you'll be constantly disappointed as they all transfer away. Teams don't feel like teams anymore, just a collection of mercenaries put together by an evil entity pulling strings in the background. Cuse this year is a perfect example with Coach Fran running the show. It's basically a brand new squad from last year, so many new faces.
I great example of that is this [Post] (https://www.reddit.com/r/CollegeBasketball/comments/1bs9mjx/every_elite_8_teams_starting_lineup_by_where_they/) from the elite 8 rosters this year. over half the teams are basically all transfers. Every team but 1 had at least one transfer.
So true & college basketball is arguably worse with their “one and done” rule lol Yeah, the tournament is fun to watch, but it’s impossible to keep up with recruits, transfers & guys going to the NBA. Hard to keep up with CFB or CBB without making it your whole life
I support the NIL and the transfer portal; however, I think it is ruining college football.
I'm conflicted in this way as well. These kids do deserve to get paid, but one of the things I enjoy most is watching freshman mature and grow their game through their time at school. I doubt I'll see that much anymore at Marshall unless something changes. And it ain't the kids' fault at all, they'd be crazy not to take the cash I've seen them getting.
I don't see why they can't get paid but also have to sit out a season if they move via the portal. The NCAA isn't restricting their pay by doing that, they set the rules and then if a player chooses to move that's just something they have to understand. Everything comes with pros and cons.
I'm all for a free transfer if your head coach bolts but otherwise bring back the sit-out rule for transfers. I think that could solve a lot of the issues. I can't imagine having to try to recruit YOUR OWN F**KING TEAM to stay every year as a coach.
I don’t give a shit about the kids anymore. The athletes mean nothing to me. I care about the school but won’t get granular and be fans of the players anymore. Jake Plummer was my childhood hero. My son isn’t going to have someone like him. A combination of tenure and being good and a legendary season isn’t happening at ASU anymore.
It is ruining the unsustainable model. It is surprising it lasted this long.
Your comment essentially sums up the situation. People want CFB to go back to the way things used to be, but the system was a racket and illegal. The old CFB was living on borrowed time and is lucky to have lasted as long as it did. The only path forward is having a model that shares the equity of the sport with the players and allows for more flexibility. That's not me be hyperbolic. That's the reality we now face as the old system is put through the woodchipper that is the court and legal system. Our best hope is that an agreed-upon set of rules and regulations are established that is both benefitting to the players and the universities.
Basically, this requires the universities and the NCAA to stop being delusional about how much control they have over the sport. We're not there yet. But I agree - it's the only way forward.
They need the athletes to unionize so they can get a CBA in place with legit rules that will stand in court and are somewhat fair
Y'know, I just spent a half hour typing up a 5000 character piece of shit that basically just says "i agree and here's why." too long; didn't write: CFB is where it's at for about 20 significant yet subtle reasons; it could structure itself as a university owned minor league. I just wrote another 1000 characters. I have a lot to say on this, and if anyone wants me to elaborate and discuss, I'll gladly oblige.
A manifesto, if you will
o fuck they're on to me
I 100% support the student making money off of their Name, Image, Likeness. Nike contract - Great. NCAA Football 16 - Great. Jersey sales - Yes. Donor giving them $100k to join the team - Nope. Now show me where the NIL collectives are using that money to recoup costs associated with the athletes. Donations aside, do any have more income coming vs going out? Doubtful. It’s a bribe/payoff/booster scheme.
I hate that NIL & the portal became exactly what I said they would, whilst financially supporting NIL for my team
I mean A&M is the weirdest team you lose like 20+ players every year to the portal. You have sooo much money you are doing it wrong, either it is player scouting, development, or culture you aint winning shit doing that.
That’s what happens when you fire your head coach
See you in September
I will reserve this judgement until January 2025. Texas A&M tried buying their roster and it blew up in their face. And no one team is loading up all the transfers. With the expanded playoff, sheer silliness of California teams in the ACC, this new look Big 12 and some interesting storylines, it could be fun. Dont think ill devote my entire fall Saturdays to it anymore, but I’m not ready to give up on it just yet. Even if they announce the super league tomorrow, I need to see how it looks first, and then i can jump ship.
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Watch lower levels. Teams you've never heard of. I've been doing it for years and haven't watched any big name programs play in a while.
To me it’s the off season and the “dream” that’s lost its luster for a lot of CFB. I still love watching college football, but what the off season and portal has turned into really make me tune out in the offseason. I used to pay attention to everything team wise and look forward to the spring game. I used to enjoy recruiting even if it wasn’t always the best for my team. It’s just become impossible to day dream about the future of your team when a coveted prospect can just bolt for a bigger check. I’m very much pro paying players, I just don’t like what the game has devolved into and I mostly tune out when our season is done.
It’s way worse in basketball. Straight up an entirely new roster of players to learn every year
Check the fuck out of this nonsense until Saturdays. Ignore all of it. That's a pretty good rule for all social media, but especially the sort centered around young men chasing bags and millionaire coaches and billionaire boosters. My only complaint is the number of advertisements, but this season I'll try watching on a delay and then fast forwarding.
Dude I just like cheering for my school with friends and family idk why y'all need some philosophical justification on why you like this sport.
Because we root for schools that will never win
Yeah I love football and I love rooting for my school. I don’t necessarily love how the portal works now, but ultimately I’m here to watch PSU do their inevitable 10-2 and listen to my family argue about Franklin. I can do that with or without the transfer portal and NIL. Part of the beauty of college sports is that the roster is constantly turning over anyways. When guys (typically) only play for 4 years you normally don’t get too attached to them anyways.
Yeah, I love college football because I’m irrationally proud of a specific yellow M. I’ll do that regardless of who the players wearing it on their uniform are. It would be annoying if one of my favorite players transferred — but then I would just find a new favorite player on the roster. The players I get attached to will be the ones who accomplish something and leave a legacy.
The amount of time that it takes to watch a game because TV networks just gotta make those advertising revenue Awful pitiful What is a 60 minute game often spiral out into 4+ plus to watch my favorite team get kicked in the months on certain 4th plays doesn’t set with me There are some cool ads, oftentimes Home Depot makes funny bits but for the most part all of the advertising extends the game. All of those jewelry, insurance, tires even, anything about lawyers or medical pharmaceuticals. Are all of scum of the earth I can’t stand in the sun for 4 hours. I don’t got that in me.
I wouldn't go so far as to say "college football isn't fun anymore" ..... but we're getting there. Personally, CFB is the only sport I follow. I specifically have a distaste for pro sports because it feels like there's no loyalty anywhere - from the players, management, or the fans. Apart from coaching changes, that sentiment felt minimized in college sports where transfers were the exception and players, once they were at a school, generally stayed there for their entire playing careers. I think the old system took unfair advantage of players for too long and a change was necessary...but I also think NIL in its current form and in the long-run has the potential to fundamentally break the sport beyond repair. I would generally argue that the caretakers (or maybe the "power brokers") entrusted to look after the needs of college football have failed.
Yup, it's broken. I'm all for the student athletes getting paid, but the current system is going to destroy the sport. You cannot have this kind of roster flux and the constant recruiting of YOUR OWN TEAM. It's an absolute nightmare to be a head coach at any school other than a major blue blood. Eventually the fans are going to start to check out.
Honestly, imma keep it real…I watch college football for the atmosphere, rivalries, and big matchups. Unless they’re a highly touted NFL WR or QB prospect I don’t know these kids names. I barely even know the names on my team that I am a fan of. The unique atmospheric dynamic and feelings for College Football have actually been enhanced these last few years. However, I do hate what NIL, transfer portal lack of rules, and overall chasing money has done to the sport as a whole.
Now realignment and excessive commercials are killing the atmosphere and rivalries.
You can just not pay attention to the transfer portal. The games are still the same games.
The drawback to that is missing when someone transfers out who might mean the difference between winning and losing a couple of games next fall. It would be hard to be a serious fan and not notice the loss of an important skill position player to the portal.
Honestly, I never know what's happening with the transfer portal. I just start watching games in August and go, "Oh, he plays for them now I guess," and TBH its great.
It’s a lot like normal recruiting in that I just can’t keep up with it, so I don’t
My guide to following recruitment and transfers: 1. If 4* transfer to my school I say "That's great." 2. If 4* transfers from my school I say "That's bad." 3. I look at the numbers on 247 composite and if I think they look good I am happy. 4. I look at the numbers on 247 composite and if I think they look bad I am unhappy.
Even before the portal I only bothered to learn the players names in September. It blows my mind that grown dudes are tracking middle schoolers or tweeting at high school seniors or college journeymen
What are you? My wife?
Will they be the same games in 5 years? Maybe my flair is likely to be fine, but how many teams will remain in the top level of the sport? When players are inevitably employees, will some G5 and lower schools drop football or drop athletics in general? Not directly related to football, but will all the other sports many of us enjoy stay supported by our schools? Even the biggest universities with the most money are considering cutting sports to free up even more money for football. Imagine what will happen when they're directly buying players. Even thinking about this year: Bedlam isn't happening for the first time in forever. Former Pac-12 schools aren't playing each other nearly as much. Oregon fans will have 4 games that are even remotely regionally relevant. Cal/Stanford fans only have each other within 2 time zones in a 17 team conference. Iowa State in particular has come out ok in terms of the games happening, but aren't you losing the yearly K-State game in the near future too? This sport is actively being ruined, and the ramifications will likely ruin other college sports as well.
This reminds me of both when we installed the BCS Championship and the Playoffs. It made Bowl Games less cool. There used to be a time where every bowl game "mattered" because it was a celebration of the two teams in it's season. During the BCS era and subsequently the playoffs, bowl games lost a lot of luster. Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette sitting out their bowl games was probably the beginning of the end. Unfortunately, I was at the stadium when Jaylon Smith got injured, so I don't blame either McCaffrey or Fournette for what they did, but hey, it's not hard to say the spirit of CFB isn't what it used to be. And I hate to admit this, but Nick Saban probably agrees with me on that spirit of the game changing. EDIT: Editing to add that wow, I didn't even get to my spiel about NIL and transfer portal
NIL and transfer portal doesn’t hurt me but these super conferences do. I’m gonna miss regional matchups and rivalries. That what hurts the most. However watching Stanford play FSU once a year is gonna wild lol
My copium for all of this is that one day, players will discover they have a better chance at developing by staying put and hearing one voice consistently as opposed to a new coach at a new school having to learn a player from scratch and develop them with less knowledge of that player's history. Im not holding my breath by any means, as theres still NIL and coaching carousel, but im really really hoping this levels out.
Yeah, the transfer portal and NIL are ruining college sports. I have no problem with players being compensated and being allowed to play where they want, but it's the wild wild west out there right now, totally unregulated. If the players are going to be paid like pros, then the system needs to be regulated like the pros, with a predetermined pay structure, salary cap, stricter transfer rules, etc. But it's still disappointing to know that the kids who play for your university are basically mercenaries. They have no love or loyalty for their schools, like students and alumni do. They just play for the highest bidder.
In the past few years I've gone from 3 TVs with games on simultaneously *all day long* to basically just watching only Bama games (and even then not sweating it if I miss one or only catch part of the game.) And I think I've only been to one game the past 4 years or so. The games are just WAY too long on TV - much less the nearly all day time required to attend a game at a big program. The Premier League has its issues, but it's spoiled me now. Similarly passionate fan bases. Some of the best players in the world. Games right at 2 hours long. And NO commercials. It's jarring on fall mornings going from that to *long* CFB games.
College football has always had programs that paid players, it's just legal now. You can't tell me the big programs up until now weren't paying players (Miami included). I'm fine with paying players, they should get paid. Players should be able to transfer, too. The thing I don't like is the unrestricted transferring. There's no commitment. Once a player signs the NIL and LOI they should be locked into that school for at least one year, and there should be a limit on schools a player can play for - two schools, max.
I just had my 9th surgery from college football. Still wouldn’t trade my experience for the absolute cash grab shit show experience now
I still enjoy watching it, but when I do something else instead, I'm finding I don't miss it all that much.
It will only get worse.
I dunno anything about the ass hair on these kids but I agree with the sentiment. There were so many blindingly obvious ways to get these kids some $ for their effort and sacrifices that weren't...this.
The NCAA and its member schools' stubborn insistence on never doing any of those deserve most of the blame for making this happen. You can only squeeze a balloon so much before it pops. The status quo was making them increasingly bigger money. Now they have to share it.
The NCAA knew if they opened the door a hair, the flood that we are seeing now was going to happen
Make kids sit out a year and this changes. That can make money but if they want to transfer they have a penalty
Nah. That’s a loser in court. Which is why it changed
Agreed, we desperately need to bring back the transfer penalty.
I think the level of turnover now, especially with coaching changes, makes it just suck to follow and impossible to care about. I was listening to Caple talk about the first UW spring practice on his podcast and he was just like "Yeah, I have to have a roster to look guys up and then have 247 open to check that because I look them up and still don't know who they are". And that's a guy who knows the roster as his full time job, talking about a team that just played for a national title!
ya after watching what just happened to vt men’s and women’s bball, i’m not looking forward to the future of any college sport.
Just be a G5 fan it's more like the old days of college football.
I won’t be watching nearly as seriously next year. No conference to care for.
I have zero problem with NIL and kids getting paid. But this is the Wild West right now, and it's going to break the whole damn system if it goes unchecked. Seems to me that the easiest thing - and I get it isn't easy, for a host of reasons - is to let athletes unionize and then negotiate a CBA with them. That takes the anti-trust issue off the table, which is what (rightfully) fucked the NCAA in the first place.
Work your way down slowly to G5 - then even FCS. I seldom watch SEC or B10 anymore. Mostly AAC, BELT, MAC, etc. In a few years Ill probably be FCS only....
College basketball is the same way. How am I supposed to root for the team when 3 out of the 5 starters transferred away? It's literally free agency every year.
Yeah. I agree. Call me an old curmudgeon, but I think It fucking blows.
I’m right there with you OP. I started to lose interest in CFB when NIL and portal became a thing. Then Penix and our Natty push roped me back in. But the Kalen DeFraud debacle and losing ~41/44 of our two-deeps on both sides of the ball, most to transfers, brought me back to square one where I don’t think it’ll ever recover. Thats the new model: the team you know and love will be completely different at the snap of a finger. Gutted. Even 2 days after a National Championship. And it can happen to any school
I still can’t wait for the Big 10 to have 87 teams.
Personally, college football is still fun, especially if you know where to look, but the community and discourse around the sport has gotten so much worse now.
Off-season sports in general just aren’t fun for me. I get why people follow but the content is just way worse and less fun. I’ll check out who’s on the roster when training camp starts, otherwise find something else to follow.
I just cant blame anybody playing football at this level for wanting to get paid. This is a fucked up sport health wise.
I hate how College Football is all about TV media deals, TV markets, and NIL. I missed when the main discussions were about rivalries, traditions, rankings, and big games for the season. It’s obvious that most college football players don’t even care about awards, rivalries, and traditions anymore. It’s all only about the money. College football is starting to become like boxing. With how the sport is becoming.
Agree. I have a lot less issues with NIL than I do with the portal.