The term you are searching for in describing schools like Vanderbilt is "serf". They have and will continue to prostitute themselves for scraps from the elite football factories' table.
If I wanted to watch "professionals" I would click on the NFL. College sports has evolved into a semi professional farm system in so far as the top 30 or so teams are concerned.
I prefer the college game even with its self-inflicted flaws. College athletics has evolved and it's not going back to the time of club sports.
It has "evolved" into a club for football factories to run roughshod over any semblance of eligibility or integrity.
Nevertheless, it’s not going back.
brobible.com
I just think at some point this has to settle down when people start realizing these massive investments they’re making provide very little in return. I mean, if you have the expendable funds to hand out tens and hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars at a time you have to be pretty smart right? There’s no way these people continue to shell out massive dollars for not only players, but also for coaches, and facilities. At what point do these people look in the mirror and ask themselves wtf they’re doing with their money. Is it when they get burned by some kid taking their money and running to the next school? Or when whatever 5-star QB they shelled out for gets hurt and never plays a down? Maybe when their big name coach benches their big money player for discipline issues?As the article states this isn't much more than message board fodder, but it's interesting if true. If nothing else, you can avoid the click and walk away knowing there's a message board user named SlicedBread.
Texas A&M Boosters Spent Unfathomable Amount Of Money To Land No. 1 Recruiting Class, Per Report
Getty Image / iStockphoto Head coach Jimbo Fisher and the Texas A&M Aggies signed one of the best recruiting classes of all-time this year. To do so,
D Rad screwed us on B1G almost 10 years ago. We voluntarily left the SEC and our attempts to return were blocked.
For Texas and Texas A&M 25-30 million dollars spread out amongst a group of billionaires isn't really going to move the needle that much. Texas A&M in this case got the #1 recruiting class in the country for their money. They got 5 of the top 33 players in the country. What it does do is put tremendous pressure on the coaches of these schools. Texas already is notorious for billionaires involving themselves too much in the program. That is going to get even worse.
$30M divided by 500 people is $60,000 each. Obviously there’s some people giving out a lot more than that, and there’s a ton giving less than that, but that’s beside the point. How many billionaires are there that care enough about college football to completely foot the bill for a program that’s never even really been a national contender? And if they’re paying the athletes directly through NIL deals they can’t even write that off like they can donations to the school that contribute to coaches salaries and facilities.
I was reading more about the NIL stuff. The NIL money isn’t guaranteed money like pro athlete contracts. It’s a payment. As long as you perform, you will get paid. If you stop performing or if the school brings in a better transfer or a better recruit, the money dries up.
It’s not guaranteed, but it also can’t be tied to performance. Most of the deals themselves are simply social media promotion or maybe an event appearance. As long as the athlete promotes the brand then it doesn’t even matter if they play or not, they’re contractually obligated to get paid for the full period of the contract. If some random Texas LLC offers a 5 star recruit $1M, and the recruit doesn’t play a down and then transfers to Alabama at the end of the season, they’re still out $1M.
Are you sure about that? I don't know, but that is different than what i read
Well considering that article is from a source call “Bro Bible” I’m not sure how reliable it is in the first place.
Hahaha, I totally agree with the reliability of the source. I agree that there is some type of contract, but i don't think that contract actually happens until the kid signs with the school. At that point, the school (booster) has the short term leverage. I would imagine the contractual language is more favorable to the booster than to the kid.
Which begs the question why watch it? The playing field is so tilted in favor of a dozen or so football factories, what is the point of the other 100 plus even bothering?
You can watch or not watch. If it interests you, watch. If not, watch something else. Personally, I enjoy watching college football even if the two teams are not in hunt. The Tennessee-Purdue game was damn exciting, yet neither team had anything special to fight for ... just fun football and a something for the fans.