Can we stay competitive in the NIL era?

[slugboy]

Read up, y’all
Kiffin lays it all out

Lane Kiffin opens up on NIL running amok in college football - Sports Illustrated

The Ole Miss coach shares how he feels about bidding wars, Alabama’s dominance and college football’s new normal.

www.si.com

 

[CEB]

L

Read up, y’all
Kiffin lays it all out

Lane Kiffin opens up on NIL running amok in college football - Sports Illustrated

The Ole Miss coach shares how he feels about bidding wars, Alabama’s dominance and college football’s new normal.

www.si.com

LOTS of interesting points made there. Kiffin obviously is going to say a lot of what he says to further his own agenda (and this was pretty much a solicitation for booster money and NIL funds). Two things stuck out to me:

- With current portal and NIL rules, why wouldn't virtually every kid enter the portal annually to test the waters? Its basically an annual renegotiation of NIL terms. Now we all suspect that "tampering" is occurring regardless and that the kids don't need to enter the portal to know what they are worth, but even if that can't be proven or called out, there is nothing to prevent guys from entering the portal and returning to their school with a renegotiated deal. Can you imagine the fall out after schools start pulling NIL deals when kids enter the portal and then refuse to honor the original deal if the kid doesn't make it on the "open market" and wants to return? Oh boy!
- Really valid point regarding coaching - NIL just became priority #1 for coaching candidates too... Dare I relate this to our situation... We need to have have a compelling NIL arrangement if we are foreseeing a coaching search.... can open, worms everywhere.

 

[awbuzz]

Read up, y’all
Kiffin lays it all out

Lane Kiffin opens up on NIL running amok in college football - Sports Illustrated

The Ole Miss coach shares how he feels about bidding wars, Alabama’s dominance and college football’s new normal.

www.si.com

Pretty much sums it up...

 

[Vespidae]

Pretty much sums it up...

It does, but not in a good way. Lane basically says, "they are all professional players now". Pandora's Box.

 

[GoldZ]

It does, but not in a good way. Lane basically says, "they are all professional players now". Pandora's Box.

Yep, then remove "College" and "Collegiate" from all references---both formal and informal. Next, charge the NFL a long overdue large fee for the farm league colleges have been providing. There's nothing worse than slowly or a halfarsed rip of the bandaid.

 

[Vespidae]

Yep, then remove "College" and "Collegiate" from all references---both formal and informal. Next, charge the NFL a long overdue large fee for the farm league colleges have been providing. There's nothing worse than slowly or a halfarsed rip of the bandaid.

Brian Daboll, when he became Alabama's OC after Kiffin, was asked what working at Alabama was like. Mind you, Daboll spent the previous 15 years of his coaching career in the NFL. So, the media were interested in his thoughts on going to the college ranks.

"No difference", said Daboll. "It's exactly the same as any NFL team."

That's where we are at in the college game now. Some teams are truly NFL-lite and then, there is everyone else. How long, I wonder, before players unionize, demand pensions, etc. Because it is statements like what Lane made that will be used to force it to happen.

"It's 3rd and seven for the Pizza Hut Yellow Jackets brought to you by Seven-Up. Sims, and his affiliate - Pugmire Ford ... steps out of the pocket. Sees an open man downfield and ... Pugmire Ford wants to help you get behind the wheel of a new Ford ... Fourth and seven."

 

[CEB]

"It's 3rd and seven for the Pizza Hut Yellow Jackets brought to you by Seven-Up. Sims, and his affiliate - Pugmire Ford ... steps out of the pocket. Sees an open man downfield and ... Pugmire Ford wants to help you get behind the wheel of a new Ford ... Fourth and seven."

I remember as a kid playing little league baseball and just wishing we had cool team names. Our park had sponsors to help pay for our uniforms, so we were all named after local businesses. Red Tshirt with generic block letters screen printed across the chest and a cheap mesh back hat (the original “trucker” before they were cool enough to have a cool nickname).
Somewhere in central indiana there is a dusty old plaque in the bowels of a rundown ballpark that memorializes the championship run of Terry’s Auto Supply. I’m proud to say I was an integral part. There may even be an old photo of us in all of our “Terry’s Auto” glory... and damn we must’ve looked good! it turns out we were really cool 40 years before anyone knew it.

 

[Vespidae]

I remember as a kid playing little league baseball and just wishing we had cool team names. Our park had sponsors to help pay for our uniforms, so we were all named after local businesses. Red Tshirt with generic block letters screen printed across the chest and a cheap mesh back hat (the original “trucker” before they were cool enough to have a cool nickname).
Somewhere in central indiana there is a dusty old plaque in the bowels of a rundown ballpark that memorializes the championship run of Terry’s Auto Supply. I’m proud to say I was an integral part. There may even be an old photo of us in all of our “Terry’s Auto” glory... and damn we must’ve looked good! it turns out we were really cool 40 years before anyone knew it.

I get it. I was on a championship Little League team named after one of the local construction companies who footed the bill for our uniforms. In Japan, hoops are owned by corporations so it's the Goldstar Giants vs. the Toshiba Titans. Same thing.

At this point, we should just let the AA contract everything out to Arthur Blank.

 

[CEB]

I get it. I was on a championship Little League team named after one of the local construction companies who footed the bill for our uniforms. In Japan, hoops are owned by corporations so it's the Goldstar Giants vs. the Toshiba Titans. Same thing.

At this point, we should just let the AA contract everything out to Arthur Blank.

Hopefully we at least get to have a cool nickname. The only thing worse than having a corporate name is also getting saddled with a generic nickname like “Giants” or “Tigers” or “Bulldogs.”

 

[slugboy]

Not sure who to respond to, but one of Kiffen's other points was

1. 8 to 10 programs (Texas, TA&M, Bama, THE Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, ...) can pay full freight for any player they need.
2. The next 15 or so programs can scrape up some dough to be in the next tier (Ole Miss would be in there, maybe Arkansas, South Carolina?, ...)
3. Schools 26-130 are on the outside looking in.

Almost all of the ACC is in category 3. The question is where Clemson, Miami, FSU, and maybe VT fit. Some of the SEC and B1G are in category 2, but a bunch are in category 3.

 

[RamblinRed]

Not sure who to respond to, but one of Kiffen's other points was

1. 8 to 10 programs (Texas, TA&M, Bama, THE Ohio State, Notre Dame, USC, ...) can pay full freight for any player they need.
2. The next 15 or so programs can scrape up some dough to be in the next tier (Ole Miss would be in there, maybe Arkansas, South Carolina?, ...)
3. Schools 26-130 are on the outside looking in.

Almost all of the ACC is in category 3. The question is where Clemson, Miami, FSU, and maybe VT fit. Some of the SEC and B1G are in category 2, but a bunch are in category 3.

And this is why I think long term it would be better for college football to simply blow up and rebuild in a way that makes sense now.

Let those 25-30 programs that believe they can truly fund what is nothing more than a minor league NFL team do that.
Let the other schools reorganize football in a way that works for them. Legitimate NIL, absolutely. Farcical pay the player, no. Actually go to classes because fewer than 1% will ever likely play a down in the NFL, absolutely.

I would expect most, if not all of the 4 and 5* HS recruits go to those Top 25-30 teams. Everyone else is playing with 3 star guys who some will break out, but most won't.

What would be the one interesting school to watch would be ND. Their AD has consistently said for years that if there is a break in college football along academic lines ND would compete with the academic minded schools.

It should also be noted there is a very strong reason why ND has resisted joining the B10 and would continue to do so unless it feels that is the only way it can survive athletically. ND seems itself as a premier private, national (Catholic) institution. If they join the B10 they have deep concerns they will be come to be seen as a regional, private, religious university.

 

[4shotB]

What would be the one interesting school to watch would be ND. Their AD has consistently said for years that if there is a break in college football along academic lines ND would compete with the academic minded schools.

As I have mentioned before, a friend and golfing buddy is a ND alum and season ticket holder. Has been for decades. According to him, he and most of his fellow alums (or at least those in his age group) do not want to be in the Bama/Texas/Clemson model. They would prefer to realign with schools who want to retain some relationship between athletics and academics. (I am aware of the small sample size here.)

 

[awbuzz]

ADTS thoughts and concerns include - “At the end of the day, we’ve still got to pay for the scholarships and all the things we need to provide our student-athletes as well as our teams,” Stansbury said...

Todd Stansbury outlines Georgia Tech’s position on collectives

Georgia Tech athletics director Todd Stansbury won’t dissuade any Yellow Jackets supporters from making a financial contribution to the “Swarm the ATL” collective or any other similar outfit. But he also wants to encourage supporters to help keep the athletic department engine running, too.

www.ajc.com

 

[Richard7125]

Yep, then remove "College" and "Collegiate" from all references---both formal and informal. Next, charge the NFL a long overdue large fee for the farm league colleges have been providing. There's nothing worse than slowly or a halfarsed rip of the bandaid.

The SEC/Big 10 are making a ton of money on their football teams – TV money, gate receipts, etc. They are plowing that money back into their football programs. I don’t understand why people are criticizing the NFL for this. Are they benefiting, absolutely, but that’s not by their doing. I guess you could argue that they have some skin in that they require people to be 3 years removed from high school before jumping to the NFL, but I also think the colleges preferred/agreed/negotiated that too when that rule was established.

 

[cthenrys]

Have we answered the question in the title of this thread yet ?

 

[Vespidae]

The SEC/Big 10 are making a ton of money on their football teams – TV money, gate receipts, etc. They are plowing that money back into their football programs. I don’t understand why people are criticizing the NFL for this. Are they benefiting, absolutely, but that’s not by their doing. I guess you could argue that they have some skin in that they require people to be 3 years removed from high school before jumping to the NFL, but I also think the colleges preferred/agreed/negotiated that too when that rule was established.

I don't think it's an issue of charging the NFL. The reality is that the way things are going, the NFL or some external organization, is going to be involved and having input to how college football is developed. A current line of thinking is that a super league could generate 30% of NFL programming value ... translated, that's $3B. A year. So a super league of 30 teams will each get $100 million a year ... so expect closer cooperation not less.

FWIW, SEC schools are drowning in money. That's why they are throwing it at golf, swimming, women's ribbon dancing , ANYTHING to absorb the surpluses. In ten years, that number is going to triple. Or more.

 

[Vespidae]

Have we answered the question in the title of this thread yet ?

I'll answer it. No.

There is a lucrative subset of the P5, while almost all other programs are fighting uphill and stuck with a widening gap (insert Tech here). There is increasingly the likelihood that anti-trust laws will prevent the formation of a super league unless you opt in to it. And Tech does not now, nor will it ever, have the resources to opt in. And .. the programming value of a super league could be in the range of $3-4 billion annually ... so the battle is how those 30 super league teams can grab that and distance themselves from everyone else. One line of thinking is that a number of colleges will simply quit and attrit out that continue the arms race. No mas.

The best phrase I have seen on this subject is this: "College football is not a contest of have's and have nots. It's a battle of have's and never will-be's."

 

[cthenrys]

I'll answer it. No.

There is a lucrative subset of the P5, while almost all other programs are fighting uphill and stuck with a widening gap (insert Tech here). There is increasingly the likelihood that anti-trust laws will prevent the formation of a super league unless you opt in to it. And Tech does not now, nor will it ever, have the resources to opt in. And .. the programming value of a super league could be in the range of $3-4 billion annually ... so the battle is how those 30 super league teams can grab that and distance themselves from everyone else. One line of thinking is that a number of colleges will simply quit and attrit out that continue the arms race. No mas.

The best phrase I have seen on this subject is this: "College football is not a contest of have's and have nots. It's a battle of have's and never will-be's."

Thanks. It honestly seemed like a rhetorical question with a lot of debate following it

 

[CEB]

Have we answered the question in the title of this thread yet ?

I don’t like Kiffen but the interview posted with him is pretty telling. I tend to agree with him on his point that clearly does answer the question...
There are about 10 schools on another level with NIL. There are maybe 15-20 additional schools that might be able to keep up (if they choose to try).
For schools Outside of that top 25-30, you dont have much of a chance.

So.... NO.

 

[Richard7125]

I don't think it's an issue of charging the NFL. The reality is that the way things are going, the NFL or some external organization, is going to be involved and having input to how college football is developed. A current line of thinking is that a super league could generate 30% of NFL programming value ... translated, that's $3B. A year. So a super league of 30 teams will each get $100 million a year ... so expect closer cooperation not less.

FWIW, SEC schools are drowning in money. That's why they are throwing it at golf, swimming, women's ribbon dancing , ANYTHING to absorb the surpluses. In ten years, that number is going to triple. Or more.

I don't understand generate 30% of NFL programming value. If the SEC/Big10 form a superleague, it won't be to share anything with the NFL. It will be to create even more money that they can keep and split among themselves. This isn't sharktank where they need the NFL(ie Shark) to invest into some new venture.