After reading all this stuff about realignment and adding to it all the stuff that we've seen with NIL and other changes to the college football world, it's led me to see what I think college football is moving to: a NFL minor league system being put in place. This may have already been thrown out there (seems like someone - maybe Indy - brought it up) and some of you may be reading this and saying "duh," but if this happens, it will be a major shift in college athletics.
These two "super conferences" that are being created/talked about would be used as kind of a NFL minor leagues. Players would be openly paid (tied in with NIL metric?) and, in some fashion, academics would be de-emphasized. Trust me, this is already happening at the college and even high school level.
On the high school level (and I'm sure on the college level, too) there are a lot of coaches who hate academics playing a role in who gets to play who doesn't get to. Many high school coaches (maybe rightfully so) feel that it is unfair that a 5-star player has to pass a Algebra II or Physics class in order to qualify to play a sport that he has a chance to make millions of dollars playing once they get out of school (rare case). This thing with grades has become a farce.
At these low socio-economic schools (of which the one I am at is a part of) teachers are pressured to pass these kids to give them an "opportunity" to make something of themselves. No shock there, I'm sure. Teachers are told that you're keeping an athlete from having a chance to earn a college scholarship or something even better. Think back to 1988 and Dallas Carter the infamous grades scandal made popular by the Friday Night Lights story). So this is not new, it's just a lot more prevalent today than ever before.
Think about it. When is the last time a major college football player was declare academically ineligible? You may remember me talking about a player from my school that is going to UT. Having had the kid in class I can tell you this: the kid had no chance of passing most of his classes, both by his own mental capacity and his lack of caring because, after all, he was a stud athlete. Yet, he graduated and is going to the University of Texas where, if he can stay out of trouble and avoid injury, he has the ability to be an All-American and maybe be an NFL first round pick someday.
Think about this. Athletes in almost every other sport can turn pro right out of high school - except football. Of course, a lot of the reason for that is due to the physical maturity that is necessary for pro football versus other sports. But even if they did have the physical maturity, they still would have to wait at least THREE years to get drafted. Is there any other sport like this? In baseball, if you're good enough, you sign out of high school. In basketball, you can leave for the NBA after your freshman year of college. And this is where a minor league NFL comes in.
Teams getting into these "super conferences" would, in a way, be giving up there amatuer status to provide the NFL a minor league system. Teams who did not want to take part would be in these so-called "Tier 2" college conferences. They would take players who do not get "picked up" by the "Tier 1" conferences. And, if those players developed, they could still eventually be drafted and make the NFL.
So how does OSU tie into something like this? The question would be this: do we want to be in the "pay for play" (Tier 1) league? Or would we settle for the new college football landscape that the "Tier 2" schools would be a part of?
I know that this is radical thinking, thinking massively out of the box, and there are a lot of logistics of this that would have to be ironed out. Others might be saying "tell me something I don't know." But how much of this other stuff would we have seen coming 10-15 years ago? I think we are moving in some sort of direction that is taking us to a place in college sports that is something like this. Is this good for college football? Of course not. Would college football fans like this? Most wouldn't. But this isn't about fans. It's about money.
These two "super conferences" that are being created/talked about would be used as kind of a NFL minor leagues. Players would be openly paid (tied in with NIL metric?) and, in some fashion, academics would be de-emphasized. Trust me, this is already happening at the college and even high school level.
On the high school level (and I'm sure on the college level, too) there are a lot of coaches who hate academics playing a role in who gets to play who doesn't get to. Many high school coaches (maybe rightfully so) feel that it is unfair that a 5-star player has to pass a Algebra II or Physics class in order to qualify to play a sport that he has a chance to make millions of dollars playing once they get out of school (rare case). This thing with grades has become a farce.
At these low socio-economic schools (of which the one I am at is a part of) teachers are pressured to pass these kids to give them an "opportunity" to make something of themselves. No shock there, I'm sure. Teachers are told that you're keeping an athlete from having a chance to earn a college scholarship or something even better. Think back to 1988 and Dallas Carter the infamous grades scandal made popular by the Friday Night Lights story). So this is not new, it's just a lot more prevalent today than ever before.
Think about it. When is the last time a major college football player was declare academically ineligible? You may remember me talking about a player from my school that is going to UT. Having had the kid in class I can tell you this: the kid had no chance of passing most of his classes, both by his own mental capacity and his lack of caring because, after all, he was a stud athlete. Yet, he graduated and is going to the University of Texas where, if he can stay out of trouble and avoid injury, he has the ability to be an All-American and maybe be an NFL first round pick someday.
Think about this. Athletes in almost every other sport can turn pro right out of high school - except football. Of course, a lot of the reason for that is due to the physical maturity that is necessary for pro football versus other sports. But even if they did have the physical maturity, they still would have to wait at least THREE years to get drafted. Is there any other sport like this? In baseball, if you're good enough, you sign out of high school. In basketball, you can leave for the NBA after your freshman year of college. And this is where a minor league NFL comes in.
Teams getting into these "super conferences" would, in a way, be giving up there amatuer status to provide the NFL a minor league system. Teams who did not want to take part would be in these so-called "Tier 2" college conferences. They would take players who do not get "picked up" by the "Tier 1" conferences. And, if those players developed, they could still eventually be drafted and make the NFL.
So how does OSU tie into something like this? The question would be this: do we want to be in the "pay for play" (Tier 1) league? Or would we settle for the new college football landscape that the "Tier 2" schools would be a part of?
I know that this is radical thinking, thinking massively out of the box, and there are a lot of logistics of this that would have to be ironed out. Others might be saying "tell me something I don't know." But how much of this other stuff would we have seen coming 10-15 years ago? I think we are moving in some sort of direction that is taking us to a place in college sports that is something like this. Is this good for college football? Of course not. Would college football fans like this? Most wouldn't. But this isn't about fans. It's about money.
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