20 - 25 years ago I was telling anyone that would listen, 4 things needed to save the college game and make it fair for everyone and had I been NCAA President I would have pushed for the following:
1. Centrally negotiated TV contract just like NFL. They divide and conquer today and make the schools negotiate against each other. SO PHUCKING STUPID. NFL markets and sells the game and they start the bidding, you are bidding on the NFL as a brand and a game and also the built up goodwill of decades of branding. You are buying rights to the NFL. Networks don’t tell the NFL what New Orleans is worth compared to the NY Giants in terms of eyeballs. Equal revenue sharing for everyone. Force quality schedules to make the games more valuable. NCAA too stupid to sell just NCAA football and negotiate as one, they allow the networks to cherry pick assets and dictate terms and not pay anything in goodwill. NFL forces the networks to bid against each other, and the NFL does not bid out each conference separately.
2. Really good stipend for the players. No longer the 40’s in which value of college education is more than what NFL players were making. NFL requires some “college” to be draft eligible which forces a monopoly of athletes to the NCAA, and the NFL pays nothing for a minor league system. High school players have no other place to go. Perfect system for both entities to max out profits. I was heavily criticized by some on this Board for years saying you could never pay players. At OSU, we get about $37M a year in football media rights, that is $435K per player per year, When everyone but the players are making millions eventually they will put an end to that, and I predicted that, as well as a possible player union. College Football IS a professional business enterprise that generates billions in revenues. I agreed with Trump in that the NCAA needed their NPO status pulled and for the NCAA to be taxed, been saying that for a long time as well. Some schools are wasting tax free dollars if you ask me. To some degree, the players deserve to twist it off in the azz of the NCAA, they have been screwed for a long time. SCOTUS agreed and I predicted that eventually players would win legal challenges as well.
3. Just like professional sports, spending caps that is obtainable for most schools. NFL and NBA owners understand that they have to protect themselves from themselves and trying to buy every championship when for the ultra rich money is of no concern when you want to buy rings. Right now a handful of schools want to prove they have the biggest *ick. That does not lift the value of entire sport. As competitive balance gets worse and perhaps some schools like Tulsa just quit the game, that means a smaller national TV footprint and viewers. Less interest in the game. The game is not on a healthy track for building viewership.
4. We artificially inflate the weight of these players. To limit concussions, they needed to put weight limitations in. In the 70’s, Fran Tarkenton at the Vikings played behind an offensive line in which his heaviest OL weighed 230LBS. No one retired with brain damage back then. Fewer kids playing football today, parents scared. Participation rate is really dropping. Football as we know it headed to flag football. Again, they should have known this was coming. Anyone that played high school or above understands the forces at work when weight goes up drastically. Simple physics, some hits in football today generate the energy of a car wreck. Can be managed thru weight, technology will never get us where we need to be in terms of protecting the brain with the collisions that are happening today.
Could of fixed all of this, so easy to see and predict.
But oh my all the greed.
But that would mean closing down all of these conference offices and those high paying jobs, no reason for coaches to get millions and millions and the players very little, and for TV execs and announcers to also make millions. No concern for player safety. Players are the game. Not the schools, it is about the game, the athletic talent and that human being
The best model IMO is MLB and College Baseball. MLB if they think a guy is a stud gets his big payday right of HS. No option for football players to do that. Want to guess what Adrian Peterson would have received as a signing bonus out of HS? Instead OU got him practically for free and made a shit ton of money off him, and gave him to the NFL free of charge and delayed his earning capability and the risk of taking guys right out of HS. The adults in the room should have acknowledged that College Football is minor league sports and taken away the academic hurdle to play college football and allowed a professional football degree option. Could have offered skill lessons on how to pick an agent, interviews, nutrition, finances, extra film time, etc...
1. Centrally negotiated TV contract just like NFL. They divide and conquer today and make the schools negotiate against each other. SO PHUCKING STUPID. NFL markets and sells the game and they start the bidding, you are bidding on the NFL as a brand and a game and also the built up goodwill of decades of branding. You are buying rights to the NFL. Networks don’t tell the NFL what New Orleans is worth compared to the NY Giants in terms of eyeballs. Equal revenue sharing for everyone. Force quality schedules to make the games more valuable. NCAA too stupid to sell just NCAA football and negotiate as one, they allow the networks to cherry pick assets and dictate terms and not pay anything in goodwill. NFL forces the networks to bid against each other, and the NFL does not bid out each conference separately.
2. Really good stipend for the players. No longer the 40’s in which value of college education is more than what NFL players were making. NFL requires some “college” to be draft eligible which forces a monopoly of athletes to the NCAA, and the NFL pays nothing for a minor league system. High school players have no other place to go. Perfect system for both entities to max out profits. I was heavily criticized by some on this Board for years saying you could never pay players. At OSU, we get about $37M a year in football media rights, that is $435K per player per year, When everyone but the players are making millions eventually they will put an end to that, and I predicted that, as well as a possible player union. College Football IS a professional business enterprise that generates billions in revenues. I agreed with Trump in that the NCAA needed their NPO status pulled and for the NCAA to be taxed, been saying that for a long time as well. Some schools are wasting tax free dollars if you ask me. To some degree, the players deserve to twist it off in the azz of the NCAA, they have been screwed for a long time. SCOTUS agreed and I predicted that eventually players would win legal challenges as well.
3. Just like professional sports, spending caps that is obtainable for most schools. NFL and NBA owners understand that they have to protect themselves from themselves and trying to buy every championship when for the ultra rich money is of no concern when you want to buy rings. Right now a handful of schools want to prove they have the biggest *ick. That does not lift the value of entire sport. As competitive balance gets worse and perhaps some schools like Tulsa just quit the game, that means a smaller national TV footprint and viewers. Less interest in the game. The game is not on a healthy track for building viewership.
4. We artificially inflate the weight of these players. To limit concussions, they needed to put weight limitations in. In the 70’s, Fran Tarkenton at the Vikings played behind an offensive line in which his heaviest OL weighed 230LBS. No one retired with brain damage back then. Fewer kids playing football today, parents scared. Participation rate is really dropping. Football as we know it headed to flag football. Again, they should have known this was coming. Anyone that played high school or above understands the forces at work when weight goes up drastically. Simple physics, some hits in football today generate the energy of a car wreck. Can be managed thru weight, technology will never get us where we need to be in terms of protecting the brain with the collisions that are happening today.
Could of fixed all of this, so easy to see and predict.
But oh my all the greed.
But that would mean closing down all of these conference offices and those high paying jobs, no reason for coaches to get millions and millions and the players very little, and for TV execs and announcers to also make millions. No concern for player safety. Players are the game. Not the schools, it is about the game, the athletic talent and that human being
The best model IMO is MLB and College Baseball. MLB if they think a guy is a stud gets his big payday right of HS. No option for football players to do that. Want to guess what Adrian Peterson would have received as a signing bonus out of HS? Instead OU got him practically for free and made a shit ton of money off him, and gave him to the NFL free of charge and delayed his earning capability and the risk of taking guys right out of HS. The adults in the room should have acknowledged that College Football is minor league sports and taken away the academic hurdle to play college football and allowed a professional football degree option. Could have offered skill lessons on how to pick an agent, interviews, nutrition, finances, extra film time, etc...
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