Very rarely do i disagree with your takes LCE, but this is one of those rare exceptions. Completely agree with bullet #1. Nothing brings me more joy than watching FSU suffer. Today has been beautiful for that. Complete agree with the next point about the seedy undercover bag culture in SEC and other top programs. However, that bag game was only for a smaller percentage of recruits per year and/or smaller payouts and it will still CONTINUE in the NIL age. Let's not fool ourselves, kids will still get paid on top of the NIL money.
With NIL, you see nobodies on Texas's 3 deep getting paid for pancakes. They haven't even proven they can block a scout team kid yet but are being paid. That's not lifting a veil. That's going down a slippery slope. What makes those 15 players different than the 3-deep guy at Iowa or Vandy? Will you occasionally see a Hunter situation? Sure.....we just did. Will it be the norm or really change things? I doubt it, at least not without a lot of additional "shady payments" from outside sources like Barstool. The return on investment for many of the deals wouldn't pass the sniff test as a normal company investment from a P&L standpoint. If revenue doesn't match contribution for many of these companies and they fade, we'll be left with the same big paying schools as before.
Let me circle back for a second. I'm against the high coaching salaries as much as the pay-tp-play college free agency and portal stuff. HC's making $10M? Ridiculous. A position coach simply on staff to recruit is routinely paid more than doctors. Makes perfect sense to me. That's a much longer discussion for another time.
I SUPPORT the NIL stuff as it pertains to true NIL intent.....jersey sales, video game likeness, autographs, maybe a speaking engagement or something (fair market value payment), etc. I do feel the kids lying their body on the line deserve something, even if i am a college athletics purist. That type of NIL activity embraces the school/sport, promotes hard work to be great and is linked to true on-field success. I also support mandatory contributions for medical care and injury insurance to help protect players' future. It's a violent contact sport and should have those included, since the sport has the profits to support it.
I am NOT in support of being paid by non-profits to do nothing, paid by gambling websites to do nothing, paid by boosters to do nothing except sign the dotted line. That's not NIL nor a level playing field for college athletics. Professional, "open-market" sports have more limits, rules, boundaries and fairness to them. This activity promotes more shady dealings (as far back as high school), serving self interest for short-term gains, and promotes more effort off field than on, which is a disservice to the team and game itself.
We have complained collectively as fans for years that college football results should not be dictated by which schools cheat the most. Instead of fixing that, we are embracing NIL? Not me. College football results should also not be based on which schools have the shadiest NIL boosters or booster contacts. For those who have negged my other posts, have at it.....
