Saw this today while eating lunch. First thought I had was of course the Big Ten and SEC want student athlete revenue sharing. They have the most revenue to share without diminishing what “the house” takes home. Further down the feeding chain other schools would have a lot of problems splitting revenue and staying afloat. Am I too cynical or missing something?
Once they allowed the NIL it’s all downhill from there with regards to College Football. The chasing of “the bag” has taken out all of the traditions and what’s good about College Football. None of these smaller schools have any shot at competing for a championship anymore. It will be the SEC, the “BIG” conferences in the playoff year after year after year.
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I was looking at prior champions last week. It’s stunning to me that Florida was the last team in the FBS to win the national title for the first time (1996). That’s been a while. The powers that be seem adamant about not sharing it with anyone – ever again! Here’s what’s really shocking to me though…
Go back to 1981. Clemson won a national title that year in January '82. We emerged the next year on the heels of Bear Bryant passing away. To me, that didn’t just rock Alabama, I think it rocked the entire SEC. They weren’t a big factor in the '80s really. Miami and other independents seem to rule the sport for a bit. In fact, from 1981-2005 (25 years) the SEC won FOUR national titles in football - 4 - and that’s it. Alabama beat us in '92, UF won in '96, Tennessee in '98 and LSU shared one with USC in '03. That was it! Four titles in 25 years.
Starting with UF’s upset of Ohio State in 2006 and going to present day?..the SEC has won 13 national football titles in 17 years! No league had ever won more than three in a row and then the SEC won seven in a row and it’s at 13 of 17 today with UGA favored again for '23. Oh, and in the four seasons the SEC didn’t win it, FSU came from behind to beat Auburn, Clemson beat Alabama twice and Ohio State came from 15 back to beat the Tide in a semifinal before smoking Oregon in the '14 final. So if not for FSU, Ohio State and Clemson, it could be 17 straight years for the SEC!
What’s different now? M O N E Y !!! A ton that goes into the broadcast rights. The B1G and SEC always made more than the ACC, Pac and B12 but on the payout per school there might have been a $3-5 million disadvantage in money for the other leagues. Now it stands to be $30 million or more per year! Something the ACC/Big 12 probably won’t be able to survive over time. The Pac is already over, Big 12 has been picked clean of blue bloods and the clock’s ticking on the ACC next.
Can it be survived? If you think our grant of rights can’t be toppled, then the SEC/B1G will get to go back to the negotiating table one more time in the 13 years that our deal still has to run. Seems pretty hopeless, doesn’t it?
Georgia closes NIL collective as revenue sharing begins. New plan could become norm
Georgia is ending its collective, but the Bulldogs are partnering with an outside organization to form a new outlet that will focus on name, image and likeness deals for football and other players.
The move is in advance of the House settlement going into effect Tuesday. The settlement allows schools to directly pay athletes, starting with $20.5 million for all athletes, but any outside NIL deals worth more than $600 have to be approved by a clearinghouse, which is run by the Deloitte accounting firm.
Georgia’s outside NIL deals will now be done through Learfield, which has worked with Georgia’s athletic department, and many others, on licensing and marketing deals. Learfield is also set to work with Ohio State, in a similar arrangement announced several weeks ago. Learfield is expected to hire a staff of around five people specifically for Georgia’s NIL deals.
“This approach is about creating a standardized process and capitalizing on the NIL momentum at Georgia as the recent House settlement ruling goes into effect,” Learfield president Cole Gahagan said in a statement. “By consolidating all NIL efforts together, we’re establishing a full-service platform that makes it easier for brands to engage, for fans to support, and for student-athletes to maximize their potential through impactful storytelling and strategic partnerships.”
Georgia’s collective, the Classic City Collective, was formed several years ago and had been raising money to directly pay players while also helping negotiate NIL deals. Last year the collective paid players an average of $1.1 million per month, multiple program sources briefed on the operations of Georgia’s collective previously told The Athletic.
That figure, about $13.2 million for the season, is roughly in line with what Georgia will pay football players in revenue sharing. Most schools are paying football players 75 percent of the revenue sharing budget. (Schools can count new scholarships in revenue sharing, so it’s 75 percent of $18 million, which is $13.5 million.)
But there were NIL deals for several players that were outside the collective, and the payments for players are expected to only increase, especially among top-tier programs. So Georgia is working with Learfield to negotiate NIL deals that will pass muster with the new clearinghouse.
“Our student-athletes are already among the most competitive in the country,” Georgia athletic director Josh Brooks said in a statement. “Now, they’ll have the infrastructure and support to maximize their NIL potential while strengthening their connection with the Bulldog Nation and beyond.”
(The Athletic)
What a freakin’ mess!
I’m all for players getting something and NOT getting used…but NIL without guardrails is turning this sport into shit. The past couple of years, is nothing but drama clowns wanting 10 million dollar bags. It’s all destroying the sport at a rapid pace. Never thought I’d see the day, where I care less and less about my favorite sport.
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I’ve never been a fan of paying college players, especially those on scholarships getting a FREE education. I would be all for helping with student athletes with their meal plans but to flat our pay a kid millions of dollars…for what? Yes, I know some players were getting paid behind the scenes for years but just look at the crap show this is once Pandora’s Box has been opened. It’s truly horrible.
The SEC will continue to dominate college sports for years and years to come because their already big pockets are getting bigger.
Now that the Box has been opened it can’t be closed. So, now the idiots who came up with the idea of NIL and TWO portals need to figure out a salary cap that’s across the board, fair, and to do away with the winter portal window.
This is not for you but a general question that has been on my mind for some time. Were UM in the SEC or Big 10 would UM fandom feel this way? I do wonder if this is a kid’s nose pressed against the candy store window syndrome. Same for Clemson, FSU, Louisville, anyone not in the two aforementioned conferences. I can say for myself that I don’t know. Back when I was young and UM stomped people left and right I made no bones about rubbing it in people’s faces. Now the shoe is on the other foot.
All that said, I don’t think it is “good for the sport” to reduce things to two mega conferences. But that cake is baked. I can’t imagine fans of Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky and the “lower tier” of the SEC regret the SEC’s newish stature. And it looks like many of said lower tier are getting better by association. More money, more exposure, roster numbers at Bama and Georgia not unlimited.
It will be interesting to see where things are at in say five more years. Will college football collapse of its own weight?
The SEC has played the game well. Kudos to them on knowing how to line the pockets. It’s NOT good for college football to have TWO main power conferences. The NCAA, TV, etc…want the big time NC Game. None of us want to be bored, we want to be entertained and the powers to be know it. But, I got very tired of Alabama/Georgia and FSU got screwed when their QB went down, why? Because the powers to be didn’t want a “lesser” FSU team in the NC game. FSU SHOULD have been in that game, Travis or not.
I’m a college football purest and that means I would LOVE for a MAC team to win the NC. I THINK that the 12 team playoff CAN help a MAC type of team make it to the NC AND actually win against Goliath.
College football needs a roster limit (done), it needs a salary cap and it needs to limit the ports to just ONE and that being the spring portal. It also needs to limit the number of times you can transfer OR at the very least put a one year hold on a kid choosing to transfer for a second time.
We have catered too much to the kids. It’s not just me saying it, look at Saban. Kids don’t want to compete anymore, they just want the “bag”. Who doesn’t? We all want more in our “bags”. I’m just not going to budge on my stance against paying kids to play while they are getting a FREE education (non-scholarship kids the exception of course).
I would agree, let’s see where we are in 5 years. I think it was good for the NBA to have a small market team like OKC win it all. I want to see college football have that same ability to level the playing field and I think they do that by the roster limit, salary cap and closing one portal (the winter one). The NIL stuff is the really tricky part because if that’s not regulated then the salary cap is a moot point.
Sadly, I believe that ship sailed. I don’t think any Cinderella will exist again. Florida was the last FBS 1st time champion…that was in 1996. That’s beyond pathetic.
Miami was kind of that Cinderella. A team who had never won. Had little of a history and arrived at the perfect time to do what they did. Bear Bryant had died at the start of that year in 1983. The SEC was not what they are now or even close. Independents could win NCs then and Miami won four of them. We could play the independent schedule, beat Florida, FSU, Penn State or Notre Dame and play in an Orange Bowl at home and win an NC. Not too bad. Sometimes had to go to less optimal games in New Orleans or gulp…Tempe’, AZ for their opportunity. I’m not sure those kind of chances exist any more. Hell, BYU won the year after our 1st title. You think that’s happening again?
I just don’t see it. Can a Boise State win this thing? I have doubts. Hell, I have doubts about a Big 12 team ever winning again now that Texas/OU are gone. Someone tell me how it changes with those two money conferences rolling along.
There’s a disparity in payout now and it widens after 2030 when the B1G and SEC go back to re-negotiate TV deals. God, help us all!
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Yeah, it’s wishful thinking that College Football won’t be much more than SEC football in a few years.
Kirby Smart has an article on ESPN and man is he a jerk!