NCAA finally waves white flag on NIL

Why would a coach ever listen to a player?

 

NCAA is uninterested in creating rules.

 

What do people feel is the impact of NIL and transfers on people watching. I don't live in a college football mad area so I don't get a sense of it. Do the diehards care, does the casual follower care?

 

I think people are still coming to terms with it, but it feels like the biggest thing is that it's hard to follow players through their careers.
Signing day is a big deal. Your school lands a star high school player, or your local high school star signs with State U. and you're excited to see them become something. Then they wind up redshirting as a freshman because they couldn't beat out a two-year starter and next thing you know they're transferring to a school in another conference. Then repeat that process for a dozen other players on the roster. You wind up having a new roster every year, instead of seeing players grow into their roles. It's hard to get too attached to anyone, from a fan perspective.

The last few years have also hurt the high school recruiting scene. I've talked to a ton of coaches who have said it is much, much harder to get coaches to look at their graduating seniors than it was before 2020 or so when COVID gave a lot of guys an extra year and the portal emerged as a huge recruiting tool.

The portal is unquestionably valuable for the players and teams. I just think they could do a better job of setting rules or guidelines that would solve a few growing concerns.

 

From my perspective as a casual fan, I don't care who the 2nd receiver on Alabama is, but I will make a point to watch Georgia -Alabama. I can understand a sense of frustration for more in tune fans.

Do smaller programs rely more on diehards who might be turned off on losing a good player every year?

 

I don't know if they'll ever lose the diehards, but it is frustrating for fans. Especially for smaller schools. They might win a recruiting battle for a star recruit — say an all-state quarterback who signed there because he had family go there, or something like that — and then as soon as they get ready to break out they're wooed away by a P5 team. It's the college football equivalent of blue balls.
As a fan, you know where your team is at in the pecking order but there is always hope that things can come together for a year or two and push them to the next level. School hits on a great coaching hire who signs a top recruiting class or two, and there's a shot at a conference title and a big bowl game. For mid-tier P5 schools, maybe the playoffs. When you know your team is basically being turned into a glorified junior college it's a little harder to buy into that.

 

It shouldn’t matter. Kids can finally make money off their name.

 

Sounds like they are pro’s and should be allowed to be compensated.

 

There is no do it for the old alma mater, continuity.

I'm not against these changes for the players. I wonder if people across the fan spectrum will stop caring if itt is flat out shown they are just watching minor league football.

 

It's bad for the big boys, who can't hoard the players and keep them on the bench until they need them. That's why it's suddenly a problem.

 

Is Saban bitching about the spread offense again?

 

If anything, it’s the opposite. If an Alabama or Georgia or Ohio State has a roster hole, they can go fishing in virtually any pond. But not only are the G5 schools getting treated like farm teams, so are the middle class power schools, the kind filling out the December bowls.

And in basketball, it isn’t even a big deal to see kids on their third different school now. Four is less common but not unheard of.