Running CFB playoff thread

The Vandy coach probably, if Padilla is that 27-year-old.

 

Good story from The Athletic on just how expensive it'll be to go to SMU-Penn State as a visitor.

SMU fans, open your wallets. Traveling to Penn State isn’t cheap

 

For the life of me, I do not understand why some of you get bothered by college athletes getting their eligibility extended. I find Miami's ninth-year TE kind of amusing, but it doesn't annoy me in the slightest.

There's a weird undercurrent of hostility to college students in so many posts that just bewilders me.

 

Both posters here and my real life, there are people who I can only think are clinging to some idyllic Shangi-La of college sports where the hometown kid plays for the honor of Good Ol' State U, graduates in 4 years, and dates the Homecoming Queen. Meanwhile, bigtime college sports are the biggest traveshamockery of athletics we could ever dream up, and always has been.

 

I am in favor of campus host sites for the CFP but all home sites are not the same and that's something the NCAA, CFP committee and schools apparently didn't anticipate.
Throw in that each visiting team is allotted 3,500 tickets and all schools are on holiday break and you have issues, good and bad depending on your viewpoint.

To wit, Penn State coach James Franklin is concerned his Nits won't have the usual Beaver Stadium advantage because, well students are gone, and the normal capacity crowd of 106,000 or so might be more like 75,000-80,000. I guess that's somehow worse for Penn State than travelling to play in say New Orleans or Atlanta.

Because Tennessee fans are so eager to see the Vols play and got the benefit of a leaked presale code, Ohio Stadium's normal 103,000 crowd will be occupied by perhaps a quarter of Vols fans and not the usual 10 percent of visiting fans.

All visiting teams were allotted 3,500 tickets but because Indiana is so close to South Bend, tickets for the game at Notre Dame are astronomical and running 5-10 times what tickets at the other home sites are fetching. For example, tickets in the nosebleed are about $500 for the very cheapest and more like $700 or more.

Tickets are plentiful in Austin, Texas, with prices dropping as Longhorns fans either see no reason to watch 10-3 Clemson and the Dabo show or anticipate saving money for the Peach Bowl.

 

Fair question. Here's the source of my anxiety on this: It's not sustainable and will end up hurting a lot of people.
In re: permanent eligibility, extending the playing days of current players beyond five years will shut out others. The NCAA, under bayonet of federal court order, has said it will increase the number of scholarships while curtailing roster sizes. Eventually, rosters will have 26-year-olds who are doing nothing but staying eligible to play. If roster sizes are set, there won't be the same amount of room for newcomers directly out of high schools.
If all football players have to be paid to some degree by the institution, there's no way to meet payroll without whacking some other sports. The Big Ten and SEC may be able to have it all, but there are still a lot of schools that won't be able to do it all. And, yeah, I work for one. Not in athletics, thankfully. But the relatively sudden obligation for schools to pay athletes is going to have a trickle-down effect.

 

Just curious, how would you feel about 22-year-olds playing high school football?

 

There is no interest in the college golf and tennis and rowing teams, and they've been living off the talent of the football players for decades.

 

There's more interest than you may realize. Americans watch the Olympics. Particularly gymnastics and track. Those athletes don't just pop up out of the ground every four years.

 

I would be uncomfortable with it for reasons that do not extend at all to the college game.

 

Totally understand.
I don't think it's the football player's responsibility to pay for them.

 

Two things.

1) This assumes 26 year olds will somehow become something other than a bizarre rarity for these programs. I don't see any reason to believe that is the case.

2) As @poindexter points out, I do not believe it is the football players' obligation to fund the scholarships for country club kids in other sports. If Iowa State can't afford golf and tennis, maybe Iowa State doesn't need golf and tennis.