What Happens to College Sports After the House Case is Settled

Nick Saban looks smarter today than he ever did winning national titles.

 

Not much market anywhere for players who stay in one place for more than two years.

 

I really don't know why any power conference coach over the age of 55 is still in it. If you've made enough money to last several lifetimes, why would you put up with this nonsense?
All of these things can be true:
1) Colleges have been doling out obscene amounts of cash to football coaches -- especially coordinators -- and now the secondary, shadow coaching staffs for decades.
2) The TV revenue has gotten so huge that players deserve to be compensated.
3) The players will never be satisfied no matter how much they get. The litigation will never cease.

 

There’s a line in American Gangster where Frank Lucas’ heroin connection in Thailand tells him “Quitting while you’re ahead is not the same as quitting.” I think that’s apropos here.

 

One bright side. This is the last season of the six or seven year Covid players.

 

L.A. Coliseum United Airlines Field.

 

I have made my peace with the sponsorship/logos thing during my time overseas. You have to know NRL teams by their sponsors, because you’ll never know which team you’re watching by looking at its uniforms (other than the Sydney Roosters, who happen to be sponsored by Steggles, which is a chicken company.) European soccer is pretty much the same. It’s like ads on the front page; it’s jarring at first, then you just concede it.

 

Not to be that guy, but I only met two engineering majors in about 25 years of covering college football. Of course, one of them won the Biletnikoff Award, but still ...

 

The settlement supposedly eliminates "walk-ons", I have long been cynical about walk-on programs. Colorado has historical recruited a fair amount of specialists from California as recruited walk-ons. I have always wonder how these kids swing the out of 0state tuition. Am I cynical, or are those kids getting some financial help from somewhere?

 

Players have always been paid. Not all players, no. But putting everything in the daylight will help - well, if not level the playing field - at least give an accurate representation of what the playing field looks like. Is this the end of college football? No. As we've known it? Yes. And I imagine the decline in player development will also impact the NFL down the line.
The AAU effect on basketball hasn't been as profound, because hoops is a star-driven sport. Football is a different beast entirely.

 

"Disinterested" doesn't mean what you think it means.

 

Alabama players in the mid-90s drove a variety of pretty nice vehicles. Then there was kicker Michael Proctor, who navigated campus in a subcompact Hyundai.

If you have developed enough to become an FBS kicker, odds are your parents had enough cushion in the budget to send you to specialized camps and probably hire a private coach. So for that position at least it tends to be self-selecting for financially comfortable kids.