Since recruiting is dead, this forum needs to change its title to Newly Purchased Players!

Yes. Because no one ever got paid before!

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Give this stupid shite a rest. It’s been “pay for play” for over 50 years now and anyone who thinks it wasn’t is either and idiot or was not paying attention.

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Of course under-the-table money was always factor, but the pay was a drop in the bucket and only limited to a handful of players compared to what it is currently.

Money is now the singular driving force in recruiting, whereas it was literally everything about a program pre-NIL that mattered, from relationships to coaching reputation to NFL preparedness, facilities, atmosphere, proximity to the school, a mother's fandom ... and yes, a dodge charger or two, etc.

The whole "players were always getting paid" angle is surface-level thinking as it was never pay-to-play and unrestricted free agency like it is now. Recruiting used to be fun, especially when you could watch those potentially recruits develop into superstars over the course of 3-4 years at your program.

Why, you still have to sell your facilities and coaches if the money is even.

I'm not disagreeing that those things matter if the money is about the same, but money now matters far more than anything else for the majority of players in a way that nothing did before.

The fact is, if a hypothetical Akron Zips billionaire alum all-of-a-sudden wanted to win a football championship for a school that has been completely irrelevant for their 130 year history, he could go out and throw millions at a roster (and staff) and be immediately competitive in the playoff picture, which wouldn't have been possible before because the individual traits of a program and school that make it unique used to matter the most, not just money. CFB is losing its identity and becoming more and more like the sanitized NFL.




Also, the money usually isn't the same.

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Because no one ever got paid before!

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Generally speaking, if you Will.

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for over 50 years

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its totally different now. infinite transfers is single year contracts and free agency. every year is a tryout for a higher paying school. never was that before.

It's deeper than this. The schools and conferences are all individual entities who are acting within their best interests in order to remain competitive, because the alternative is to NOT try to make as much money as possible to pay for facilities, salaries, NIL payments, etc. that are used to woo the best athletes and coaches in the nation and then fall behind their counterparts, which will also affect academic enrollment. And ultimately, almost all of the schools would need to put their individual interests to the side for the good of the sport, otherwise just 1 program out of 100+ is a drop in the bucket and changes nothing. Tragedy of the Commons, except even more extreme in that they're directly competing with each other.

The NCAA did what they could to delay the inevitable for as long as possible, but ultimately it has been shown that they no longer have any power after all of the court rulings. This was always going to be the result with capitalism as the laws are written and with CFB skyrocketing in popularity (and revenue) from inception until today. I'm not sure if there's anyone specifically to blame other than previous federal gov regimes, because there's no way for our founding fathers could've taken into account that a sport that didn't exist yet probably shouldn't be subject to the articles and amendments to the Constitution. If anyone, it's the federal government and the supreme court for not recognizing that America's most popular sport is in deep turmoil while also endangering all other sports at collegiate institutions, and new laws or exceptions need to be written for a very unique sport and situation. This can't be a state matter either because no state will want to intentionally put their flagship institution's football program (major fundraiser) at a disadvantage relative to their peers.

Greed has a bit to do with it as well but most of it can be chalked up to the incentives above IMO, so that's why we need the federal government to step in here and start doing what's best for CFB as a whole again, because no-one else has any reason to do so, whether that's the schools, conferences, state governments, or TV networks. The NCAA has tried, but they're now completely neutered and toothless because of how the current laws in this country are written.

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Does this board have an admin? Kinda shocked a thread as dumb as this is still live

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They entered the transfer portal last April