re: College football is so broken

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TechDawg2007

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you baws wanted this and created this. I'm just laughing in the background at you all. LSU needs to get more NFL players. You all deserve this and much wores.

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I knew this would happen when people wanted a playoff and pay players.

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Anyone with sense and didn’t wanted to virtue signal knew it would.

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I’ve always said coaches should have a salary cap

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While I think Saban was worth every penny and maybe was even underpaid for the value he brought to the University of Alabama, I think the skyrocketing salaries and absurd buyouts played a big role in ushering in this new era. Most reasonable people could seperate why a coach could earn money but a student couldn’t, the optics of coaches making 8 figures while players didn’t made it a tough defense.

For me my favorite "era" was probably 1996 - 2012. A lot of great games and great rivalries. College football wasn't dominated by 4 or 5 super teams. Some really crazy seasons and crazy upsets as well.

It was also right before the era when the SEC and Big Ten started adding more members and really starting the process of eliminating conferences. During the early part of this era still had a legitimate Big East, a legitimate Big 12 and an in tact ACC and Pac-12. Now the Big East is gone, the Pac-12 for all intensive purposes is gone (I don't recognize this new pitiful Pac-12) and the ACC will be on life support in a few years.

Even though it was far from pure back then, college football still felt pure then. And players were still fairly loyal to their school. It's not the collection of mercenaries we see now.

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The current ratings are testament to just what an amazing product CFBs been over the last 3+ decades. People like us grew up in the 80s/90s watching as kids…. Then went to these colleges in 2000s at the game’s peak. We will watch regardless.

What’s happening now will affect fan/alumni engagement down the road… the kids today won’t love it the way we did. They’ll have zero connection to any players, and the regionality is gone.

If things keep going the way they are now, in 20 yrs CFB will be close to minor league baseball than the game we grew up loving.

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Well said.

The model that made CFB the greatest sport on earth is gone. It remains to be seen if this new version is sustainable.

Previously, there was a continuum between school-players-team. That's almost all gone. IDK if this year's players are next year's friends or foes. And neither do they.

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The great thing about the pre-playoff era was it wasn’t all about the Natty. That was obviously big but a team could win 10 games, beat their rivals, win a bowl game, and feel really good about their season.

The sport was defined by the regular season and that is what made it different than every other sport. Sure, the post season and title claim was messy but that was part of what made the sport fun.

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All I can add to this excellent post is CFB also included tradition and rivalries. So many rivalries are all but extinct.