re: Curt Cignetti: “College football won’t exist the way we’re going right now…”

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Roll tide,
What you’re saying then is that coaches have no back bone. They whine to the media and complain about the system then instead of fixing the system they go out and use the system.

There are a lot of schools over the decades that did stood on principal and were willing take losses for what they believed in. My team left the SEC because of principal to the misuse of scholarships and players. A lot of teams didn’t take part in the bagman system and a lot of losses stacked up and a lot of coaches were fired - but they stood on principal.

The coaches could stop the portal nonsense immediately if they simply stopped taking in transfers. But they whine about it while doing it.

All I’m saying is the system is working so hearing these multi millionaires complain just makes me laugh. Every team will field 11 players and fans will pack the stands. I totally understand certain fanbases hate that their team is no longer as strong but for every fan who hates it there is a fan of a school that loves it. Did you not see Indiana fans take over Mercedes Benz stadium when 3 years ago they could barely get 25K to their own stadium.

That is an awesome sports story. Just because it didn’t involve a blueblood doesn’t make it any less real. This coming season is going to be awesome because none of us have any clue who the top teams truly are, Sure, we can look at rosters and rank teams but the reality is no one said a word about Miami until they ran thru SEC teams with ease. I expect another “MiamiL tyoe this year but I have no clue who it will be and that is fun.

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Coaches whining while participating isn't "no backbone," it's a prisoner's dilemma. If your conference rivals are loading up on $1M+ portal transfers and big NIL, opting out means you get crushed, lose your job, and your program falls behind. A few principled holdouts in the old bagman era is one thing. Doing it now, when it's legal, open, and scaled to $20-50 million roster valuations at the top, is career suicide for most. Just look at Dabo Sweeney and how his principled stand against the transfer portal and NIL turned out for him.

Your team leaving the SEC over principles is respectable, but most schools don't have that luxury when TV money, boosters, and fan expectations demand winning now. The portal could theoretically stop if everyone refused transfers but good luck getting 100+ programs to coordinate that when fans and admins reward the winners.

The system "works" in that games get played and some fans (like Indiana's this year with Cuban money) get awesome Cinderella runs. That's cool. But it also means massive roster churn every year, less player development, weaker team continuity/chemistry, and non-revenue sports getting cut or squeezed because dollars flow to football/basketball payroll.

Unpredictability is fun...until your program becomes a perpetual farm team for the highest bidders, or traditions erode because loyalty is gone on both sides. You root purely for the jersey and see it as pure transaction, fair enough. A lot of us preferred when it felt like more than annual free agency with student-athletes. Some bluebloods are mad they're not dominant, sure. But plenty of neutral fans see real downsides in the chaos.

Cool story for Indiana. The question is whether the sport is healthier overall long-term.

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people keep saying this and yet there has never been more money, more national attention, or excitement

It's literally the 2nd most popular sport in this country now. That wasn't the case not all too long ago

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Popularity and revenue were already rising before the full Wild West NIL/portal era thanks to the playoff, streaming, and better marketing. The current model adds chaos: massive annual roster turnover, bidding wars that favor the richest collectives, mid-majors getting stripped for parts, and non-revenue sports feeling the budget squeeze.

Coaches and admins are continually warning about sustainability, booster fatigue is already a thing, legal fights continue, and the product risks feeling more like minor-league free agency than college ball with real continuity and development. Exciting now? Absolutely for some fans. But if traditions erode, loyalty vanishes, and a few super-rich programs hoard talent while others struggle, that excitement could fade into cynicism over time.

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people will keep saying this in 2040 and acting like its totally about to happen

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I doubt that as I'm certain the problems currently plaguing CFB will be solved by 2040.

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I hope so since there are only really like 2 major issues to solve that can be done rather quickly

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Yep. The strict regulation of NIL and the elimination of the transfer portal.

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I call BS that the ratings are due to gambling.

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Well, you’re an idiot if you can’t concede that gambling plays a big part in the ratings. I mean, why else would all these sports leagues—where gambling on the sport calls for a lifetime ban—partner with all these online gambling companies?

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My team has sucked for a decade because we weren’t playing the bagman game and made a horrible coaching hire. This past season we had more butts in the stands than the past decade and our TV numbers were very high because we were a solid team and played a good schedule that people watched. Those fans weren’t there because of gambling but because they were thirsty for wins. The same can be said for a lot of schools. NIL has allowed more than 15 teams to believe they can win.

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You are talking about interest—measured in attendance and viewership—going up by fans of a particular school. Of course that’s going to go up the better the team is and the better their chance is of making the playoffs. That’s the biggest—maybe the only—good thing to come out of the expanded playoffs. I’ve got no problem with that.

But the flip side, is that people like me—who have carved out most of their fall Saturdays to watch college football all day—will continue to watch our own teams every week, but have no real reason to watch a lot of September and October games that don’t involve the schools we pull for. Or at least not as long or not as intensely.

UT and Ohio State play the 2nd week of the season, right? 5 years ago, as long as LSU wasn’t on at the same time, I would have been glued to that game for all 4 quarters. This year? I’ll probably be at a ballpark most of the day. Just tell me who wins and I’ll watch when they play again in playoffs when it actually counts. The regular season still matters—but only cumulatively. Individual games don’t really matter much except to the fans of the teams themselves. There is a direct correlation between how many regular season losses playoff teams can have and the interest (or non interest) in those individuals regular season games.

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The strict regulation of NIL and the elimination of the transfer portal.

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Bingo. IMO, go to what NIL was supposed to be: if an athlete wanted to make money doing promotions, names on jersey etc no problem at all. Just eliminate all University & Booster related involvement. Agents highly regulated - agents can't recruit but athletes can reach out -and cap their cut at 2%.

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College football won’t exist the way we’re going right now…”

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i am perfectly content with this

blow all of college athletics up

He has utilized the 1 year, no sitting down transfer portal more than any other coach.

This is really silly coming from him.

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