re: FBS HCs just voted unanimously to go from 4 to 9 games for a redshirt year

Blow it all up

Time to make athletes employees and change “scholarships” to contracts

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Not even exaggerating, I would take a new non-LSU monolithic dynasty….heck, or even the revival of an old one, if we could simply go back to college football being college football.

For me that’s an easy call everyday and twice on Sunday. Parity is overrated. Yeah maybe I hated Bama but at least I could also respect what they were because getting there amounted to way more than throwing money at kids.

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I agree, but pandora's box has been opened at this point. There's no going back on paying the kids..but there absolutely has to be guardrails.

I think the only model that works, given the amount of teams in college football and the vast discrepancies in income for each school (club) is the European soccer model.

Johnny halfback signs a 3 year contract with Georgia Tech out of high school. After his sophomore season, he decides he wants to go play at Tennessee. Georgia Tech has put a 4 million dollar price tag on Johnny's head. Tennessee must pay Georgia Tech 4 million dollars as a transfer fee, and then whatever wages Johnny's agent has negotiated with Tennessee.

If Tennessee and Johnny can't come to terms (this typically happens before the transfer in soccer) or if Tennessee and Georgia Tech can't come to terms, then Johnny is just stuck at Georgia Tech, unless another school meets his valuation and he agrees to go there.

If Tennessee pays the price, now Georgia Tech has 4 million dollars to reinvest wherever they see fit. Johnny can also run down his contract, and freely leave Georgia Tech after his junior year to wherever he chooses. A player could also have a release clause in his contract. This would likely be standard practice for a kid like Keisean Henderson. A highly rated prospect that's signing with a school like Houston might sign under the pretense of "If Ohio State wants to sign in my junior year, they can trigger my release clause of 3 million dollars." The player still has to agree to the move, but this eliminates universities haggling over a transfer fee or overpricing a transfer fee.

That is what this sport needs if we're going to have pay for play. A paid athlete shouldn't be able to just jump teams on a whim. It doesn't happen in any other sport. They have agents, they're being paid, they need to be under contracts.

This protects the schools and allows coaches to recruit and develop kids to their scheme without being hung out to dry at the 11th hour

You would obviously have to tweak to an extent and couldn't just adopt the full model. I think there would have to be caps on transfer fees to just prevent a school from saying this kid will cost 100 million dollars. Maybe QBs have a 4 million dollar cap. Tackles and edge rushers have a 3.5 million dollar cap, etc.

I think the redshirt thing should be number of plays not number of games. 175 plays per game on average total. Say 70-80 per side of the field per game. Give a kid 100 plays for a redshirt season. Could be mop up duty at the end of a game or a few meaningful snaps during the game for important live fire experience.

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I think the only model that works, given the amount of teams in college football and the vast discrepancies in income for each school (club) is the European soccer model.

Johnny halfback signs a 3 year contract with Georgia Tech out of high school. After his sophomore season, he decides he wants to go play at Tennessee. Georgia Tech has put a 4 million dollar price tag on Johnny's head. Tennessee must pay Georgia Tech 4 million dollars as a transfer fee, and then whatever wages Johnny's agent has negotiated with Tennessee.

If Tennessee and Johnny can't come to terms (this typically happens before the transfer in soccer) or if Tennessee and Georgia Tech can't come to terms, then Johnny is just stuck at Georgia Tech, unless another school meets his valuation and he agrees to go there.

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I like this a lot. It would slow down the transfers by forcing three parties to stack hands vs a kid just unilaterally deciding to dip. And it helps the schools that are just getting used as doormats today.

How do the “losing clubs” in European soccer determine a price? If I’m Tech, every kid on my roster costs $20MM.

Then again, I guess that makes it harder for me to get kids to come to Tech in the first place if I have a reputation for trapping them there, so maybe the market would self-regulate.

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because getting there amounted to way more than throwing money at kids.

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If you actually believe this you are delusional. Alabama was just better at paying players when it was illegal.

You couldn't seriously look at their players cars and believe they werent being paid

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How do the “losing clubs” in European soccer determine a price? If I’m Tech, every kid on my roster costs $20MM

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To an extent, the market determines the price- but this is where shrewd GM's come into play. And again, the player has to agree to the transfer. Tech couldn't just sell their backup QB to Monroe because monroe needs a QB and tech needs money- the player/kid has to agree to it

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Then again, I guess that makes it harder for me to get kids to come to Tech in the first place if I have a reputation for trapping them there, so maybe the market would self-regulate

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You're exactly right. It's what makes a club like Borussia Dortmund attractive to so many super talented young players. They know they will get excellent training, play on a good team, but the club will sell them on to a bigger team when they're ready.

I think in college football, a difference would be that transfer fees would have to be capped. That would be the version of a "salary cap" that still allows somewhat freedom of movement for the player. If they're good enough to transfer they aren't going to be trapped by their current school placing an outrageous tag on their head. But just like in soccer, it doesn't kill you to get rid of a wantaway because you can reinvest that money

You just made my point for me. Those schools could pay while teams like Indiana werent able to pull it off. Its why the SEC had won almost every title before NIL for the 2000s

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what happens then?

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You still be bitching about it and you’ll still be watching.

Give every player 5 years and do away with medical redshirts/juco years not counting against. You get hurt? Tough. 5 years. You had to start at Hutchinson Community College? Tough shite. 5 years.

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. It's what makes a club like Borussia Dortmund attractive to so many super talented young players. They know they will get excellent training, play on a good team, but the club will sell them on to a bigger team when they're ready.

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If I’m Borussia Dortmund, I’m supposed to be Real Madrid’s competition, not selling players to them