re: Kirk Herbstreit worried for college football: "What the hell is happening to our sport?"

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Next we will see the implementation of “load management”

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What do you think quitting in the middle of the season and skipping bowl games are?

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not just college football, it is the sports culture we've created. You either win it all or you suck that is the mentality. in fact now, it is not just win it all, it is win it all IMMEDIATELY or you suck.

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It’s not a popular thought on the MSB but that’s why I started enjoying having access to more soccer matches through streaming. Found it pretty cool how so many of the smaller clubs would be packed at near capacity every week with passionate fans.

They knew they aren’t going to win shite in the grand scheme of things but were there to hopefully win THAT day. Enjoyed the sport for the sport and had great passion for their club regardless of how big it was.

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The so called "problem" is the solution. There needs to be a reset and return to true amateurism.

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This, and what the players don't realize is that most big time fanbases would still pack stadiums, tailgate, and do all of the other stuff around the game even if their teams looked like D3 teams. To college football fans, the name on the front of the jersey still matters a whole hell of a lot more than the one on the back.

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what the players don't realize is that most big time fanbases would still pack stadiums, tailgate, and do all of the other stuff around the game even if their teams looked like D3 teams

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don’t think this is the case. A lot of college fans would be watching their old high schools if this was what they wanted to see

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"I’m worried about the sport overall," he said. "I’m worried about the focus strictly on the playoff, that if you’re not one of the playoff teams, 'Why does it even matter, who cares?

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I like the playoffs, but a whole lot of people said this would happen when we went to the playoff system. The opt option only made worse.

I was against the playoff to begin with as I thought and still feel like it diminishes everything else, but what is done is done and you can't put the genie back in the bottle, so how do we fix this.

From a logistical side-

Regular season is 10 games again. 8 conference games plus one p5 occ game is required.

Expand the playoffs to 16- the five p5 conference champs plus the a guaranteed minimum of two spots for g5 schools. 9 at large bids. First round, higher seed host. Second round host is any team who didn't host 1st round or higher seed if both favored teams win. Do this on the Saturday before Christmas.

Semi-finals are on jan 1st at rose bowl and sugar bowl Or the better idea is you do second round of 8 on Jan 1st taking back the day to be a mega event with 4 games starting at 10am that morning, essentially immediately following rose bowl parade. Make Jan 1 a fricking spectacular event. A mega event.

Times are ET

1-cotton@ 10
2-orange@ 1:30
3-rose@ 5
4-sugar@ 8

Semi-final is second Saturday in January, finals are played 9 days later on a Monday night. Semi-finals are at the higher seeds home stadium as a reward for the regular season. Finals can be bid out like the superbowl. If you spread it out and play games like below and put finals the weekend before the super owl when NFL is off, it needs to be celebrated like the superbowl. Make a huge event with a huge half time show etc.

Or you spread it out and semi finals are 3rd Saturday in January and finals are week before super bowl. Doubt presidents would go for a season lasting that far into the second semester though.

This fixes many of the issues with the playoff or bust mentality, keeps players more engaged, stops regions of the country having little interest due to not being involved and it stops some of these insane fan expectations.

I mean we have people on this board that believe pj fleck isn't a good coach because he isn't replicating last years 11 win season....at fricking Minnesota. We have people that think Jeff tedford and Mike belloti are bad coaches despite both having the most wins in cal and Oregon history. Its a but did you win a NC mentality with fans, especially those of schools that are in contention that has to go. Its fricking nuts. Many fans on this board have a believe that means only Saban, Meyer and Dabo are successful coaches. Its insane and has to stop, this would be a big step toward that.


To fix the issue of domination by one or two teams....

With the growth of national recruiting and scouting services the best teams are stock piling talent at rates not seen since the bear Bryant days. How do we fix this? Do the same thing they did last time, we lower scholarship numbers. Needs to be lower to atleast 70 but prolly needs to be 60-65.

You can have walk ons and legit academic scholarship players. By legit I mean it should be a national standard that if you meet certain requirements, let's say a 3.5+ GPA and a 27+ act score, you are eligible for a academic scholarship. Notice i said eligible, doesn't mean you auto get one or must take it, but its an option. Let's say you have a 5 star qb in Atlanta with a 4.0 and a 32 act, he can stay in state, take hope scholly us other academic scholarships from the UGA if he wants or he can get all of that plus football scholarship. He would be making money from all this during the year.

Like I said, has to be clear standards that are black and white across the board with no exceptions.

This also makes it more players with a true connection to the university, not just mercenaries.

Signing classes should be a max of 20. No exceptions.

Transfers need to go back to true grad transfer or you must sit out a year. Only exception I would make for this is if a player has a parent deathly ill and they want to move within 75 miles of the parents address. Only exceptions, period. No more bullshite hardships. Want to transfer bust your arse and get the degree.

There has to be some kind of cap on the analysts and behind the scene coaches/trainers etc. Has to have a universal rule or schools like bama will have 50 and schools like lsu will say f that and next thing you know, they have 50 too and the rest of the big 6 follows suite lol. Its already happened and Saban is a fricking genius for the shite, but it needs to be level playing fields across the board. I dont think you can regulate coaching salaries, but you sure as hell can regulate the amount each school is allowed to have on the field, # of analysts, # of strength coaches for each sport, # overall support staff etc.


How to handle the we deserve or they deserve to be paid crowd?

Simple, make the football and basketball players work study programs. Most will say wtf???

Well it allows you to pay them, this needs to be a uniformed amount across the board, period. Also all the benefits they receive become taxable, as you treat each as an independent contractor.

Why do this? Allows you to circumvent title IX requirements number 1. #2 it teaches the kids that the schools are in charge and are the brand, not each kid. But the it also solves the NIL issues. I understand some boosters are going to go crazy with it, but not much you can do and NIL is going to be forced by the government, nothing the schools can really do. But that income is taxable and must be reported.

Bunch of reasons why you should do it as a work study, mainly it stops a lot of the bullshite the players are pulling, allows them to make money and keeps many from bolting. Also shows them how much they are truly making, how much the "swag" is worth, how much the personal training they get is worth, how much the personal nutritionist is worth, etc etc.

Why is that important? Well you already have things like the xfl, and those types of leagues will be trying to become developmental leagues to gain footing. They will offer a hs senior 50-75k to come out and just play football and not "play school". Well now a school can say, ok look at this breakdown of what I will be paying you and allows players to compare it to what other leagues are offering.

In general what a college is providing is going to be more than the xfl, Canadian football league or some similar league can provide.

Also if you treat it as a work study program you can write into the contract that they must provide 3 years of service as an intern in the internship or they will be subject to penalties such as repayment of up to 75% of services rendered. This should be universal and should all be easy for schools to buy off on as it protects them and gives the student athletes what they want, ability to make money.

This also stops the transfers after a year, the quiting aka bullshite "quiting".



Tldr:
Want college football to grow? Well you need more parity and more of the country involved. You accomplish that with the scholarship limits, signing class limits, expanded playoffs, limits on shadow staff etc.

Want kids to be more engaged? besides more parity, you treat football and basketball players as interns on a work study with the rules I put above.

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"I’m worried that we’re raising a generation

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Here is the thing. This issue isnt just a college football issue.

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don’t think this is the case. A lot of college fans would be watching their old high schools if this was what they wanted to see

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I’m going to watch my high school play in the playoffs Friday with like seven friends I graduated with.

Plenty of people I know that graduated from D1 schools with big time programs still keep up with their high school programs.

Is he living in a World of Delusion? He's right. CFB is the minor league for the NFL and, if you aren't one of the four playoff teams, finishing your season is not important, unless you have no chance of getting drafted or signing as an undrafted free agent.

I've gotta shake my head at the level of naivete I see in CFB sometimes.

For the kids who play - it's the NFL minor league. For the kids who don't - it's a social gathering place to see and be seen by the beautiful people.

For the best coaches, it's a chance to earn generational wealth.

All of those old intangible notions of Olde are long, long gone, and they are never coming back.