A column by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports:

https://sports.yahoo.com/is-next-year-th...58354.html

So NIL is a disaster now? Gee, who could have seen that coming???

Before it was only fair for the poor exploited full scholarship athletes.

(09-14-2023 08:04 AM)Bear Catlett Wrote:  So NIL is a disaster now? Gee, who could have seen that coming???

Before it was only fair for the poor exploited full scholarship athletes.

Read the article.

If you read the article, Wetzel is using the word "disaster" in a tongue in cheek fashion. He is making fun of those that predicted NIL would ruin college football. In fact his argument is the opposite has happened and CFB's popularity has gone up in 2023. The Title of this thread is very misleading.

It will be interesting what happens in 2024 and beyind but I predict in the short term at least TV viewership and attendance will go up. Fans will be excited about new opportunities, with a few exceptions, and other schools left behind will be fired up about their new underdog status and will scramble to catch up.

In the long run, maybe some schools will recognize they don't have the resources to compete in the new NIL world, and decide to scale down their athletic programs. Others will look at ways to scale up they did not have access to before. There are always winners and losers when there are big changes. It's the way of the world. Things do not stand still.

(09-14-2023 08:22 AM)goofus Wrote:  If you read the article, Wetzel is using the word "disaster" in a tongue in cheek fashion. He is making fun of those that predicted NIL would ruin college football. In fact his argument is the opposite has happened and CFB's popularity has gone up in 2023. The Title of this thread is very misleading. ...

A clearer title would be:

Wetzel: Is next year when fans tune out CFB because of the 'disaster' that is NIL? /s

... but I'm not sure whether the title bar likes the "/" character.

I'd prefer to better utilize those five minutes of my life. NIL is a disaster to me.

NIL is lets say chaos right now. Some schools have more than others, but some of the businesses and all that are not really businesses. They are scam programs disguising as a business. Lets say FTX had the name and likeness of the best college athletes to endorse that scam? Those players could face a lawsuit like anybody else who endorsed that company. There needs to be rules in place.

It will be mixed results. Wealthy schools that invest heavily in athletics will embrace NIL further as it continues to evolve. For the rest, it poses challenges. Some will work hard to cope with it. Others, will make the decision to opt out or be highly measured in how deep/extensive into NIL they are willing to undertake.

What will come will be an organized structure to regulate NIL. It’ll take a few years to get any substantive regulations after growing dissatisfaction occurs over extreme applications of NIL at certain institutions, corporate meddling that rises beyond normalcy into sectors of abuse, and players becoming basically hired mercenaries. “NFLing and NBAing Lite” college football and basketball will happen. The bigger challenge is maintaining the identity with academic institutions that retain, at appreciable levels, fan support from students, alumni, the booster class, the immediate community, and the regional/state-wide followers.

I mean people have said similar things about conference realignment,

Is he going to write this article again next year when Texas/Georgia or USC/Michigan does big ratings next season?

(09-14-2023 09:18 AM)OdinFrigg Wrote:  It will be mixed results. Wealthy schools that invest heavily in athletics will embrace NIL further as it continues to evolve. For the rest, it poses challenges. Some will work hard to cope with it. Others, will make the decision to opt out or be highly measured in how deep/extensive into NIL they are willing to undertake.

What will come will be an organized structure to regulate NIL. It’ll take a few years to get any substantive regulations after growing dissatisfaction occurs over extreme applications of NIL at certain institutions, corporate meddling that rises beyond normalcy into sectors of abuse, and players becoming basically hired mercenaries. “NFLing and NBAing Lite” college football and basketball will happen. The bigger challenge is maintaining the identity with academic institutions that retain, at appreciable levels, fan support from students, alumni, the booster class, the immediate community, and the regional/state-wide followers.

I don't see much regulation. The courts ruled strongly that colleges couldn't control what players did on that. I don't believe in players being paid, but I whole-heartedly agree with that ruling. Players should be allowed to do the same things as non-athletes. And I knew it would be a little Wild West. I just had no idea how much money would be there. There are a number of players making over a million a year.
But I don't see any way legally it can be controlled without violating the court's ruling. There can always be informal deals that can't be proven.

I do have friends/family who were former CFB fans who have pretty much tuned it out. It's been the cumulative effect of it just becoming bigger and bigger business (NFL Lite), coaches/players just chasing the money with little care for the school they represent, very little loyalty in any direction, etc. You root for a guy one year and then the next year he's on the opposite sideline. How much impact that will have on viewership in the coming years....I have no idea. I often hold my nose with the sport and treat it as pure entertainment. It's not a big focus of our family and it's more like watching a TV show we like.

I love how Wetzel spends most of the article poking fun at the establishment for fear mongering, then does a bit of his own with this nugget:

Actually, the biggest threat to the tradition of the sport is conference realignment. Athletic directors and commissioners — who secretly tamper with and then transfer entire athletic departments in pursuit of more money — can’t blame that on the players.

My prediction: realignment is no more of a threat to CFB than NIL or the transfer portal. In a very real sense, it's promotion/relegation in action, only with a whole lot more than a 1 year promotion or relegation at stake. It gives borderline schools an even greater incentive to get serious about athletics, thus injecting energy and enthusiasm into previously moribund programs. Does anybody think that WF, BC and Syracuse are just sitting back and counting their ACC dollars today? What about any former Pac schools? EVERYBODY knows what's going on now, it's a more-level playing field than perhaps ever before, and enthusiasm is at or near an all-time high. Even the crazy dominance of the SEC has helped the sport indirectly by pushing other schools in other Conferences to push even harder to overcome the giants from the SEC.

No. People will not tune out.

(09-14-2023 10:37 AM)GarnetAndBlue Wrote:  I do have friends/family who were former CFB fans who have pretty much tuned it out. It's been the cumulative effect of it just becoming bigger and bigger business (NFL Lite), coaches/players just chasing the money with little care for the school they represent, very little loyalty in any direction, etc. You root for a guy one year and then the next year he's on the opposite sideline. How much impact that will have on viewership in the coming years....I have no idea. I often hold my nose with the sport and treat it as pure entertainment. It's not a big focus of our family and it's more like watching a TV show we like.

Ratings are better than ever and with the playoff expanding its going to get better.

I'm not a fan of NIL, realignment or the transfer portal. However, I think we should let it run its course and make any adjustments in a few years if need be.

A true test would be adding up the ratings of all the FBS teams' games and seeing if that number goes up, instead of just looking at a few of the schools that benefit the most from NIL, conference realignment, and the general disparity in college football.

If people from non-P5 programs (or low-level P5 programs) find themselves too sidelined, you will see the ratings eventually drop, because those people will no longer be watching the P5 games. That won't happen until everything shakes out and people see what the new normal is.

(09-14-2023 10:59 AM)bryanw1995 Wrote:  I love how Wetzel spends most of the article poking fun at the establishment for fear mongering, then does a bit of his own with this nugget:

Actually, the biggest threat to the tradition of the sport is conference realignment. Athletic directors and commissioners — who secretly tamper with and then transfer entire athletic departments in pursuit of more money — can’t blame that on the players.

My prediction: realignment is no more of a threat to CFB than NIL or the transfer portal. In a very real sense, it's promotion/relegation in action, only with a whole lot more than a 1 year promotion or relegation at stake. It gives borderline schools an even greater incentive to get serious about athletics, thus injecting energy and enthusiasm into previously moribund programs. Does anybody think that WF, BC and Syracuse are just sitting back and counting their ACC dollars today? What about any former Pac schools? EVERYBODY knows what's going on now, it's a more-level playing field than perhaps ever before, and enthusiasm is at or near an all-time high. Even the crazy dominance of the SEC has helped the sport indirectly by pushing other schools in other Conferences to push even harder to overcome the giants from the SEC.

The locales of schools will impact the NIL level of appeal. Local/regional businesses may feature some nearby athletes that are better known to the general area, but are less known nationally. Some schools close to or in urban areas may embrace such an option. An example may be a restaurant chain that only has franchises in that region.

(09-14-2023 08:22 AM)goofus Wrote:  If you read the article, Wetzel is using the word "disaster" in a tongue in cheek fashion. He is making fun of those that predicted NIL would ruin college football. In fact his argument is the opposite has happened and CFB's popularity has gone up in 2023. The Title of this thread is very misleading. ...

'Irony'

NIL has made CFB more interesting, IMO.
If anything has damaged the sport, it's realignment.

NIL is just helping to speed up consolidation. The past attempts at calculating fan base sizes have shown how top heavy the numbers were for top schools even before NIL so there wasn't going to be that much of a loss of fans due to NIL. And the "NFL-lite" concerns are a waste of time. College football has generated too much money for awhile now to think a scholarship alone is adequate payment.