Opt outs and the portal killing Bowl games

[ProudUte]

Even Georgia’s Kirby Smart who won 63-3 says that opt-outs are terrible for college football. I think that there should be 16 teams invited to the College Football Championship. There should be no other bowl games played. Bowl games have become a total joke. I hate the opt-outs and portal. Bowl games were fun until all this crap started to happen.

“People need to see what happened tonight, and they need to fix this,” he said. “It needs to be fixed. It’s very unfortunate that they, who have a good football team, are in the position they’re in. Everybody can say it’s their fault. Everybody can say that we had our guys and they didn’t have their guys. I can listen to all that. But college football has got to decide what they want.

“It’s really unfortunate for those kids on that side of the sideline that had to play in that game that didn’t have their full arsenal. And it affected the game, 100%.”

[Central Coast Ute]

The only way I can see to fix it at this point is to remove the “amateur” label from the athletes and make them sign legally binding contracts. If they opt out, they don’t get paid.

[homer]

Companies, in coordination with orgs like CC Collective, pay student athletes fortune of their names, images, and likenesses.

They are not paying players to play.

All the changes might benefit some student athletes, but as more fans become disenfranchised, the current system will kill the geese that lay golden eggs.

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been attending FB games since Bill Meek was Utah’s HFBC. When there was a track around the perimeter and the student section was a quarter of the existing stands, extending to the 50 yd line.

I’ve been a CC member for a looong time. I’ve about had it with how TV $$ has ruined a game I love watching.

It’s only a matter of time before a lot of season ticket holders quit buying tickets. Attendance is already declining at most CFB schools.

Fall is prime time for a lot of great outdoor activities. It won’t be hard for me to transition from watching football to spending more time floating streams casting to hungry trout.

[Central Coast Ute]

Right. Make them employees, they have to sign a contract to play, and they can’t opt out or transfer. They can, however, be cut or traded.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

I couldn’t agree more Homer. I’ve had season tickets in football and basketball since the early 70’s. I lost interest in basketball long ago after Majerus sabotaged the program with bad recruiting before he left. The basketball program has never recovered with bad coaching choices and mediocre teams.

Transfer portal NIL and not knowing who is playing each week ( top secret information) has left a sour taste in my mouth.
Colleges are institutions not franchises. Football is a small part of the institution. If you want to pay players and coaches big money make college football a franchise separate from the institution. Then negotiate salary caps and rules to make it like minor league baseball and basketball. We could be the Utzz like the Buzz and the Starzz. (Sorry couldn’t resist)

[The Miami Ute]

One thing you could do is license the universities’ names and likenesses but have the football teams be professional in all respects. That means that none of the players would be students at all but professionals working for a shot in the NFL. And it’s the NFL who would have to fund this business venture, not the taxpayers or the universities. Doing that would put an end to the portal and NIL since all players would be contractually bound to their teams.

You could still have club football teams composed of students actually going to the schools for the purpose of actually getting a degree, you know, how it was at the beginning,

[Utah]

There is such an easy way to fix this:

Negotiate with the players. Unionize them, set a salary cap, set minimum/maximum salaries, and do this right. College football is nothing more than admins and coaches trying to suck every last penny out of the athletes before it falls apart. Capitalism, yay!

[The Miami Ute]

I have a better solution. How about we get universities out of the entertainment business and let the NFL deal with all the hassle and cost of developing their future players? That scenario you’re suggesting is jumping the shark in a big way and definitely not something that the vast majority of universities would even contemplate.

[RUUTES]

Killing? Killed. I don’t know if it can be resurrected but it’s clearly dead at the moment. A couple of good games cannot and should not revive it. The entire sport has lost credibility for players and fans. Major changes have to happen for it to have any meaning. Or it needs to disconnect from Universities and just become a AAA Team for the NFL…let them pay for the stadiums and travel etc. But it’s out of control and unless something radical happens it shouldn’t be a part of the University budget.

[highlandute7]

Lane Kiffin essentially said the same thing; that you can’t allow players to leave during this time of bowl season. He said this is still part of of their season.

Sorry – don’t have a link but saw it on IG.

[The Miami Ute]

Everything has an expiration date. I firmly believe that non-CFP bowl games are about to reach theirs. I mean, they’re no longer even at the level of NFL exhibition games. With the NFL games, at least you have guys busting their collective asses trying to stick with a club.

I’d be really interested in seeing what the ratings are for most bowl games. Probably close to the entertainment level of each game. My big takeaway is that now that we have a legitimate CFP, i see zero need for meaningless exhibition games. I hope universities take note and do the right thing on this issue.

[Charlie]

College FB does not need the long break before bowl season. Need to get into it quicker and finish in time for transfers to complete the entire season, process their changes, and get enrolled in January at the new school. May need to start earlier in August like HS. Players and schools should be penalized for contacts during the season. NIL providers need to be smart enough to require players to stay to the finish. The NFL should be willing to help because of how much they benefit by becoming vocal about the importance of college players completing their season. The value proposition for a college player that leaves before the bowl game should be like the trade value of a NFL player that quits their team late in the season because their team is not going to make the playoffs. The football industry needs to work together or watch it diminish.

[Utah#1]

Pure and simple, college football is corrupt, money hungry, and greedy has hell. Take the power away from the media and shut their money making machine down. This is where the fed goverment would come in and do their job to regulate all this and IMO, transfer portal and NIL wouldn’t exist. Student athletes would choose their school based on their interests, committment and finish out the college academic at that school, not money or transfer portal opportunities. Unfortunately, the feds are corrupt as hell and only regulating their pockets with taxpayer money.

[CityCreekUte]

I think it’s less corrupt now then it was when bowl games were the thing. It wasn’t much different than the Olympic committees when the idiots with their themed coats and fruit baskets would come to see if they were going to invite you *wink wink*

Now it’s just purely about the money. And TV is the money. Season ticket holders meh. Student sections ho-hum. TV only cares about them as props.

[UTE98]

I’ve been thinking this all December. I watched one half of a bowl game. The first half of the Utah game. Had a family activity planned in the second half and made the right decision.

With the portal and NLI, bowl games are meaningless. I mean much more meaningless than before.

I’m interested to see what happens next year with a 12 team playoff. But it could be disastrous.

Will the bottom 4-6 teams have players opting out due to the portal, NLI, or NFL? I think so, and that will only strengthen the argument of the Big 10 and SEC others should be excluded.

[The Miami Ute]

That’s why I said I’d be interested in seeing the rating numbers. They have to be abysmal. The only bowl games I watched so far were the last few minutes of the Rose Bowl and the Sugar Bowl. I went to the Las Vegas Bowl and would have watched it because it’s Utah. I have a deep suspicion that things are going to get much worse for the ratings of bowl games once the playoffs are actually instituted and predict that they’ll eventually get phased out when ESPN realizes that no one’s watching and advertisers will only pay cents on the dollar to sell their products during actual broadcasts.

[Stone]

I echo the frustration felt by many on here.
There are some that think the expanded playoffs will help the situation, but IMO it is only a matter of time before star players opt out of the CFB playoffs the same way they opt out of bowl games.

What does a star player get out of a playoff game appearance? There is no extra money, only extra injury risk. Why risk that when you have a shot at big NFL money? It is only pressure from teammates that likely keeps those stars playing in playoff games.

NIL money is not tied to performance or playing (although, there may be some contracts that have that clause). Unless the players become actual employees and have money on the line, I see no reason why the playoffs will save CFB.