2014 College Football Thread: The Will Muschamp Memorial

[Bregor]

Didn't want to make a "The NCAA's slow crawl to death" thread but maybe it would be more appropriate..

The NCAA Division I board of directors on Thursday voted to allow the 65 schools in the top five conferences to write many of their own rules. The autonomy measures -- which the power conferences had all but demanded -- will permit those leagues to decide on things such as cost-of-attendance stipends and insurance benefits for players, staff sizes, recruiting rules and mandatory hours spent on individual sports.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...er-conferences

"Slow crawl to death" is probably a good way to describe the NCAA. I'm not going to get into the Northwestern program's brand new union, the utter fallacy of the "student-athlete", or the billions of dollars skimmed off the top by NCAA and conference officials. I'm going to talk about something that will never happen and is probably insane, but it makes sense to me.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, baseball began America's love affair with team sports. Ball clubs popped up in every corner of America, and many of them still exist or evolved into today's major and minor league clubs. Just take a gander here and check out just how many leagues and clubs played professional baseball in our nation's history.

Why am I talking about baseball in the CFB thread? The sheer size of the NFL's popularity today is staggering. Even from February through August, the amount of coverage the NFL gets on ESPN and other leading sports channels and web sites barely dips at all. Couple that with the college game's coverage, and it's pretty obvious to me that there are two sports in the US—football and other.

For quite a while, college football has been the de facto minor league for the NFL. But why? Lesser leagues like Arena Football have found a sustainable professional model. And there's clearly enough demand that fans would watch games during the off-season. So here is what I am proposing; NFL-sponsored minor league football, using elements from baseball's minor league system, the NBA's D-League, and European soccer academies. If the NFL created two or three regional leagues for 18- to 22-year-old players, and teams in those leagues had a direct affiliation with NFL franchises, I guarantee you every single fan of those NFL teams would watch their minor league club in the off-season. A Florida league, a southern California league, or a south Texas league that runs from February through April? Atlantic, Pacific Northwest, or Midwest leagues from May through July? It would be hugely successful. Players could make a decent salary. And it all falls under the umbrella of the NFL. It's a goldmine.

Of course, I'm not the NFL commissioner, nor am I an independently wealthy investor, so I can't make this happen. But it should. I am going to watch college football this season, and I'm going to enjoy it. But more and more every season I'm thinking about these recruits and players busting their asses playing high-level football and surviving off of $500 every few weeks from boosters who not-so-secretly pay them for food, off-campus housing, and from the looks of it, tattoos. And then I look at Mark Emmert and his brothers in plantation ownership, sitting back and making millions while they oversee the hard work of hundreds if not thousands of others. And it makes me sad.

ANYWAY here's the preseason USA Today/Coaches Poll:

[Serra]

I was quoted in making the new thread, hooray!

I shall celebrate with another step towards the grave:

In a landmark decision, a federal judge ruled Friday that the NCAA is in violation of the nation's antitrust laws by restricting the compensation that major college football and men's basketball student-athletes can receive for use of their names, images and likenesses.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/st...antitrust-case

[Plow]

Cannot happen, college football would not be remotely near what it is without the college part.

[Anoat]

Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier each get 1 vote in that poll. Ohio State and South Carolina have one vote each. GO GATA

[Bregor]

Cannot happen, college football would not be remotely near what it is without the college part.

No reason to abolish college football. Just take the kids who have no business being in college and won't get any sort of usable education and let them make some money and play against competition their own age/skill level.

[Krandor]

It's a nice thought but the amount of money floating around in just the SEC alone means it would never happen.

[Cail]

tl'dr

[Mertron]

TRISTATE CLUB FOOTBALL TEAM doesn't have the same ring to it as RUTGERS

also, RUTGERS!

B1G!

[Arvin]

cant w8 for spartandawgs to rape oregon and jump up to the top

[Headspace]

GO GATA

.

[Furionstormrage]

Why do I keep buying season tickets...

[Anoat]

I broke down and bought last year's version of NCAA Football since there won't be anymore versions made. Woe is me to paying $30 for a year old EA Sports game.

[Headspace]

I broke down and bought last year's version of NCAA Football since there won't be anymore versions made. Woe is me to paying $30 for a year old EA Sports game.

Shit was $15 on Black Friday last year.

Woe is you indeed.

[Serra]

It's a nice thought but the amount of money floating around in just the SEC alone means it would never happen.

Yeah, I think college football is too entrenched to allow something so competitive to occur. The NFL would have to actively try to screw over college football and take a hit to create something like this. Long run, I can see it being hugely profitable for them, but in the short term, it seems hugely risky and costly.

[Plow]

It would never be even the tiniest bit remotely close to as profitable as college football.

Never.

Ever.

[Furionstormrage]

Let's not forget the fact that colleges aren't going to sit around and watch a league take away their players and the millions upon millions of dollars college football brings into the school.

[Plow]

Just...

You'd be replacing college football with minor league baseball.

It's not even a remotely realistic prospect in any way. Colleges will be paying soon enough anyway.


Ask the NBA how profitable trying to establish a minor league in a major college sport is btw.

[Mertron]

Ask the NBA how profitable trying to establish a minor league in a major college sport is btw.

don't talk about the wnba like that

[Bregor]

http://cdn3.vox-cdn.com/assets/4719384/richt.gif

[Chrius]

Kind of surprised TCU got the votes it did, I will not be surprised by any record by end of season