Collegefootballfan.com has made its move to Tennessee. Despite packing, hauling, driving, unpacking, flying back, and doing it all again to what so far seems to be a great move, we now begin to set our sights on the up-and-coming college football season. Check out this year’s schedule. Once again, like every year, we look forward to planning, to the travels, to the tailgating, to the traditions, to meeting with fellow fans, and finally after a season of limited games, to a full schedule! However, a few college football rule changes in 2021 have us concerned.
With our relocation to Tennessee, we’ve slated seven new venues to attend and five new teams, all FCS, on our slate. We still have our traditional sites like Annapolis, Maryland and State College, Pennsylvania, ticketed along with our regular season finale at the Army-Navy game. We even have bowl venues set prior to the season based on our proximity within the Volunteer State. As usual, we have our mix of preseason Top 25 teams (four) and Bottom 25 teams (two) with the majority ranked somewhere amid the remaining 80 teams. However, all our match-ups look pretty even to allow us to see potentially, good, competitive games. Intentionally, this last point is what helps CFF.com “cope’ with all the pending changes we question that can impact the competitive nature of college football in the long term. Basically traditionalists, but understanding reasons for some changes, but not all, we’re not sure where our beloved game of college football is headed, and it’s got us worried.
Because we’ve moved to the Nashville area, don’t think we’re going to many Vanderbilt games. We can see some of the SEC’s best, but we don’t want to sit through non-competitive games. We’ll give new HC Clark Lea a few years to steer the Commodores in a better direction.
There is no “I” in team, but there is in “NIL”.
This “Name, Image, and Likeness” rule raises our biggest concern. Like fantasy football focus, it takes away the aura of the ultimate “team” sport, and it changes it into games played by individuals primarily for their own benefit and profit, more now than ever. Now young athletes will be selling their likenesses and personalities for financial gain. Of course, winning was the ultimate goal, but already in an unbalanced recruiting process, the NIL provides more advantages to the “brand” names of college football.
We’ve already heard that the “branding” issue already emphasized by Alabama HC Nick Saban implied how the advantage of his Alabama “brand” inspires more talent like that of QB Bryce Young to “matriculate” at Alabama. He’s already getting a million bucks for the privilege of becoming the next starting QB for The Tide. It’s all about potential. Last season, he completed 13 of 22 passes for 156 yards and one TD. What high school QB is the next incumbent Alabama millionaire?
Who masters the media and adapts better to college football rule changes better than anybody else? This guy.
Who needs athletic scholarships anymore?
It’s not about “scholar-athletes” any more. Who needs a scholarship? Sponsors are going to pave the way for recruits to attend the college of their choice in the future. Not that it wasn’t under the table in the past, but now it’s all above board. It’s not somebody with a wad of cash, now it’s a corporation with a contract. Will these scholar-athletes even have to go to class? The NFL is the big winner once again – they spend no money on the development of pro football talent. A lot of other people are doing it for them.
One-time portals?
Also, this new portal rule is a farce. We agree transferring should still be an option to spread talent when certain programs horde the best talent that keeps players off other teams on their bench to prevent them from playing elsewhere. Look at former LSU QB Joe Burrow as your prime example after he sat stifled at Ohio State. The NCAA rules now that a player can transfer just once, play elsewhere immediately, and lose no playing time or eligibility. Sounds ok. However, a player can do it again if things don’t work out or do work out after the initial move.
Think about the latter. A waiver can be granted to a player to move on the first time. So, a player sits on the bench for School A, transfers to School B, leads team B to glory, gains significant NIL recognition for his exploits, and all of a sudden a “sponsor” makes an offer to attract him to school C. Is that an acceptable reason to grant him a waiver? Who will even know such an offer was made? By the way, is he still passing in his school work? If the current school flunks him, does he have to stay in school to make up grades so he cannot transfer? Does anybody really care what his grades are? Will the NFL draft him so he can make a lot of money despite not continuing to play in college? Everyone knows the answer to that one.
Joe Burrow proved his worthiness to transfer from Ohio State to lead LSU to the national championship
as we saw him fire the Tigers past Oklahoma in the CFP Peach Bowl in 2019, 63-28.
SEC! SEC! SEC!
Texas and Oklahoma clamor to join the SEC who will receive an even more lucrative television contract when they both get approved. Why don’t all schools just leave the NCAA and join the SEC? This is getting boring. There are currently 130 Football Bowl Subdivision schools playing football consisting of the “Power conferences” and “The Group of Five”. Take the Top 64 teams (include Notre Dame, of course) with the most football financial acumen and put together four divisions of sixteen teams each. Pull out some of the weaker teams in this first group (i.e., Vanderbilt, Kansas, and Rutgers) and replace them with others from the Five (i.e., Cincinnati, Central Florida, and BYU for example). Allow FCS schools who want to measure up to FBS status to join the second group of teams. Don’t play across these two new divisions to avoid diluting schedules outside the designated divisions, set up playoffs within the two groups (at least eight teams in each instead of the paltry number of four), and play for separate championships as the FBS and FCS do today. Call them FBS-I and FBS II. Other teams in both go on to play in Bowl Games (or consolation games as we think how most should now be referred to).
Though we mention eradicating the Rutgers Scarlet Knights from future “Power” conferences, what program has a bigger market to exploit the new NIL rule with? On the other hand, where is there more NIL market competition than the NY-NJ metropolitan media market?
Football 101-104
Of course, with the NIL, portals, loose transfer rules, sponsor money, and other such changes without any controls, the “Power” teams will start recruiting from the “Group” schools. Whoever’s in charge (Congress? LOL!) can limit contacts to make changes before the official spring practices season begins, whenever that is. And if it interferes with class time, nobody cares, right? We’ve mentioned it before and we will do it here again. Professional Football and Professional Basketball are big businesses right now (Major League Baseball could eventually fit into this mix when they follow these player development strategies eventually). These Institutions of Higher Learning should add Football and Basketball studies, per se, as part of their course curriculum. There is a job market they supply the talent for already, correct? The small percentage of athletes who make it to the next level, make it to the top of their intended profession. All of those who don’t will have to rely on whatever minor studies they chose to fend for their employment elsewhere. Maybe the NFL could throw some funds into this – ha!
How Collegefootballfan.com will approach the 2021 season
Until anybody figures out how this should all work out, we all already know the five or six teams who are going to play for the four spots in the College Football Playoff in 2021. No surprises there, so for what it is worth, we’re going to attend at least another 20 college football games this season. What we are going to do is continue what we’ve always done for the past 42 years. We will attend various games at different venues with friend old and new to enjoy the aura, the spectacle, the atmosphere, the excitement, and the traditions of seeing two college football teams clash on the gridiron to play hard, and may the best team win on the final play of whatever game we are at. Afterward, we’ll tailgate some more, travel back to our new home or wherever, and write about the overall great experience. This is why we can’t wait!
In 2021, we will attend our 8th straight Army-Navy game which will be played in The Meadowlands of Jersey this year. Is there any chance a Cadet or Midshipman now has a chance to make more money than the Commander-in-Chief of the United States? The answer is “no” as per military agreements students of the academies adhere to.
