Lebanon, TN- The hits on college football just keep on coming.  Will the game played for, by and with student-athletes survive?  I mean in popularity among fans?  In the direction the game is heading in, it looks like it will eventually battle the NFL for all the big bucks it currently makes.  I analyzed this possible move in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly.  I envisioned a plan where ten things need to happen for the top 40-48 Football Bowl Subdivision programs to form a professional football league.  However, I didn’t anticipate how quickly this could happen.

 With what’s happened within this past month since Michigan defeated Washington on January 8, unless the seemingly powerless NCAA can institute some strong controls, move over NFL.  As things roll along as they are, maybe the major college football members of the NCAA did have a plan all along.

College football priorities changing with a purpose

For sure, no incentive exists to maintain an organization dedicated to educating student-athletes anymore.  The priority now seems to be to let student-athletes transfer at lightning speed just for the sake of playing the sport at another school.  Non-student athletes can also transfer, but at the speed and with the ease of college football players?  Realize there used to be transcripts, applications to fill, financial reviews and possible interviews for transfers’ acceptances. A decision process used to take some time.  However, once players decide to transfer or even before, it only takes a day or two before these guys know where they’re going.

In Bill Bender’s article in The Sporting News on January 30, 2024’ “Ohio State’s Caleb Downs, Will Howard, Quinshon Judkins talk ‘recruiting on steroids’, title shot,” Downs stated he received 102 phone calls within eight hours from other schools to transfer.  A day or so later, the entire world knew he was leaving Alabama to enroll at Ohio State. That was quick! He knew he already had a scholarship at the next stop before he even got his final grades. 

Do grades even matter anymore?

Believe me, I know in many cases this hasn’t been the priority for student athletes in the past, but with thousands of college football players now entering the portals?  I find it hard to believe that during the holiday break season that many of the people in the admission offices are in the office to review the required documentation.   It’s as if the members of the NCAA, so-called “institutions of higher learning,” are blatantly accepting that grades no longer matter now.  Not all courses can be transferred from one school to another, and only passing grades are accepted. Not that Downs’ grades are public information, but doesn’t this have to be known by the accepting school?  I’m sure these students have become priorities now based on the financial gains ahead for the top FBS college football programs.

New priorities at the collegiate level

That’s because the move is taking place to eradicate the student athletes and make them employees to drive up school revenues where they see easy money from their perspective once again.  We’re seeing them testing this new opportunity in several ways.  A sixth year of football eligibility was bestowed on every player due to Covid in 2020.  Schools found they could afford that.  Now, little by little, some players have attained seven, eight and now even nine years of playing eligibility – even after attaining degrees.  The education is complete.  So how can they and why do schools keep players even longer to play “college football?”

 I’ll show you the money.

Colleges have always been great marketers.  They already convince families to go into high debt to finance their sons’ and daughters’ educations for degrees where they will take years to pay off. Even if the government defers the loans, the colleges will still get the money from the government.  Now, schools take the Name, Image and Likenesses of college football players and sell them out on the open markets through entities called “collectives.” These collectives are not part of the university. Basically, they are third party contractors. Rules and regulations avoiding “pay for play,” not allowed within the NCAA. They only have to be abided by the institutions of higher learning and the “student-athletes” they recruit. 

However, nothing in the NIL regulations say anything about these contracted collectives. This arrangement mitigates any contact between schools and college football recruits to play for the school. In the meantime, schools with major college football programs simultaneously lobby members of state governments to draft laws to protect them from any NCAA violations brought against them should they occur. The governor of Tennessee is fending off the NCAA tenaciously regarding violations brought regarding the recruitment of QB Nicholaus Iamaleava.

Collectively speaking

Now, the collectives contact alumni, boosters, local and national businesses to donate money to fund coffers to make offers to high schoolers for sell their Name, Image and Likenesses (NIL) – supposedly.   Before the 2023 season began, reports by coaches of college football programs stated collectives were also approaching their existing college football players to entice them to transfer. Players can now enter these transfer portals that open twice a year – once after the regular season ends, and once after the end of the spring football practice which generally coincides with the end of the spring semester. The air waves are full of conversations between collective representatives and players looking for better opportunities including NIL money.  Surely, even parents encourage their sons to seek such opportunities for the good of every family.

In essence, the schools don’t even have to offer these players a free education. They can pay for it themselves with the NIL money available to them. However, schools may just offer these students tuition for free as part of a benefit package.  They will probably need to do this because they have to offer some compensation directly to hire players as employees of the university.  Funny thing is that the major money will still be coming through these collectives.  Schools won’t have to pay the athletes directly, their contactors will.

Another litmus test being conducted by college football

Matt Johnson of Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports© Provided by Sportsnaut wrote this article on February 6, 2024: “National Labor Relations Board delivers potential fatal blow to NCAA with landmark Dartmouth ruling.” In the article, the NLRB states,” I find that because Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by the men’s varsity basketball team, and because the players perform that work in exchange for compensation, the petitioned-for basketball players are employees within the meaning of the Act.“ Of course, the NCAA and Dartmouth College will appeal.

I refer to this as a litmus test because I find this hard to uphold.  The Ivy league doesn’t award athletic scholarships.  I always understood student-athletes among the Ancient Eight applied for financial assistance like every other student applicant. So, what compensation do Dartmouth basketball players get that other non-athletic students don’t get?  In this case, if basketball players unionize, do students working part-time on campus in labs, the library, as part of some research project, (I doubt Ivy League students would work in the cafeteria, but…) or some other paid position, can they also join a union?  Now all college students working a job while receiving an education can join a “student union?”   The Northwestern football team’s effort fell apart in 2015.  At least they were “compensated” by athletic scholarships.  A big question is if schools will still dole out athletic scholarships once players are contracted by money paid by collectives. All I can say is, what a mess.

Got money? Invest in the future professional football league while you can.

Great news for Missouri Tiger football.” College Football Program Hits Jackpot With Massive Donation From Anonymous Giver” reported Joe Vitale online through Athlon Sports on February 5.  An anonymous donor gifted the Missouri Tiger football program $62 million. The donation directs $50 million for improvements to Memorial Stadium and the balance of $12 million will go toward the school’s collective, the Tiger Fund.  The article refers to it as a “charitable program through the Tiger Scholarship Fund that benefits Mizzou student-athletes.”  To think, this is Missouri, an SEC member who currently plays Georgia in the SEC East and looks to challenge to beat them and Alabama for the overall SEC title.

This is just the start.  With 32 NFL teams already owned by individuals with lots of money, if anybody wants to get in on the ground floor of a new professional football league get in on it now!  With contracts for Saturday football viewing on TV and stadiums already packed by captive students, alumni and devout fans of their universities, eventually there could be a return on your investment.

The potential future of professional football

Now realizing they have everything in place to grow a professional league from the bottom-up, all colleges need to do is hold on to the players for five or more years starting right out of high school.  They’ll hold on to the best talent they can with NILs being funded by thousands of alumni through collectives in most cases. How can the NFL compete for new talent then?  Draft players right out of high school? The product they will present on the playing will be far from what they’ve got now.  And to develop players at a minor league level would be near impossible.   Colleges already have the infrastructure, fan base, media exposure, traditions and outpouring of money from alumni and corporations through collectives to” hire” and keep the best of the best football talent for as long as they want. 

Go to college, play football, buy a Lamborghini

Here’s another tidbit: why go into the NFL draft while you can make so much playing college football. And if you can learn how to invest wisely while in college, maybe you can just retire and enjoy the “good life.” Read Criss Floyd’s article here from February 6, 2024: Georgia QB Carson Beck purchases Lamborghini as NIL value reportedly tops $1 million.” Throw for 3,941 yards, 24 touchdowns and lead your team to a 13-1 record and an Orange Bowl victory over a portal-decimated Florida State program, 66-3, and your $1.1 million year can escalate to $3 million the following year. If the “other” pro league approaches beyond that in a draft, use it to leverage your future.  Especially if you can get a waiver to play a few more years, or even sign a long-term contract as an employee of the institution of higher learning who will continue pay you to play a game.  

The NFL has to be looking at this because college football is their player development league. Unlike Major League Baseball or the National Hockey League, the NFL didn’t have to invest anything in minor league franchises.  Tax dollars, student revenues and alumni financial support took care of all that player development at the collegiate level. Players get a big hug from the commissioner on draft day, but that’s about it. The football world is about to change.  Read how this is all falling into place in my book, Fifty Years of Tailgate Tales: The Good, the Fun and the Ugly now available on Amazon.com.

Stephen Koreivo -ed. Member of Football Writers Association of America