NIL and Portal - Is it Overblown?

[woodford 3,678]

After yesterday, I'm starting to go back and forth on this. Are they really "ruining" CFB? Is it really that much different than 10 years ago? The portal rule allowing the players to play immediately is a game changer, but is it really disrupting the sport or is it just a lot of noise? They've always gotten paid one way or another. That's not new. It's just public now.

Personally, corporate CFB, ESPN, and the networks are doing more harm than NIL and portal. At least that's my opinion today. 

What do y'all think? 

[W.E.D 11,070]

50 minutes ago, woodford said:

Are they really "ruining" CFB? I

No. It's dumb and reactionary 

[DAG 34,034]

No

[Warnugget 127]

I don’t think it’s ruining it. But they may have to start putting cap limits on teams, depending on how things all shake out over the next few years. To me, it seems like a more level playing field is in place now. 

[Bro Johnny Mac 1,402]

Players have been getting benefits before, and NIL probably allows the athletes to make more money.

This is the way it should be.. everyone has been making billions off of their talent for a while 

Coaches used to be able to screw over athletes with little recourse. Kids could transfer, but they had to sit out. On top of that, they couldn’t transfer where they wanted to because of rules about transferring within conference and such. The coaches had ALL the power.. the rules changed over time and now it’s basically free agency for the players. I think that’s good as well.

[aubaseball 2,674]

I don’t believe portal is “ruining “ college football but I am not a fan of NIL.   It’s an uneven playing field and currently too many unknowns.    If money should be paid in my opinion, it should be a set amount for each player on every team.   It should come from TV revenue, merchandise sales and ticket sales.   I think the Toothpaste is out of the tube, so it’s never going back.   But as it stands currently, I think there could be a better way of giving players some money without this current system 

[Didba 5,282]

2 hours ago, woodford said:

Are they really "ruining" CFB?

No, and they never were.

[CR 2,447]

Absolutely not. If anything its made things more interesting to follow. I do believe the future will be partnering with players in TV revenue and acknowledging them as employees. There were lots of fans who hated the idea of free angency in pro sports when it started but now its just an accepted(and exciting) part of their offseason.

[AUinMS9528 1,086]

It has its good and it’s bad.  Overall, I haven’t decided if it’s better or worse (for AU’s current situation, it’s better because we need to pull in about 40 players and we have the resources to do it)

The thing is, human nature is a constant.  Some people will ALWAYS find ways to screw the system, take advantage of other people, and seek selfish gain whether it’s coaches, media, boosters, players, etc.    There is no perfect solution because we are imperfect people.  

[AUloggerhead 2,267]

3 hours ago, woodford said:

After yesterday, I'm starting to go back and forth on this. Are they really "ruining" CFB? Is it really that much different than 10 years ago? The portal rule allowing the players to play immediately is a game changer, but is it really disrupting the sport or is it just a lot of noise? They've always gotten paid one way or another. That's not new. It's just public now.

Personally, corporate CFB, ESPN, and the networks are doing more harm than NIL and portal. At least that's my opinion today. 

What do y'all think? 

Nope, not "ruining" cfb.  Yep, completely different than 10 years ago.  

The NIL thing is a direct challenge to the NCAA and its "amateur" athlete stance.  I liken it to the way the Olympics gradually came around to acknowledging athletes need to make a living, yet still compete in the Games.  For instance, Michel Phelps has a net worth of $100M, and Jim Thorpe recently had his gold medals reinstated.  

The Portal is allowing players to have more of a say in their future, which is a good thing.  Not all Portal players are going to find a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow (hello JT Daniels & Joey Gatewood.)  

[Hank2020 3,225]

6 hours ago, Warnugget said:

I don’t think it’s ruining it. But they may have to start putting cap limits on teams, depending on how things all shake out over the next few years. To me, it seems like a more level playing field is in place now. 

When they try to do this cap, players become “employees” with a soon to be CBA. They would finally get their share.

[Hank2020 3,225]

6 hours ago, Warnugget said:

I don’t think it’s ruining it. But they may have to start putting cap limits on teams, depending on how things all shake out over the next few years. To me, it seems like a more level playing field is in place now. 

Looks like to me , the same teams are at the top!! Where do you see leveling?

[Warnugget 127]

45 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

Looks like to me , the same teams are at the top!! Where do you see leveling?

It’s only been one year. And it seems like more top-level guys are willing to enter the portal when things don’t work out for them. And to me, it seemed like some schools had more of a blind eye turned their way with improper benefits. Now that benefits are allowed, that isn’t so much of a factor. Of course recruits will still want to play for recent national champs/playoff contenders. Kind of silly to think that it would be an instant leveling off after only a year. 

[Warnugget 127]

54 minutes ago, Hank2020 said:

When they try to do this cap, players become “employees” with a soon to be CBA. They would finally get their share.

I don’t have a clue how any of it would work, but I’m glad that you have it all figured out.

[AUY2K 272]

If they put a cap on NIL teams will then go back to paying additional funds under the table.

the only way to have a cap is to also have a draft of some sort.

[aucanucktiger 1,805]

9 hours ago, woodford said:

After yesterday, I'm starting to go back and forth on this. Are they really "ruining" CFB? Is it really that much different than 10 years ago? The portal rule allowing the players to play immediately is a game changer, but is it really disrupting the sport or is it just a lot of noise? They've always gotten paid one way or another. That's not new. It's just public now.

Personally, corporate CFB, ESPN, and the networks are doing more harm than NIL and portal. At least that's my opinion today. 

What do y'all think? 

Players have not always gotten paid LEGALLY and that change by NIL alone is huge. It's a legit and large scale biz now w/ negotiations and players at age EIGHTEEN immediately benefitting from their h.s. hard work & sacrifice in a sport where career altering injuries are common. I wonder how Lloyds of London premium insuring e.g. a college RB's legs or QBs arm have been impacted by NIL.

[jAUSon 2,836]

It's not even NIL, lol. They're just *getting paid*. If it was truely NIL- the players should have a agents or trademarks or copyrights or whatever and should be royaltied the money being earned from their NIL. So the bowl money and ESPN money (the monsterous sums that were literally and specifically cited as the basis for the scotus to strike the autonomy of the NCAA) should be routed through the universities or the leagues to the players. But instead, NCAA, media outlets, and schools still keep the money while Baumhaurs and OTV donor collectives are paying the players lol. The sh*t is hilarious. I have no thoughts on paying players one way or the other- they deserve it, but the scotus just pulled some sh*t out it's @$$ on it's ruling.

[Mikey 16,777]

I don't think the current setup is sustainable. Initially I said I'd give it five years before I took up some other interest. So, I've still got some time but I do think something has to change from the current wild west, free agency 24/7/365. Even the pros don't have that.

[AU-24 3,118]

14 hours ago, woodford said:

After yesterday, I'm starting to go back and forth on this. Are they really "ruining" CFB? Is it really that much different than 10 years ago? The portal rule allowing the players to play immediately is a game changer, but is it really disrupting the sport or is it just a lot of noise? They've always gotten paid one way or another. That's not new. It's just public now.

Personally, corporate CFB, ESPN, and the networks are doing more harm than NIL and portal. At least that's my opinion today. 

What do y'all think? 

There are certainly negatives and positives about it but I found something out this year (about the portal) that I previously did not realize. More than 40% (so obviously more than four out of every 10 players) that enter the portal never get picked up. Great place to fill immediate need but certainly not the end all be all for all the players entering.

[AU-24 3,118]

This is the turds alone:

[auskull 239]

This is so new, it may take some time for it to be thoroughly evaluated. It seems much like "free agency" in the NFL. With amounts like $5 mil being thrown around, this is some serious money. I believe the mommas and Daddies are going to focus on the money and even the top players may enter the portal each year just to benefit from the bidding. The top players will not have to worry about losing their scholarships. Players may eventually have agents who handle all of this, just like coaches. For the most part, education has been taken off the table, as it may already have been for some time now. This has "officially" become minor league football. Its just too early to tell how this will evolve. Over time I believe it may level the playing field for a greater number of teams who have the finances and player network. The NCAA created the term "armature athletics" to justify its existences.  That's official over now and new challenges will keep eroding their power.  This has shined a light on and exposed the underpinnings of what may have been unofficially happening over the past decades where getting caught was the true sin. 

[Gowebb11 9,429]

The effects of the NIL/Portal aren’t totally clear yet. The portal for example obviously allows for quick turnarounds. But is it a sustainable way to win championships long term? The first year Ole Miss and Arky were very portal heavy and had huge seasons. This season they went portal heavy again and took a step back. USC had a remarkable turnaround with the portal this season, but were beaten twice by PAC-12 Champs Utah who is light on the portal. LSU won the SEC W because of the portal but lost the conference championship to UGA who had few portal players. Likewise portal heavy TCU is in the playoff but the Big 12 Champs K State won the title without a lot of portal impact. It will be interesting to follow the impacts going forward. 

[cole256 17,084]

No. But it makes it much more difficult for the scum that would eat off the players

[AUY2K 272]

How much time goes by before there is a D1 Players Association?

[AUINSY 2,228]

I thought this was rather interesting. I don't know where these numbers are coming from, but if it's true, Auburn's NIL player average is around $31k and is only 8th out of 14 in the SEC when it comes to average player NIL value. I I know I've heard of folks saying we have a "war chest", but it doesn't look very big, unless we just have a bunch sitting in savings waiting to be spent:

https://www.on3.com/db/rankings/consensus-team/football/2023/?conference=sec&sort=averagerating

Edited December 24, 2022 by AUINSY