Probably unpopular opinion:

[winnerwinner]

College football as we know it is done and over with. With the portal, nil, rule changes, rising tuition and conference realignment, i think it’s the end of the sport. the playoff decision was just another nail in the coffin. my bet is we have only 4 more years before schools drop out in droves.

 

[Wandering Nebraskan]

I'd say college football of old will survive in some form, but the big traditional teams will not be a part.

 

[Hville]

College football as we know it is done and over with. With the portal, nil, rule changes, rising tuition and conference realignment, i think it’s the end of the sport. the playoff decision was just another nail in the coffin. my bet is we have only 4 more years before schools drop out in droves.

I’m not sure you have an unpopular opinion of it. However I’d challenge you to reflect on whether it is really being ruined. The things you mentioned aren’t affecting what I watch. I still believe college football on Saturday afternoons is a great sport. Obviously, Nebraska being down is another topic but last weekend was great football. Alabama/georgia. Washington/Oregon. Florida State/Louisville. Man those were great games. And we see them every week.

If anything fans on social media discussing all the things you mentioned are more inclined to give us the impression that it’s being ruined. But is it really? Looks really good to me.

 

[lincoln84]

I think the state of our program has influenced this opinion. We have been ruined for a decade. Hopefully that changes. I agree, the games were good last weekend. I still watch.

 

[winnerwinner]

I’m not sure you have an unpopular opinion of it. However I’d challenge you to reflect on whether it is really being ruined. The things you mentioned aren’t affecting what I watch. I still believe college football on Saturday afternoons is a great sport. Obviously, Nebraska being down is another topic but last weekend was great football. Alabama/georgia. Washington/Oregon. Florida State/Louisville. Man those were great games. And we see them every week.

If anything fans on social media discussing all the things you mentioned are more inclined to give us the impression that it’s being ruined. But is it really? Looks really good to me.

I suppose we can check back in 4 years on the state of the “industry“

 

[Red Dead Redemption]

I’m not sure you have an unpopular opinion of it. However I’d challenge you to reflect on whether it is really being ruined. The things you mentioned aren’t affecting what I watch. I still believe college football on Saturday afternoons is a great sport. Obviously, Nebraska being down is another topic but last weekend was great football. Alabama/georgia. Washington/Oregon. Florida State/Louisville. Man those were great games. And we see them every week.

If anything fans on social media discussing all the things you mentioned are more inclined to give us the impression that it’s being ruined. But is it really? Looks really good to me.

If all you are concerned about is how it affects *you* and what *you* watch, then yeah, it's probably not concerning to *you*

But the students themselves, their families, and less prosperous schools or schools in different states might be a little concerned. But as long as that's not *your* problem, who cares?

NCAA leaders warn college sports at risk of ‘permanent damage’ without action from Congress | CNN Politics

amp-cnn-com.cdn.ampproject.org

“The risk is we see states further build walls around their recruiting grounds, thinking that that somehow provides a competitive advantage,” Sankey said. “The risk is that more and more young people sign agreements that they don’t understand. The risk is we move further and further from the academic nature of college sports.”

And, they say, college boosters have taken advantage of the current patchwork of laws to help their universities recruit the top athletes by promising big paydays – to the detriment of colleges in other states that are forced to play by a different set of rules. They say it’s time to set a national standard to even the playing field.

 

[huskernut]

I don't like many of the changes but I don't see any but maybe small schools dropping out over anything.

Making players be employees would hurt small schools, but I think Congress will create some kind of exemption to keep most of them in.

 

[NorthwoodHusker]

Another way to test the temp here is both us and Colorado. While many "top" schools will ride the NIL train, and some untraditional teams like okie state has before NIL where a huge donor, like also Oregon, lifts a teams potential into eras never or seldom seen in their history, whats playing out at Nebraska and Colorado is a microcosm amongst the veracity of NIL.

First, we have dodged the norm thus far. I don't know the specifics, but some are saying as many as 1600 kids have gone portal. How many are scholarship kids also an unknown, but if those 1600 are all scholly kids, and say 100 more go portal, thats the equivalent of 20 teams, 1700 kids on scholarship.
Being there's 133 teams that better than one in seven kids going portal.
Thats like 12 per team, this includes graduating players as well.

Have we seen that here? No, at least not yet, that tells me its where you're playing and who you're playing for and granted NIL does exist here, it outwardly seems sufficient.

Now on to the bluffs. They have no monies to support massive NIL numbers, but they are there in Boulder nonetheless. We need to see how this plays out, and see if it creates sweeping divides or simply a few more okie states and Oregons

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

College football as we know it is done and over with. With the portal, nil, rule changes, rising tuition and conference realignment, i think it’s the end of the sport. the playoff decision was just another nail in the coffin. my bet is we have only 4 more years before schools drop out in droves.

I don’t know about 4 years, but you’re onto something. College football, as we knew it, is dead. What we have now, is the Wild West. We shall see how it shakes out???

 

[Hville]

I don't like many of the changes but I don't see any but maybe small schools dropping out over anything.

Making players be employees would hurt small schools, but I think Congress will create some kind of exemption to keep most of them in.

I agree. Maybe it’s not all that bad having some of the smaller schools drop out. This has been discussed for decades that FBS with 130 teams is too big. These things such as NIL and transfer portal might be better suited for smaller divisions in football.

 

[Huskerfan69]

I’m not sure you have an unpopular opinion of it. However I’d challenge you to reflect on whether it is really being ruined. The things you mentioned aren’t affecting what I watch. I still believe college football on Saturday afternoons is a great sport. Obviously, Nebraska being down is another topic but last weekend was great football. Alabama/georgia. Washington/Oregon. Florida State/Louisville. Man those were great games. And we see them every week.

If anything fans on social media discussing all the things you mentioned are more inclined to give us the impression that it’s being ruined. But is it really? Looks really good to me.

Why do you think this poster needs to reflect on anything? Because you disagree with him?

A good number of people are not into the greed factory and what that does to dang near everything it is involved with. It rots from the core out. College football will be a mini-nfl league, and that is not what it was. It was a place for an education that can be had through sports. Sure, a lot of money was still made, but it hadn't involved the players (buying players, and paying them to play) as it wasn't their job. Their job was getting an education and preparing for the next level. Money and corruption go hand in hand, always has always will. There was still some corruption the old way, but not nearly as much as what we will see. As much as some people hate the NCAA, it was a governing body, and it did many good things for the sport.

College football was used to prepare these kids for life, now it is corrupting them in high school!

 

[CrabHusker]

College football as we know it is done and over with. With the portal, nil, rule changes, rising tuition and conference realignment, i think it’s the end of the sport. the playoff decision was just another nail in the coffin. my bet is we have only 4 more years before schools drop out in droves.

There are a few different paths of conversation relating to 'Big time college football' that kind of get folded into one.

First, the changes to the 'amateur' status of the game, NIL, transfer portal, etc. are all things I don't like, but are here and not going anywhere. These things have fundamentally changed the way programs recruit and manage rosters. It's likely overall a financial betterment for the players and certainly gives them more freedom and earning ability, which was kind of the whole point of Keller's suit that started NIL and the creation of the Transfer Portal. I don't disagree that the athletes are part of a huge money making endeavor and likely deserve or have earned the right to profit from their roles in it. Millions of dollars in addition to a full scholarship? Eh. That could be debated, but again some form of it is here to stay.

Conference realignment is another one I just kind of shrug about now. I enjoyed the system I grew up with. Big 10, Big 8, Pac 8, SWC, SEC, ACC and the bowl system. It wasn't perfect, but it worked most years. It's been in constant flux now since the SWC dissolved and I think change is now the new norm. I do think we'll end up with the two big 'Super Confernces' in the B1G and the SEC and the rest of what was P5 will be fighting over the scraps. Again, money driven. TV deal driven.

On the tuition end of things, I don't think that has anything to do with athletics, especially not with football. Tuition is a problem as a standalone discussion and is driven by a lot of factors, greed being one of them. Academia is a multi billion dollar industry, not just a means of educating our young people and I don't align athletics or football with that.

To your last point, I think we end up with the two 'Super Conferences' and maybe a third the combined strengths of what's left of the Big 12 and the ACC at one level, and everything else that is currently part of FBS football taking a step down because they won't be invited. Their costs and income will likely decrease and they should be able to operate at a lesser capacity similar to how FCS works now. Again, more change.

We aren't going to lose football as a whole. It just won't look anything like it does today.

 

[Turd Ferguson]

College football is a lot like ordering a favorite meal at a restaurant you like: the decorations in the restaurant may change, the ingredients in the food and where the ingredients come from may have changed, the cooks and servers may have changed, but if the meal is still delicious and you keep coming back and ordering it, has anything really changed?

 

[Hville]

Why do you think this poster needs to reflect on anything? Because you disagree with him?

A good number of people are not into the greed factory and what that does to dang near everything it is involved with. It rots from the core out. College football will be a mini-nfl league, and that is not what it was. It was a place for an education that can be had through sports. Sure, a lot of money was still made, but it hadn't involved the players (buying players, and paying them to play) as it wasn't their job. Their job was getting an education and preparing for the next level. Money and corruption go hand in hand, always has always will. There was still some corruption the old way, but not nearly as much as what we will see. As much as some people hate the NCAA, it was a governing body, and it did many good things for the sport.

College football was used to prepare these kids for life, now it is corrupting them in high school!

I simply challenged him to reflect on it as a different perspective. Kind of like you are doing by disagreeing with me. I don't disagree with your assessment of where college football is in regards to greed. I'm also not a believer that the NCAA is a bad institution because they are the governing body. I just have a different perspective and still judging whether this evolution, which is similar to the rest of the world, is ruining college football or progressing with the rest of the world. I just fail to see the ruin on Saturdays.

 

[Cornhuskers7]

College football as we know it is done and over with. With the portal, nil, rule changes, rising tuition and conference realignment, i think it’s the end of the sport. the playoff decision was just another nail in the coffin. my bet is we have only 4 more years before schools drop out in droves.

I'd say college football of old will survive in some form, but the big traditional teams will not be a part.

Major college football is on its way to a less form of professional football. It isn't a question of if, but when. I don't know how many teams that model will be sustainable for. Looking at pro football you have only 32, and that's around the same number in other pro sports. I think 30-40 of the major programs will break off and become essentially minor league pro ball. The rest of the teams will reorganize and fall more in line with traditional college football.

College football as you know it is still out there, it just isn't at the FBS level anymore. FCS, DII, DIII, NAIA, all are still filled with kids who are just going to college and playing for a scholarship and for the love of the game. It's out there and will continue to be out there. If that's what you enjoy, that product is more accessible than it has ever been.