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The state of College Football - Bitch Thread

Featured Replies

Thought it'd be a good idea to start a thread where people can vent about what College Football has become and try to contain the negativity about it in here.

I mean, WTF. This is all so fucking sad and disappointing.

  • I'm glad players are getting paid. But not putting any guardrails on any of this NIL/transfer/Portal stuff was a HUGE mistake. I acknowledge that the sport hasn't been "pure" for a while, but these recent changes have completely destroyed what we all loved and grew up with.

  • I know the TV ratings have increased, but I don't buy that as proof that CFB is thriving. If I had to guess, the massive influx of legal gambling over the last couple of years (particularly with younger people) has probably contributed to the ratings spike, along with the fact that football has become the holdover live TV event people will watch in this streaming era.

  • I've been a huge Texas and CFB fan for 35 years. I'm not gonna stop, I'm too invested. But the future is bleak IMO. This dumb, practically lawless circus will catch up with the sport sooner than later.

was this triggered by the Wash QB entering the portal? Because this isn't the first time something like this had happened. Wisky sued to stop one of their guys from breaching contract and going to Miami last year, and Georgia’s lawsuit against one of their DEs who breached their contract to go to Mizzou is still ongoing.

Once those suits get resolved they'll set the precedent for handling cases like this in the future (no, Congress is not going to do Jack about shit).

  • Author

No, I was talking to a good friend before the portal opened last week and we were lamenting all the massive changes and the circus CFB has become. I know that Texas benefits from the influx of huge $$$ in the sport, but I still hate it. What made CFB special has gone away.

I know change is inevitable, but these changes are a disaster and they need to start finding some band-aids.

2 minutes ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Yes, we know you are a sicko, DD.

We don't kink shame here.

10 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

I love everything about the chaos, especially the fan reaction.

The World GIF

  • Author
27 minutes ago, satyanash said:

was this triggered by the Wash QB entering the portal? Because this isn't the first time something like this had happened. Wisky sued to stop one of their guys from breaching contract and going to Miami last year, and Georgia’s lawsuit against one of their DEs who breached their contract to go to Mizzou is still ongoing.

Once those suits get resolved they'll set the precedent for handling cases like this in the future (no, Congress is not going to do Jack about shit).

But coming back to this, this Demond Williams ordeal is a much bigger story if this drags on and isn't settled quickly . QBs are the hottest commodity, UW desperately wanted to keep him and he reportedly agreed to a $5 million contract. The stakes are high with this situation.

tired real housewives GIF by RealityTVGIFs

College football sucks now - of course the product on the field is always enjoyable, the big comebacks, the meltdowns, the rivalries. College puts on a better product than the sterile, boring NFL.

The recruiting and portal aspect + the corrupt committee and influence by ESPN on who makes the playoffs + coaching changes and buyouts that could fund actual things of importance = awful.

Edited by Js1

I don't see how any of the portal issues get fixed without a collective bargaining agreement. Otherwise the NCAA and schools are going to lose most court cases.

Edited by kevwun

1 minute ago, kevwun said:

I don't see how any of the portal issues get fixed without a collective bargaining agreement. Otherwise the NCAA or schools are going to lose most court cases.

Starting with the calendar is going to fix a few things (not all, but a few)

That will help, but that still leaves every player being on a 1 year contract problem. That's the one that is going to be the hardest to solve.

Just now, kevwun said:

That will help, but that still leaves every player being on a 1 year contract problem. That's the one that is going to be the hardest to solve.

100%, they either need a union/CBA or this will continue.

And Cody Campbell and his sycophants in Congress are not going to let that happen.

Is this where we complain about some jagoff clogging up the transfer thread?

Meaningless, pedantic posters should not be tolerated.

9 hours ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Thought it'd be a good idea to start a thread where people can vent about what College Football has become and try to contain the negativity about it in here.

I mean, WTF. This is all so fucking sad and disappointing.

  • I'm glad players are getting paid. But not putting any guardrails on any of this NIL/transfer/Portal stuff was a HUGE mistake. I acknowledge that the sport hasn't been "pure" for a while, but these recent changes have completely destroyed what we all loved and grew up with.

  • I know the TV ratings have increased, but I don't buy that as proof that CFB is thriving. If I had to guess, the massive influx of legal gambling over the last couple of years (particularly with younger people) has probably contributed to the ratings spike, along with the fact that football has become the holdover live TV event people will watch in this streaming era.

  • I've been a huge Texas and CFB fan for 35 years. I'm not gonna stop, I'm too invested. But the future is bleak IMO. This dumb, practically lawless circus will catch up with the sport sooner than later.

A couple of observations.

Most states did attempt to impose some sort of guardrails with their NIL legislation. Two problems with it though, no clear enforcement mechanism and the lack of uniformity between states.

Most federal legislation is an unnecessary one-size-fits solution to problems that probably should be left to the states and is passed as a form of pandering. This is not one of those cases.

The new College Sports Commission has only one thing to recommend it and that is that it isn't the NCAA. It's going to have all of the problems that the NCAA has unless it receives some sort of de facto antitrust exemption as a result of being part of a court-ordered settlement.

Frankly, I like the idea of the NIL clearinghouse checking NIL deals to make sure they have some bare connection to actual NIL.

The reason I like that is that I think UT is going to have an easier time making "realistic" NIL deals than say Texas Tech.

11 minutes ago, David Dennison said:

Is this where we complain about some jagoff clogging up the transfer thread?

Meaningless, pedantic posters should not be tolerated.

We were just making headway in figuring all this madness out until you came in with your irrelevant chicanery. For shame.

The 1 year contracts and Demond Williams situation are two totally different issues.

Regarding 1 year contracts, there's nothing that can be done in the current framework and I'm not convinced there should be anything done. They're adult Americans and should be free to move just like anyone else. It sucks that we all have nostalgia for when they were restricted laborers but that's what it was. What can be done is schools signing multi-year rev share contracts with players, but then the schools have to risk signing a bust to multiple seasons.

Which relates to Williams. Now that schools can directly pay players as part of revenue sharing, that is how that situation should be regulated. If he signed a revenue sharing agreement with Washington for the 2026 college football season in exchange for playing there then he should be locked in by signed contract and whoever tampered him into the portal should be sued for tortious interference. From there the NCAA can have teeth (ha). Let's say it's LSU. Washington sues LSU for tortious interference and wins. Then the NCAA can use that verdict and the evidence from the case to punish LSU, make Williams ineligible to play for LSU, etc. Washington only directly gets damages (plus punitive) but the NCAA could require interfering schools to pay 10x any damages in a future rule set.

12 minutes ago, bad_teammate said:

We were just making headway in figuring all this madness out until you came in with your irrelevant chicanery. For shame.

George Costanza Seinfeld GIF

12 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

The new College Sports Commission has only one thing to recommend it and that is that it isn't the NCAA. It's going to have all of the problems that the NCAA has unless it receives some sort of de facto antitrust exemption as a result of being part of a court-ordered settlement.

The Demond Williams story makes me think of Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Commerce Committee. She is an influential opponent of the SCORE Act, which got shelved in December, in part because she opposed its antitrust exemption allowing NCAA enforcement of transfer restrictions. But she is also a senator from Washington State, so one has to assume she has some unhappy constituents right now. Maybe the more the chaos spreads, the more plausible congressional action becomes. Regardless, the unfortunate fact is nothing fundamental will change until either (i) Congress does something productive or (ii) schools agree to collective bargaining -- both of which are hard to imagine.

The problem with the tortious interference route is that there are minimal actual damages. There would have to be actual foul play (bribes, threats) to get any meaningful damages paid.

Buyouts are not allowed.

The best thing we can hope for is the UGA lawsuit holds and LDs become "punitive" in the normal sense of the word even though they aren't legally punitive.

1 hour ago, Hank Kingsley said:

Of course these chodes love it. Fuck Barstool. #getoffmylawn

Actively avoiding Barstool and almost every NBA personality on social media has dramatically improved my online life. You just don't have to pay attention to annoying people!*

*Surly excepted, clearly

Can’t have a bitch thread without this fella

image.jpeg

25 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

The 1 year contracts and Demond Williams situation are two totally different issues.

Regarding 1 year contracts, there's nothing that can be done in the current framework and I'm not convinced there should be anything done. They're adult Americans and should be free to move just like anyone else. It sucks that we all have nostalgia for when they were restricted laborers but that's what it was. What can be done is schools signing multi-year rev share contracts with players, but then the schools have to risk signing a bust to multiple seasons.

Which relates to Williams. Now that schools can directly pay players as part of revenue sharing, that is how that situation should be regulated. If he signed a revenue sharing agreement with Washington for the 2026 college football season in exchange for playing there then he should be locked in by signed contract and whoever tampered him into the portal should be sued for tortious interference. From there the NCAA can have teeth (ha). Let's say it's LSU. Washington sues LSU for tortious interference and wins. Then the NCAA can use that verdict and the evidence from the case to punish LSU, make Williams ineligible to play for LSU, etc. Washington only directly gets damages (plus punitive) but the NCAA could require interfering schools to pay 10x any damages in a future rule set.

Except for basically any other athlete that plays a professional sport. And yes, I know these athletes aren't considered 'professionals' which is a big part of the problem. Team building is a huge part of this (and every) sport and there needs to be a bit of predictability on who will be on a roster at any given time. Contracts need to be meaningful and enforceable.

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

tired real housewives GIF by RealityTVGIFs

College football sucks now - of course the product on the field is always enjoyable, the big comebacks, the meltdowns, the rivalries. College puts on a better product than the sterile, boring NFL.

The recruiting and portal aspect + the corrupt committee and influence by ESPN on who makes the playoffs + coaching changes and buyouts that could fund actual things of importance = awful.

That is more/less what I think as well. I do not pay close attention to the portal, but I see enough to know it does not add to any enjoyment of the sport. It is not hard to recognize that eventually the sport will be even more regionalized than it is now and almost all growth will come from gamblers watching the games. Hawai’i is now looking to possibly join in on legalized gambling. There is so much illegal gambling done on apps here that it makes sense to go ahead and do it so UH can get a cut of the profits.

13 minutes ago, JBJ said:

The problem with the tortious interference route is that there are minimal actual damages. There would have to be actual foul play (bribes, threats) to get any meaningful damages paid.

Buyouts are not allowed.

The best thing we can hope for is the UGA lawsuit holds and LDs become "punitive" in the normal sense of the word even though they aren't legally punitive.

Correct that's why I mentioned the NCAA (the schools agreeing as a requirement of membership) would need rules that say if you're found liable for tortious interference you pay $X to the other school on each count and that player is ineligible to ever appear for your school.

4 minutes ago, Chuckie Finster said:

Except for basically any other athlete that plays a professional sport. And yes, I know these athletes aren't considered 'professionals' which is a big part of the problem. Team building is a huge part of this (and every) sport and there needs to be a bit of predictability on who will be on a roster at any given time. Contracts need to be meaningful and enforceable.

You mean athletes who are part of collective bargaining agreements?

2 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Correct that's why I mentioned the NCAA (the schools agreeing as a requirement of membership) would need rules that say if you're found liable for tortious interference you pay $X to the other school on each count and that player is ineligible to ever appear for your school.

But these both appear to be restrictions on the labor market imposed by a trust. The last bit especially wouldn't survive a lawsuit.

True, but at least that gets it hung up in court for a while. Ha.

Really it's a disaster until they admit the players are employees and open the doors to collective bargaining.

I hope Washington cleans his clock in this lawsuit. Even worse for CFB if even signed guys can still leave.

A college players association would face some challenges because of the short term nature of college football. No one would belong to it for more than 5 years and lots would only be a part of it for 3-4. There won't be a strong backbone of team reps because of that and it will make it harder to develop any institutional knowledge. They are going to have to hire a very good President to lead it. Regardless, it's going to have to happen to fix anything.

Quasi-MLB model is what we need. Anti-trust exemptions for the leagues to enforce penalties against the schools while the athletes' also get a larger seat at the table.

I think more/better representation (including former athletes) on governance boards would be better than CBA model.

Edited by JBJ

I typically prefer complete CBA control but as noted a college athletics environment has issues there because of the guaranteed short career length. Limited anti-trust exemption could work but good luck on that being worked out well in our lifetimes.

11 hours ago, David Dennison said:

I love everything about the chaos, especially the fan reaction.

This.
Is my school or its supporting entities likely to be targeted in future litigation? Meh...maybe. Will the power brokers ever get the toothpaste back in the tube? Not likely.

College sports is fucked up. They insist on not acknowledging the employment situation, so we get what we have. So as long as it's a trainwreck, LFG!!!

Edited by Iceman

Bitching should be directed to the program not the system.

A decade and two ago we sucked bc we wanted to play by the rules. We didn't wanna play the bag game.

Bag game legal, encouraged, now we are playing some honor system, we're too good for the bag game, we have a philosophy, a moral code, etc

We always have excuses. Always.

The people at the top need to start doing their jobs well, period.

1 hour ago, kevwun said:

A college players association would face some challenges because of the short term nature of college football. No one would belong to it for more than 5 years and lots would only be a part of it for 3-4. There won't be a strong backbone of team reps because of that and it will make it harder to develop any institutional knowledge. They are going to have to hire a very good President to lead it. Regardless, it's going to have to happen to fix anything.

so a club for players?

Why would non-employees need to collectively bargain?

Kiffin can't go a week without sticking his dick in the mashed potatoes.

1 hour ago, Hank Kingsley said:

This is actually a good thing! If a coach can portal out at any time, why can't the players who committed to him?

I see why Sark wanted/wants to go to the NFL. Being a college HC now is a total fucking beating. You are both a GM and a HC in a league that has no commissioner, no CBA, no salary cap, unrestricted free agency, no draft, amateur "agents," really no rules at all. You have to source talent both through the intensive HS recruiting process and the free-agent market. Both involve $$$$ and bullshit. It's total fucking chaos.

Between my wife fucking around and this bullshit, I'd fall off the wagon too. And whatever skills he had as a HC prior to this era of CFB, I'm not sure he has the skillset to succeed now. Few do. It's an entirely new job description. A brave new world.

Saban was right to retire when he did. He was a builder from a different era. This is no country for old men.

/rant over.

28 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

This UW thing is utter bullshit

In what way? Seems like basic contract law.

I do think they need to fix this for the long term health of the game. Fans of the major professional sports would lose their fucking minds if every single player on every single team entered free agency every year.

2 minutes ago, Foosters said:

In what way? Seems like basic contract law.

I do think they need to fix this for the long term health of the game. Fans of the major professional sports would lose their fucking minds if every single player on every single team entered free agency every year.

Legally sure it's "fine" the vibes are just awful.

They need to bring back the rule where transfers sit for a year unless you're a grad transfer

Just now, 6th Street said:

They need to bring back the rule where transfers sit for a year unless you're a grad transfer

With an exception for coach movement.

3 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

Legally sure it's "fine" the vibes are just awful.

I don't understand. He's an adult who signed a multi-million dollar contract in which the terms were clearly delineated.

Do you believe an NFL player should be free to sign a contract, then try to negotiate a better deal with another team, and if obtained, simply walk away?

13 minutes ago, Foosters said:

In what way? Seems like basic contract law.

I do think they need to fix this for the long term health of the game. Fans of the major professional sports would lose their fucking minds if every single player on every single team entered free agency every year.

Well, it seems like they're self-helping to specific performance.

People generally are permitted to breach contracts and suffer the consequences.

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