[jacket3ree]

I can't decide if this is college football Armageddon or just more of the same. (Hint: guessing on the latter.)  Cutting to the chase, I think I've said before that I root for laundry and I'll continue to root for laundry until the laundry quits. Stanford had its chance to get off the Power Ball treadmill and didn't, so that, for the moment, answers the question of whether the red laundry has quit.  I try to avoid slippery slope arguments. My bridge too far is if people playing college sports aren't in the colleges they play for, or at least pretend to be in college. Then, what is the point?  But I've read nothing to say that basic eligibility requirements (5 years to play 4) are going to change, so we aren't yet at the Arnhem, so to speak.

I think everything pretty much stays the same. With NIL being a defacto pay to play system, what difference does a $20 million cap on direct payments make?  The big factory schools will continue to pump out manufactured wins and championships, just like they've done for the past quarter century. Only now, most of it will be above board because it's "legal". There are three and only three sports that provide substantial revenue. Football, men's basketball, and women's basketball. Someone said that Men's Gymnastics and Women's Golf are more important to Stanford's reputation than football. OK maybe, but only a dozen schools even field men's gymnastics teams and fan or not, football still drives most of the bus. The past quarter century's worth of "revenue" champions, where presumably most of the revenue sharing and NIL go is both predictable and boring, unless you are a fan of a factory school:

Football
Oklahoma
Miami F.L.A.  (whatever happened to those guys?)
The Ohio State University x2
LSU x3
USC x2
Texas
Florida x2
Alabama x6
Auburn
Florida State (also won in 1999)
Clemson x2
Georgia x2
Michigan

25 years, 26 champions, 13 different schools. There might be fewer than five additional schools you could add to the list above with any reasonable shot of making it through a 12-team playoff on a consistent basis.

Men's Basketball
Michigan State
Duke x3
Maryland
Syracuse
UCONN x5 (they also won in 1999)
North Carolina x3
Florida x2
Kansas x2
Kentucky
Louisville
Villanova x2
Virginia
Baylor

In men's basketball over the same 25 years, there have been 24 champions (Covid) and again 13 different schools. When looking at results, the "little guy" can come close, but they just don't seal that deal.

Women's Basketball
UCONN x10
Notre Dame x2
Baylor x3
Maryland
Tennessee x2
aTm
South Carolina x3
Stanford
LSU

Women's hoops is the most predictable of the three sports, but it's always been that way and it doesn't seem money is the culprit as far as I can tell.  Just putting it out there to shoot my entire theory down.

Other teams in Power Four plus ND might make a little noise, but for the most part become part of the factory Ws. Forget G5. Just so many farm teams feeding the portal now.  Someone giving their heart and soul to DIII athletics gives just as much heart and soul (actually, probably more in some cases) then QB1 or QB22 making seven or eight figures flitting from power team to power team.  Is that fair?  Who ever said life was fair?

Isn't this is a class action settlement?  What brings Armageddon is if athletes who came before the arbitrary cutoff decide to sue.  Or lots of athletes decide to sue and remain outside the class action.  They could possibly bring the whole thing down.  Or if there is karmic justice of the be careful what you ask for type, this all turns into a garbage version of NFL- or G League-lite (none of those other professional football leagues really survive and thrive, it seems), people tune out, the money dries up, and places where people play to get an education and enjoy what they do and maybe have a path to professional sports come back to the fore. But that was all a long time ago. It's been about the Benjamins for quite some time.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.

[jacket3ree]

I can't decide if this is college football Armageddon or just more of the same. (Hint: guessing on the latter.)  Cutting to the chase, I think I've said before that I root for laundry and I'll continue to root for laundry until the laundry quits. Stanford had its chance to get off the Power Ball treadmill and didn't, so that, for the moment, answers the question of whether the red laundry has quit.  I try to avoid slippery slope arguments. My bridge too far is if people playing college sports aren't in the colleges they play for, or at least pretend to be in college. Then, what is the point?  But I've read nothing to say that basic eligibility requirements (5 years to play 4) are going to change, so we aren't yet at the Arnhem, so to speak.

I think everything pretty much stays the same. With NIL being a defacto pay to play system, what difference does a $20 million cap on direct payments make?  The big factory schools will continue to pump out manufactured wins and championships, just like they've done for the past quarter century. Only now, most of it will be above board because it's "legal". There are three and only three sports that provide substantial revenue. Football, men's basketball, and women's basketball. Someone said that Men's Gymnastics and Women's Golf are more important to Stanford's reputation than football. OK maybe, but only a dozen schools even field men's gymnastics teams and fan or not, football still drives most of the bus. The past quarter century's worth of "revenue" champions, where presumably most of the revenue sharing and NIL go is both predictable and boring, unless you are a fan of a factory school:

Football
Oklahoma
Miami F.L.A.  (whatever happened to those guys?)
The Ohio State University x2
LSU x3
USC x2
Texas
Florida x2
Alabama x6
Auburn
Florida State (also won in 1999)
Clemson x2
Georgia x2
Michigan

25 years, 26 champions, 13 different schools. There might be fewer than five additional schools you could add to the list above with any reasonable shot of making it through a 12-team playoff on a consistent basis.

Men's Basketball
Michigan State
Duke x3
Maryland
Syracuse
UCONN x5 (they also won in 1999)
North Carolina x3
Florida x2
Kansas x2
Kentucky
Louisville
Villanova x2
Virginia
Baylor

In men's basketball over the same 25 years, there have been 24 champions (Covid) and again 13 different schools. When looking at results, the "little guy" can come close, but they just don't seal that deal.

Women's Basketball
UCONN x10
Notre Dame x2
Baylor x3
Maryland
Tennessee x2
aTm
South Carolina x3
Stanford
LSU

Women's hoops is the most predictable of the three sports, but it's always been that way and it doesn't seem money is the culprit as far as I can tell.  Just putting it out there to shoot my entire theory down.

Other teams in Power Four plus ND might make a little noise, but for the most part become part of the factory Ws. Forget G5. Just so many farm teams feeding the portal now.  Someone giving their heart and soul to DIII athletics gives just as much heart and soul (actually, probably more in some cases) then QB1 or QB22 making seven or eight figures flitting from power team to power team.  Is that fair?  Who ever said life was fair?

Isn't this is a class action settlement?  What brings Armageddon is if athletes who came before the arbitrary cutoff decide to sue.  Or lots of athletes decide to sue and remain outside the class action.  They could possibly bring the whole thing down.  Or if there is karmic justice of the be careful what you ask for type, this all turns into a garbage version of NFL- or G League-lite (none of those other professional football leagues really survive and thrive, it seems), people tune out, the money dries up, and places where people play to get an education and enjoy what they do and maybe have a path to professional sports come back to the fore. But that was all a long time ago. It's been about the Benjamins for quite some time.

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.