Shama: Voices Need to Speak up for College Football Parity

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BleedGopher

BleedGopher

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Per Shama:

College football is out of whack and has been for a long time. The competitive balance between the elites of college football like the Alabamas, Georgias, LSUs, Michigans, Ohio States and Oklahomas versus the Minnesotas, Arizonas, Californias, Indianas, South Carolinas, Syracuses and all the rest is unfair and goes against the spirit of competition. Coaches, administrators, fans and media need to speak out about the issue.

The Gophers are headed to Ohio State this week for a Big Ten mismatch against the Buckeyes. Nothing new about that. All-time Minnesota is 7-46 against the Bucks. The Gophers are 4-23 in Minneapolis; 3 -23 in Columbus. Minnesota has lost 12 straight in the series.

The Gophers are 25-77-3 against Michigan and have won four times since 1967 when Lyndon Johnson was president. That was also the year Minnesota claimed its last Big Ten title.

Most of the Big Ten Conference has been looking up at Ohio State and Michigan for decades. As of late, the last six league titles have been won by the Buckeyes or Wolverines. Ryan Day has lost two Big Ten games since he became the Buckeyes head coach in 2019, both to Michigan.


Go Gophers!!
 

BleedGopher said:
Per Shama:

College football is out of whack and has been for a long time. The competitive balance between the elites of college football like the Alabamas, Georgias, LSUs, Michigans, Ohio States and Oklahomas versus the Minnesotas, Arizonas, Californias, Indianas, South Carolinas, Syracuses and all the rest is unfair and goes against the spirit of competition...
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If the Big 10 and the NCAA come down hard on Michigan for its massive cheating scandal, that will bring Michigan back to the pack and would assist with the competitive balance issue.
 

the new tv contract means we are stuck w Michigan and Ohio State for the near future. But I would be happy if Michigan and Ohio State left the big ten. Then we could reconstitute it around the remaining teams
 

College football is a business. The Alabamas, Georgias, and Ohio States pull in much more money than the Minnesotas. If there was enough talent to go around it would make sense to balance things out but there's not anywhere close to enough talent to fill even the power 5 teams with solid players. If rules change and that leads to a 25% loss of fans at Ohio State and a 25% increase at Minnesota that's a huge net loss. Financially it's better to pool the talent at those handful of schools with huge fanbases and ensure they continue to put a strong product on the field.
 



The NCAA keeps changing rules to make college football more resemble the NFL.

The one thing they have not addressed is that the NFL has rules to provide parity across the league, and the NCAA is happy widening the gap.
 

I've been saying this. We should at least start by speaking up.

We should flood every message board with how SHAMEFUL it is for the paying schools to buy players. They have absolutely nothing to be proud of. Grown men are losers if they obsess over watching sports so much that they'd pay kids to attend their school. Pathetic.
 

Unregistered User said:
The NCAA keeps changing rules to make college football more resemble the NFL.

The one thing they have not addressed is that the NFL has rules to provide parity across the league, and the NCAA is happy widening the gap.
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The NCAA keeps having their rules shot down by the courts.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
I've been saying this. We should at least start by speaking up.

We should flood every message board with how SHAMEFUL it is for the paying schools to buy players. They have absolutely nothing to be proud of. Grown men are losers if they obsess over watching sports so much that they'd pay kids to attend their school. Pathetic.
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Once again, I'm assuming this is a joke.
 



"College football is out of whack and has been for a long time."

Shama is certainly right about that but he's way late to the game. They don't care and never have.

Here's College Football Final Top 20 from 1980. 43 years ago. Click the link and you can change the year. Take out 2-3 teams and the names pretty much are the same. Oh and easy to see how much Nebraska misses the Big Eight.

1. Georgia
2. Pittsburgh
3. Oklahoma
4. Michigan
5. Florida State
6. Alabama
7. Nebraska
8. Penn State
9. Notre Dame
10. North Carolina.
11. USC
12. BYU
13. UCLA
14. Baylor
15. Ohio State
16. Washington
17. Purdue
18. Miami
19. Mississippi State
20. SMU

1980 NCAA Division I-A football rankings - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org en.wikipedia.org
 

Regardless of the history of inequity in college football, wouldn't it be cool if it was more like the NFL where systems were in place to encourage parity?

I certainly don't like the recent shifts that have made the differences even worse.
 

There is absolutely nothing, nada, zilch keeping the NCAA from rolling back the transfer rule to help encourage roster stability, parity, and reduction of knee jerk decisions resulting in loss of scholarship and future playing opportunities.

In theory the upward migration of talent (Bucky Irving) is supposed to be counteracted by the downward migration of blue blood backups. We’ve seen some of that, I suppose. It’s not a lot of fun to watch this, IMO. NFL-like mercenaries are exponentially harder to get behind and cheer for.
 

Word said:
Regardless of the history of inequity in college football, wouldn't it be cool if it was more like the NFL where systems were in place to encourage parity?

I certainly don't like the recent shifts that have made the differences even worse.
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More like the NFL? No.
 



There's a huge disparity of "haves and have nots" at all levels of college football and always has been. Shama doesn't mention it, but the easy transfer portal has just as much to do with the situation as NIL. The current NIL/portal process won't reshuffle teams at the top, but it could destroy the next level of schools that rely on implementing developmental programs (with quality coaching, invested school administrations and overall stability) that could occasionally challenge the helmet schools. Could a Dantonio MSU or Alvarez Wisconsin have happened in the current NIL/portal era?

My worry is that the "developmental" coaching business model might be going obsolete as long as the portal stays open, and that sucks for fans.

In the current climate, NIL takes precedent over "programs" and the portal allows it to happen. See Colorado.

On the other hand, if a non-helmet school is able to muster up a shit-ton of NIL money, it's possible they could break through once in a while which could stabilize things after a while. As of now, I'm not aware of any programs that have succeeded at using an NIL model, but I'm sure there will be. Maybe you could say Texas benefitted from it this year, but they should always near the top with their resources. It looks like Texas A&M has been a failure. Colorado is improved, but still sucks.
 

dinkything said:
If the Big 10 and the NCAA come down hard on Michigan for its massive cheating scandal, that will bring Michigan back to the pack and would assist with the competitive balance issue.
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Didn’t seem to make much difference against Penn State.
 

How do you legislate parity?

in pro sports with a draft, where the worst teams get to choose first, you still see competitive imbalances. even pro sports with salary caps see imbalances. because some teams have better and smarter management who do a better job of drafting, managing the salary cap and coaching.

You can't legislate competence. there is no law or rule you can put in place to guarantee that every team will have the same level of coaching acumen, or that every team is equally well-run.

some coaches and programs simply do a better job of evaluating talent and recruiting. some coaches simply do a better job of coaching and skill development. NIL and the portal have certainly had an impact. but no matter how a team acquires its talent, you still have to coach that talent and put together successful offensive and defensive schemes.

you could throw all of the money in the world at Podunk State - but if Podunk does not have good coaches and a good support system, they're not going to become Alabama or Georgia.
 

Talent evaluation is an imperfect science, so even as the top 10 programs draw their first picks and give them large sums of cash, there are still more players who want to be starting QB who believe they are better than the players who were selected.

The Hudson Card transferring to Purdue is an example of this.

Can you afford to promise a Hudson Card level QB a shot at a starting role, and can you give him an offer $25k more than Purdue? If so, then maybe you land him.
If you are offering zero and Purdue is able to offer $50k, that prospect chooses Purdue.

If we can match a Purdue, and our fan experience and facilities are better, than we are more likely to land that QB.

Being in the Big Ten or the SEC should get you in the top 30-40 spots.
Can you beat out NW, IA, WI, IN, Purdue, Vandy, Miss St, Miss, Rutgers, Maryland to elevate a bit into the top 30? Then great.

I have no idea what Hudson Card might be making for NIL, but I wouldn't think it's a ton when Purdue is the 2nd best option for football in the state of Indiana.
 

The piece that will bring the most parity is when the players start getting paid.
The Big Ten will probably be the first to do this, and when they do, that would imply a level of balance across all teams.

Also, any time there has been an athletic league with paid players, a draft is the next consequence.

If you choose to play for pay, you need to opt into the draft where you don't select where you play once you decide on the conference. Perhaps Indiana has the first pick.
 

I think parity is crucial for the betterment of the game. It is going to reach a breaking point with the TV contracts getting the sizes they are. Eventually no one is going to care about watching Michigan on primetime TV absolutely crush Minnesota and Michigan State in back-to-back weeks.

I know many will not agree but I think the transfer portal is more good than bad for parity in college football. It brings DJ U to Oregon State, Bo Nix to Oregon, Jalen Hurts to Oklahoma, etc - all these players were going to be put on the bench at their own schools.

One of the other ways of legislating parity it to lower the scholarship limits. If you drop the number from 85 to 75 that would put 10 players from Clemson, Georgia, Florida State, Ohio State, Alabama on better teams. It doesn't happen frequently, but there are years where the initial depth chart for the U is on par (not better, but at least able to compete with) with a PSU, Michigan, etc - only problem is one injury and we have to put in a Maverick Barnowski, who's a good player but is a year or two away, and when he gets hurt it is a true freshman. Ohio State has an injury and it is a 4* backup, etc.
 

Iceland12 said:
More like the NFL? No.
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I'm not saying this is possible, but wouldn't a college football salary cap be nice? Certainly would help level the playing field. Actual roster limits?

What about how the NFL is set up don't you like?
 

I think as the disparity spirals out of control -pay for play won’t fix but will break athletic departments - MN fans have the option of NFL fandom.

So there’s that.
 

Jack jones said:
Didn’t seem to make much difference against Penn State.
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Michigan didn’t lose scholarships or face any type of probation against Penn State, they just didn’t get to have their head coach on the sidelines (who still gets to coach the other 6 days of the week)
 

Word said:
I'm not saying this is possible, but wouldn't a college football salary cap be nice? Certainly would help level the playing field. Actual roster limits?

What about how the NFL is set up don't you like?
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CFB has a salary cap. It’s $0.

And yes I know you didn’t mean actual salary but the point is I don’t really see a way of leveling the playing field, which as has already been pointed out, has never been level. It’s still TBD if the gap will be widened under the new rules, we don’t have enough data to determine yet.

What I don’t like about the NFL setup as it trickles into CFB, is the “Super Bowl or bust” mentality. The fun thing about CFB is every program has its own expectations and its own definition of success. If we went 10-2 and missed the playoff but made the rose bowl, we’d all be ecstatic. If Ohio State does that, it’s a down year. For some reason I’m the minds of many, the playoff has made all other bowls “meaningless”. I don’t agree with that at all, but many see it that way.
 

EasyThere Pilgrim said:
I've been saying this. We should at least start by speaking up.

We should flood every message board with how SHAMEFUL it is for the paying schools to buy players. They have absolutely nothing to be proud of. Grown men are losers if they obsess over watching sports so much that they'd pay kids to attend their school. Pathetic.
Click to expand...
Grown men are losers if they care so much about their sport that they would spam message boards to make sure another person doesn't get paid.
 

Word said:
I'm not saying this is possible, but wouldn't a college football salary cap be nice? Certainly would help level the playing field. Actual roster limits?

What about how the NFL is set up don't you like?
Click to expand...

Pretty easy really. The NFL set-up is fine for the NFL but an impossible model for College Football.

Unless the entrance standards are all the same for the schools involved and they get to "draft" talent in order of how the finished the previous season, using the NFL as a comparison is impossible. Yet people keep bringing it up.

Why? Differs but bet it's mostly driven my wanting another NFL.
 

GoGophersUMN said:
College football is a business. The Alabamas, Georgias, and Ohio States pull in much more money than the Minnesotas. If there was enough talent to go around it would make sense to balance things out but there's not anywhere close to enough talent to fill even the power 5 teams with solid players. If rules change and that leads to a 25% loss of fans at Ohio State and a 25% increase at Minnesota that's a huge net loss. Financially it's better to pool the talent at those handful of schools with huge fanbases and ensure they continue to put a strong product on the field.
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Chicken and egg.

If Minnesota was able to compete for championships with similar odds to Ohio State or Michigan, more people would probably show up for the games and follow the team. The market can support pro teams in every major US league. But only the Gophers (and maybe the T-Wolves) have virtually no chance to win their league's title.

It's not a coincidence that the NFL is the most successful sports league on Earth (even beyond any soccer league) and it is also the most egalitarian. Draft system with Pick 1 to the worst team, hard salary cap, and copious revenue sharing. In the NFL, almost nobody (players or coaches) moves to bigger markets except by coincidence. The result is a league where all 32 teams have a reasonable chance to win the Super Bowl, all markets and fans are engaged, and everyone's making money.

The NCAA has the dream setup with over 100 teams covering almost the entire USA, over 50 P5-level schools. Just give everyone a reasonable shot by leveling the playing field, and watch the money roll in.
 

fmlizard said:
Chicken and egg.

If Minnesota was able to compete for championships with similar odds to Ohio State or Michigan, more people would probably show up for the games and follow the team. The market can support pro teams in every major US league. But only the Gophers (and maybe the T-Wolves) have virtually no chance to win their league's title.

It's not a coincidence that the NFL is the most successful sports league on Earth (even beyond any soccer league) and it is also the most egalitarian. Draft system with Pick 1 to the worst team, hard salary cap, and copious revenue sharing. In the NFL, almost nobody (players or coaches) moves to bigger markets except by coincidence. The result is a league where all 32 teams have a reasonable chance to win the Super Bowl, all markets and fans are engaged, and everyone's making money.

The NCAA has the dream setup with over 100 teams covering almost the entire USA, over 50 P5-level schools. Just give everyone a reasonable shot by leveling the playing field, and watch the money roll in.
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Everything you said about the NFL could also be said about the NHL. There’s a little more to it than that. Also CFB isn’t exactly lacking dollars or popularity.
 

One way to level the playing field is to wake the woke by reminding them how huge is sport's carbon footprint. If they are truly climate warriors they would push for the end to all intercollegiate sports.
 



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