Ubben: There is one clear way to stop the chaotic roster turnover taking over college football

[BleedGopher]

per Ubben:

It feels a lot more likely to be a negative development for college football than a positive one, but college football today is a far less inherently exploitative enterprise than it was a year ago. That’s a good thing, even if the sport requires further adjustment to reach a serviceable stopping point for its current state of upheaval.

Preventing the sport from becoming more fair and equitable is never the right decision if maintaining the sport’s health comes at the cost of continuing to allow everyone involved to benefit except players.

In short: Player freedom is good. But this amount of turnover is not likely to help the sport, and it’s even more likely to cost players scholarships and degrees as they enter the portal but struggle to find a serviceable way out.

The unprecedented player movement might leave fans less invested. It worsened an already barely sustainable quality of life for coaches, who are left recruiting high school prospects and now their own rosters and opposing rosters with players who elected to transfer.

There’s a fix, and it’s a familiar refrain: Pay the players.

It always has been the right thing to do. But now it’s the price of returning to some level of sanity in roster construction and maintenance.

College football, as currently constructed, leaves programs with zero right to decide where players are allowed to pursue their education and play out their careers. The free transfer was long overdue. Coaches weren’t subject to non-compete clauses when they left for better jobs or were told they weren’t good enough to continue doing their current jobs. And yet, unpaid players were. It was the definition of a power imbalance.

And while free agency has arrived in college football, it’s a lot more like an annual fantasy draft for 130 programs, especially for those who believe tampering is rampant. But there’s a reason free agency doesn’t run wild every offseason in professional sports.

Contracts. That pay real money. (Sorry for getting you excited about restricted, free labor, NCAA.)

That gives a program (dare I say, employer) a right to restrict a player’s movement without exploiting that player. College sports are at a crossroads: live with the chaos, tampering and impossible roster management or take the final step toward making college football a truly equitable enterprise and make players sign contracts that require them to remain at a campus for a set period and also allow them to earn money.

Now, the impact of NIL money on players’ free trips into the transfer portal might push decision-makers to finally employ a long-overdue fix.

Unlike NIL, there are a host of issues in turning the concept of player contracts into reality. Title IX is a hurdle. The entire economic structure of college athletic departments is a hurdle. Smaller programs might not be able to keep up. News flash: They can’t keep up now.

There are no easy answers to those fair questions. But college sports’ economic model long has been broken and is badly in need of a reset. And hurdles can be cleared.

Again, it’s not simple. But it’s the only way to calm the roster pandemonium.

Ubben: There is one clear way to stop the chaotic roster turnover taking over college football

College football got a lot less exploitative in the past year, but it also got way, way more chaotic. There is a way to fix that.

theathletic.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

How do you say that last name?

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Frying pan, fire

 

[goldenboy]

If playing football is a job, then pay the players. But then charge them for tuition, room and board just like other students who have jobs. It’s absurd that the value of their education is so easily dismissed in these debates.

 

[Pete smith]

Stupid - the rich get richer. Du, Ok. QB offered $1 million to transfer to Eastern Mich. will be common. Again, the rich get richer.

 

[1983]

It is nearly out of hand now, just wait. The fun of it will disappear for me. The meaning and traditions will go away as well. Where will the season ticket holders come from going forward?

 

[Gophergrandpa]

Lazy article. There are plenty of ways to stop excessive transfers other than paying players. Moreover, paying players would make no difference whatsoever in a free-transfer environment; it would just raise the bidding. Pro leagues have demonstrated that paying a salary is not a barrier to player movement or tampering unless (1) key players can be tied up in multi-year contracts that ban them from moving to another team and (2) every team is subject to a common level payment/salary cap (or there is a “luxury tax” imposed on excess salaries, which tax is distributed back to others in the league that respect the salary cap). Of course, then you are just football minor leagues.

Only a few colleges have boosters that will pony up $25M+ per year to buy the top talent for their team. We might be heading to a system in which there is an official elite (sorry, PJ) college league that is an unregulated professional league of highly paid players, whose colleges are merely franchises placing no academic expectations are placed on the players, versus a larger confederation of leagues comprising truly amateur student-athlete teams in which players receive a free education, some other essentials, and academic expectations are an equal measure in the bargain. There should be a clean split between the two. We’d maybe lose Ohio State and Penn State to the elite league.

 

[Gophers1992]

Stupid - the rich get richer. Du, Ok. QB offered $1 million to transfer to Eastern Mich. will be common. Again, the rich get richer.

Yeah I'm sick of superpowers like Eastern Michigan dominating the CFB world.

 

[GopherOhana]

if you pay them then don't right to work laws come into play? Hey player, you're not meeting our expectations, we're firing you today...and no more school or scholarship from us from this day forward.

and, would our gophers basically become the bigten version of the circa 2002 oakland As, billy bean?

 

[Wally]

if you pay them then don't right to work laws come into play? Hey player, you're not meeting our expectations, we're firing you today...and no more school or scholarship from us from this day forward.

and, would our gophers basically become the bigten version of the circa 2002 oakland As, billy bean?

Can they not "fire" a player today?

 

[Some guy]

Paying the players would be more complicated and harder to control than what we have now.

paying the players there could be no rules. Would vary by state.
Universities even within conferences cannot coordinate rules for pay or that is collusion.

the Supreme Court has basically made college football either a no pay thing with unregulated 3rd party payments
Or a paid thing with unregulated first party payments.


The way to actually calm things down is to have roster limits (not scholarship limits) and loss of eligibility for transfers. (Either sitting a year or losing a year). Short of that, congressional action granting permission to have a monopoly is really the only thing that can slow it down.

 

[GopherOhana]

Can they not "fire" a player today?

i could be wrong, but i think scholarship players get to keep the scholarship for an academic year. you might be able to dismiss them from team activities but the school still has a liabilty

 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

Can they not "fire" a player today?

If I remember correctly, B1G has gone to 4-year guarantees for scholarship to freshmen.

Coaches might "run off" an underperforming player, but they can't "fire" him.

 

[RememberMurray]

If playing football is a job, then pay the players. But then charge them for tuition, room and board just like other students who have jobs. It’s absurd that the value of their education is so easily dismissed in these debates.

The reason the value of an education is dismissed is because for the big, dollar generating college football and basketball programs the education part of the puzzle has always been a mirage.

Cardale Jones? Paging Cardale Jones?

If a school wants to pretend an athlete is a student in order to skirt some rules, and to have that athlete on the field for their football team, they can create that illusion pretty easily. And any attempts to catch academic cheaters and enforce the rules have always been spotty at best.

 

[CentralGopher]

Don’t they already get paid enough for those tats and jewelry?

 

[50PoundHead]

One scenario that could develop is that second-tier conferences (and lower-tier teams in major conferences) could become farm teams for the elite programs similar to some aspects of major/minor league baseball. I don't think one will see wholesale defections from the lower tiers to the bigger programs because continuity is important and that would be sacrificed by even the best teams if they simply went shopping across-the-board every year.

I'm curious about the reasons for guys like Cheney, Burns, Gordon, Dunbar, etc. Do they just want to get on the field? I think one of the questions that needs to be answered is whether guys can enter the portal more than once. I can see a lot of freshmen and sophomores who aren't likely to see the field because of an upperclassman that is in front of them transferring to a lower-tier school, getting on the field, proving themselves able (at least that would be their hope), and transferring back upward again.

I haven't been following that closely, but as I understand it, a guy could enter the portal as currently administered every year without having to sit out. I think limiting the number of times someone can enter the portal is the obvious place to start.

 

[Pete smith]

Yeah I'm sick of superpowers like Eastern Michigan dominating the CFB world.

I didn’t say E.Mich. was a football power. I was only saying that schools like E.Mich. would/could offer big dollars to play. Think what Mich. Penn.St. will be doing. go back to the basement, I hear your Mom calling.

 

[Gophers1992]

I didn’t say E.Mich. was a football power. I was only saying that schools like E.Mich. would/could offer big dollars to play. Think what Mich. Penn.St. will be doing. go back to the basement, I hear your Mom calling.

Sorry, it wasn't exactly easy to read your post.

 

[Some guy]

One scenario that could develop is that second-tier conferences (and lower-tier teams in major conferences) could become farm teams for the elite programs similar to some aspects of major/minor league baseball. I don't think one will see wholesale defections from the lower tiers to the bigger programs because continuity is important and that would be sacrificed by even the best teams if they simply went shopping across-the-board every year.

I'm curious about the reasons for guys like Cheney, Burns, Gordon, Dunbar, etc. Do they just want to get on the field? I think one of the questions that needs to be answered is whether guys can enter the portal more than once. I can see a lot of freshmen and sophomores who aren't likely to see the field because of an upperclassman that is in front of them transferring to a lower-tier school, getting on the field, proving themselves able (at least that would be their hope), and transferring back upward again.

I haven't been following that closely, but as I understand it, a guy could enter the portal as currently administered every year without having to sit out. I think limiting the number of times someone can enter the portal is the obvious place to start.

They can enter the portal an unlimited amount of times but they get 4 years to play (5 if one of the years was 2020) and they have to sit out a year the second time they change schools

 

[Pompous Elitist]

I think some employment law attorneys need to chime on on how equal pay for equal work, Title IX, hourly versus salary would apply to such a scenario. I cannot imagine a scenario at a University of the football team getting paid while, for example, women’s volleyball is not without demonstrations, acrimony, and gender warfare. Production/economic value has little meaning to some people. If, for example, every student athlete were paid minimum wage scale + standard 30-40% in benefits that would be what 20M or so in MN? Add in scholarship costs, attorney fees….and PJF and Coyle might have to take a haircut to keep the lights on. Might have to shake down Huntington for a few more quarters.

Would people donate money to such an entity?

 

[SanDiegoGopherFan]

Title whatever will come into play for all sports. It wouldnt surprise me if college sports enter a draft mode for high school players, thats how you remove the imbalance. Thats how the best players get paid the best money, etc etc.

College sports will become semi-pro or farm leagues soon enough

 

[#2Gopher]

Paying the players would be more complicated and harder to control than what we have now.

paying the players there could be no rules. Would vary by state.
Universities even within conferences cannot coordinate rules for pay or that is collusion.

the Supreme Court has basically made college football either a no pay thing with unregulated 3rd party payments
Or a paid thing with unregulated first party payments.


The way to actually calm things down is to have roster limits (not scholarship limits) and loss of eligibility for transfers. (Either sitting a year or losing a year). Short of that, congressional action granting permission to have a monopoly is really the only thing that can slow it down.

Solid points in this post. It really is a can of worms.

 

[RememberMurray]

I think some employment law attorneys need to chime on on how equal pay for equal work, Title IX, hourly versus salary would apply to such a scenario. I cannot imagine a scenario at a University of the football team getting paid while, for example, women’s volleyball is not without demonstrations, acrimony, and gender warfare. Production/economic value has little meaning to some people. If, for example, every student athlete were paid minimum wage scale + standard 30-40% in benefits that would be what 20M or so in MN? Add in scholarship costs, attorney fees….and PJF and Coyle might have to take a haircut to keep the lights on. Might have to shake down Huntington for a few more quarters.

Would people donate money to such an entity?

Well, yes. That's been a bone of contention for some time now. I've always been told that football and men's basketball generate the lion's share of the revenue. Would that revenue be used to pay all athletes in all sports an equal amount?

What about the coaches; would it be a directive that P.J. Fleck has to receive the same salary as Lindsay Whalen?

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Well, yes. That's been a bone of contention for some time now. I've always been told that football and men's basketball generate the lion's share of the revenue. Would that revenue be used to pay all athletes in all sports an equal amount?

What about the coaches; would it be a directive that P.J. Fleck has to receive the same salary as Lindsay Whalen?

PJF and Whalen aren’t receiving minimum wage scale.

 

[proudgopher]

If you pay them, would be classified as employees and have the right to join a union? Think of the fun that would bring. Think teachers' union in Chicago for example.

 

[Some guy]

If you pay them, would be classified as employees and have the right to join a union? Think of the fun that would bring. Think teachers' union in Chicago for example.

If you pay them, there can’t be any standardized rules between d1 unless they unionize and agree to a collectively bargained contract. Otherwise any price fixing would be collusion.

if schools start directly paying athletes…the top athletes would be stupid to unionize…it would only hold down their wages

 

[RememberMurray]

PJF and Whalen aren’t receiving minimum wage scale.

Uh huh. Thanks for the info.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Uh huh. Thanks for the info.

In other words, Murray, what would qualify a football player as an employee that would not also qualify a women’s volleyball player as an employee? There are legal tests. Set hours, control, and so on. If one is an employee so is the other. It does not matter a bit if one group brings in income and the other group a net loss.

This is why legal experts needs to chime in on the implications of deciding to make football players employees. It would require a special legal carve out that I do not think would go over well in the current political environment. Hourly scale? Salary, contract?

I could be wrong, but I’d like to hear some perspective.

 

[RememberMurray]

I was merely pointing out that gender equity issues, which you mentioned in your original post, could perhaps be seen (by some people) to apply to coaches' salaries as well. Equal pay for equal work.

I was, basically, agreeing with you.

 

[Pompous Elitist]

Ok, we crossed wires a little.

I do think there are myriad issues that haven’t been thought through very well that could well lead to a vast shrinkage of college scholarships and athletics. If someone could present a model where this doesn’t occur I’m willing to listen. I think it would require a complete rethink of governance and structure, and legal carve outs.