College Sports used to feel more "pure" than the Pros. Its feels the opposite to me nowadays. Am I alone?

[Zerostatic]

I remember back in the day I used to love College sports, partly because they felt more pure than the Pros. It felt like good coaching and player development is all you needed to have successful season.

Conferences were more regional, rivalries meant more, the conferences themselves were more on par, or at the very least, weren't constantly trying to steal teams from each other. Now you have teams with no connections or history in hodge podge conferences playing teams that are far away.

Kids would stay at a school their entire career. If you had a good recruiting staff, you could find a hidden gem on the recruiting trail and develop them and it would pay off for your program. Star players became synonymous with their school. Now, if you develop a guy, they more often then not are in the portal seeking greener pastures.

Bowl games were special. They were your championship. Now, stud players at smaller schools enter the portal and don't even participate.

Nowadays, I almost feel like the Pros feel more pure and less slimey. In the NFL, every team has a salary cap so money is generally not what makes one team more successful than others. There's a draft so every team has a chance to get studs every year. Rookies have a multiyear commitment to the team they drafted and teams can sign veterans to multi-year contracts so they don't bail on you immediately.

Anybody else feel like this?

 

[TheDrifter75]

Nah, I just like college ball more.

 

[UCFBfan]

Must be new here

 

[Patman]

no, you're not alone... most of college sports fans feel that way

 

[UConnTrumbull]

We haven’t even scratched the surface yet. There are NIL lawyers that want to allow in-season transfers. Imagine a guy playing 3 weeks for your school then saying “I’m out. Going over to UNC!” Because that’s on the way.

 

[LBird33]

Yep unfortunately those days are gone and I laugh when I hear student athletes. Maybe some but many their degrees are in sports science. Sports philosophy not really worth much in a business environment

 

[Enrique]

No, you are not wong. The power play of the P4 and their endless greed for more money has ruined the collegiante game as we once knew it. Fans of non-P4 schools should just completely boycot them, thereby reducing the monetary gains made from destroying non-P4 programs.

 

[UCFBfan]

We haven’t even scratched the surface yet. There are NIL lawyers that want to allow in-season transfers. Imagine a guy playing 3 weeks for your school then saying “I’m out. Going over to UNC!” Because that’s on the way.

I can't even fathom this. Forget any balance of power that has come from the portal if this ever happens. Every year the Top 5 schools will restock after 4 games with top talent.

 

[Scoe]

I hear what you're saying but we all need to buy in and support Storrs Central just $10 a month. You have to create a culture and evolve you bring in the right kids with the right family it can be done we see it with Hurley obviously, we're also seeing it with Jim Mora. We did beat out Michigan to keep Skyler Bell, we'll see how the portal goes in the spring.

 

[Scoe]

 

[Scoe]

The OP can't be a Giants fan can he?

 

[Rich]

Let's put it this way....

I was completely unaware that one of the semifinals was being played last night. Back when the Natty was a function of the BCS/computers and human voters I would have had that game bookmarked and done whatever was necessary to be in front of a screen.

I could not care less that the players are paid. However, the effect on roster construction and sheer amount of time and effort it takes to keep up on who is going where year to year is simply exhausting and a giant time suck that I cannot create space to deal with. The more college football comes to resemble a professional sport, the more it will find itself competing with the NFL for time and eyeballs.

If you hate the whole NIL/free agency thing, well I understand that Oregon is going so far as to solicit NFL players who may have collegiate eligibility remaining.

 

[uconnric]

College sports (especially football and basketball) are now professional sports without any regulations. The NFL, NBA and other pro sports leagues regulate themselves. College sports may eventually regulate itself, but it will be controlled by the P4 conferences, and among them mostly the SEC and B1G. The G5 teams will essentially be feeder programs for the P4's.

We need to get into a P4 conference asap. Collectively we also need to contribute to NIL. Jim Mora certainly understands this.

 

[Gburyhusky]

Honestly I like the current landscape of college sports as long as we are winning.

 

[Griggs]

I'm with you brother.

 

[buddy]

I hear what you're saying but we all need to buy in and support Storrs Central just $10 a month. You have to create a culture and evolve you bring in the right kids with the right family it can be done we see it with Hurley obviously, we're also seeing it with Jim Mora. We did beat out Michigan to keep Skyler Bell, we'll see how the portal goes in the spring.

I suspect Skyler found out he wouldn't be number 1 at Michigan and changed his mind.

 

[Scoe]

I suspect Skyler found out he wouldn't be number 1 at Michigan and changed his mind.

That's fine with me. Now he's the guy and he can become a trend setter for this program.

 

[Windham4th]

Honestly I like the current landscape of college sports as long as we are winning.

We were 9-4 but we aren’t winning yet... because of the independent status.

 

[Zerostatic]

I hear what you're saying but we all need to buy in and support Storrs Central just $10 a month. You have to create a culture and evolve you bring in the right kids with the right family it can be done we see it with Hurley obviously, we're also seeing it with Jim Mora. We did beat out Michigan to keep Skyler Bell, we'll see how the portal goes in the spring.

Don’t worry, I still show my support. I already subscribe to Storrs Central and I‘ve gone to the last couple of Fanfest as well as various games across multiple sports. I’ll always support my huskies, I’m speaking more about the institution of college sports in general.

 

[Zerostatic]

The OP can't be a Giants fan can he?

Worse, I’m a Jets fan. We might be the most dysfunctional franchise in the NFL but we have a way better chance of winning a Superbowl than the majority of College Football has at winning a national championship.

 

[formerlurker]

Worse, I’m a Jets fan.

 

[Kembafan]

I suspect Skyler found out he wouldn't be number 1 at Michigan and changed his mind.

You’re probably right. It’s also pretty cool to know that our program is now serious and committed to doing what it can to get/keep good players.

 

[Austin316]

It’s called greed. It’s a sin. No greed makes it feel pure.

 

[Jetskies]

the only way to have a pure college football experience is to ensure no one is profiting on it. not the schools, not conferences, not TV channels, not advertisers, no one. therefore put all games on PBS or public access television and solicit fan donations instead of having advertisers.

the idea above is a total crock - my point is - CFB hasn't been "pure" for a long, long, long time. this current NIL situation is trash but that's not what killed it. Too many people sitting pretty, were making money off these kids. the moment everyone besides the players started making $$$, was when this pureness went out the door.

The chaos we're seeing, is not the beginning of purity loss, but rather the beginning of the acceleration to the endgame of all of this, which none of us knows - but i think it all ends with a mass football exodus to form the P4 Superleague, a self-governed college football league with commissioner, conferences, divisions, salary cap, just like the NFL.

G5 stays behind in the NCAA to be the de facto FBS.