2021 College Football

[caulfield12]

10 hours ago, CentralChamps21 said:

The gap between Georgia, Bama, and to a lesser extent Ohio State and Clemson, and the rest of college football in recruiting of 5* players is obscene.

Probably can add USC and maybe Notre Dame....at least until Riley goes to the NFL.

[CentralChamps21]

5 hours ago, caulfield12 said:

Probably can add USC and maybe Notre Dame....at least until Riley goes to the NFL.

Notre Dame has not gotten anywhere near the talent of those other schools, at least not under Brian Kelly. Things may change under Freeman.

[Boopa1219]

I had OSU winning with ND being so in flux and with them missing their best players on Offense and Defense but Jack Coan played like shit in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl. Him and Rees starting calling/playing scared and conservative and they deserved to lose. They should’ve won that game. 

[champagne030]

When did Ohio State turn into Texas Tech?   They’re incredibly soft and so finesse.

[CentralChamps21]

2 hours ago, Joshua Strong said:

I had OSU winning with ND being so in flux and with them missing their best players on Offense and Defense but Jack Coan played like shit in the second half of the Fiesta Bowl. Him and Rees starting calling/playing scared and conservative and they deserved to lose. They should’ve won that game. 

Coan is an almost perfect passer when he has a clean pocket and his first or second read is open, but he was never able to perform under pressure which is why he got benched as Wisconsin.

ND never really tried running the ball and I'm not sure if that's because Ok St had such a good run defense or if there was a lot more dropoff at RB behind Williams than I thought.

Not going for it on 4th and 1 from their own 40 in the 1st quarter was a bad decision as was not taking a shot at the end of the half with over 30 seconds left and 3 timeouts. Hopefully these are just rookie mistakes by Freeman.

[caulfield12]

Incredible depth at Ohio State…when their 3rd and 4th receivers are putting up those numbers with CJ Stroud the Heisman favorite if he returns.

Strangely becoming the Oklahoma of the Big 10.

[Boopa1219]

On 1/1/2022 at 7:07 PM, CentralChamps21 said:

Coan is an almost perfect passer when he has a clean pocket and his first or second read is open, but he was never able to perform under pressure which is why he got benched as Wisconsin.

ND never really tried running the ball and I'm not sure if that's because Ok St had such a good run defense or if there was a lot more dropoff at RB behind Williams than I thought.

Not going for it on 4th and 1 from their own 40 in the 1st quarter was a bad decision as was not taking a shot at the end of the half with over 30 seconds left and 3 timeouts. Hopefully these are just rookie mistakes by Freeman.

Yeah the game management at the end of the half was bad and I agree about not going for it in the first quarter, I was screaming at my TV.

I’m still very high on Freeman, I just think the game highlighted how poorly ND has recruited skill positions in recent years, especially on offense. I expect that to change under Freeman, there a rumor that the Bama WR coach might be going to ND which would be huge. 

[CentralChamps21]

1 hour ago, Joshua Strong said:

Yeah the game management at the end of the half was bad and I agree about not going for it in the first quarter, I was screaming at my TV.

I’m still very high on Freeman, I just think the game highlighted how poorly ND has recruited skill positions in recent years, especially on offense. I expect that to change under Freeman, there a rumor that the Bama WR coach might be going to ND which would be huge. 

A couple weeks ago, Ian Book started at QB, and there was a graphic on the screen noting that ND quarterbacks had lost 23 straight starts in the NFL. Last win was by Brady Quinn. They need to land a 5-star QB.

[Boopa1219]

10 hours ago, CentralChamps21 said:

A couple weeks ago, Ian Book started at QB, and there was a graphic on the screen noting that ND quarterbacks had lost 23 straight starts in the NFL. Last win was by Brady Quinn. They need to land a 5-star QB.

I agree and once that happens, the other skill players will follow

 

It's been a while since Jimmy Clausen and Gunn Kiel. 

 

 

Edited January 5, 2022 by Joshua Strong

[southsider2k5]

Its a different world these days.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2022/01/06/caleb-williams-qb-eastern-michigan-million-charlie-batch/9121150002/

[Balta1701]

Who was the Missouri fan or fans here? Connor Bazelak, any opinions?

[caulfield12]

On 1/7/2022 at 10:04 PM, Balta1701 said:

Who was the Missouri fan or fans here? Connor Bazelak, any opinions?

He can't possibly be any worse than Iowa's QBs...

 

https://www.rockmnation.com/2020-mizzou-football/2020/10/16/21518672/how-does-connor-bazelak-compare-to-missouris-recent-quarterbacks

Didn't realize Missouri had five QB's in the last couple of decades who played/started in the NFL, if you include Blaine Gabbert to the names listed in this article.

Edited January 17, 2022 by caulfield12

[Texsox]

On 1/6/2022 at 3:34 PM, southsider2k5 said:

Its a different world these days.

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/2022/01/06/caleb-williams-qb-eastern-michigan-million-charlie-batch/9121150002/

I smell an investment opportunity. Kind of like a mutually fund but buying NIL rights of college players. 

https://www.thebrandrgroup.com/

There is money to be made. 

 

[Texsox]

Love it. Texas boosters are going to change the landscape. I can't imagine Texas boosters being outbid for some kid.

Love corporations also making money off these kids instead of just the universities. I'm hoping advertisers stop buying ads with national media and go all in on these partnerships. If Lambo made a truck that could tow 8,000 pounds of I'd consider it for my next vehicle. 

The real smart move is for the NFL and NCAA to partnership and each NFL team sponsors a university team with the NFL team being allowed to protect a certain number from the draft. The super conference it would create would actually make more, not less, universities competitive. 

How about. Chevy dealer supplying cars and apple pies to the baseball team? The lesser sport athletes won't be helped, but welcome to a free market.

[Balta1701]

6 hours ago, Texsox said:

Love it. Texas boosters are going to change the landscape. I can't imagine Texas boosters being outbid for some kid.

Love corporations also making money off these kids instead of just the universities. I'm hoping advertisers stop buying ads with national media and go all in on these partnerships. If Lambo made a truck that could tow 8,000 pounds of I'd consider it for my next vehicle. 

The real smart move is for the NFL and NCAA to partnership and each NFL team sponsors a university team with the NFL team being allowed to protect a certain number from the draft. The super conference it would create would actually make more, not less, universities competitive. 

How about. Chevy dealer supplying cars and apple pies to the baseball team? The lesser sport athletes won't be helped, but welcome to a free market.

Well for starters, Texas A&M had what, 7 five-star recruits to their football team this year or something ridiculous like that? So it definitely is changing the landscape. 

But, "there's no parity in college football" has been a mantra pretty much all my life hasn't it? You swap in one school or another every now and then, but Meyer in Florida, Saban wherever, Clemson, USC - there's always a handful of schools where they make a top coach very wealthy and that place becomes an NFL pipeline for a few years.

Worth noting in addition, the NCAA basketball tournament finals this year had one program where the school famously made up non-existent classes so that the players could pass competing against a team where Adidas was funneling money to players and the feds are involved there. So maybe it hasn't been particularly innocent in the past, and having this out in the open is a lot better than having a bunch of college kids committing fraud.

There's apparently some actual need for improvement in this system as well as some NIL providers are doing things like asking guys to sign away their marketing for their entire career in their initial contracts and hoping the kids don't read them. (https://slate.com/culture/2022/05/jordan-addison-pitt-usc-transfer-portal-nil-ncaa-pay.html)

[Texsox]

Usually I don't believe it should be anyone's business other than the parties involved in the contract. If individuals don't hire an attorney and understand the contract it shouldn't be up to a third party to intervene. 

But feeding incoming freshman to the wolves doesn't seem right either. But implementing a rule that perhaps limits NIL rights to their college career only and strips the athlete of eligibility if they sign for post college would protect that, but limit the money the player could be earning. 

Anyway it's exciting to watch the transformation. It takes away a chunk of enjoyment I received from college athletics, but it is great for the kids and that's really what matters. It won't make a difference for my high school athletes but we have a couple kids on campus who could be cashing some checks. 

Now they need a way for all college athletes to share, not just the revenue sport stars. 

[Texsox]

What would be an interesting proposal is allowing each school to have a few players who do not have to attend classes. Obviously there are a few players who are going pro and football is what they are studying. Leave the number of scholarships the same, but just pay a few players like employees. Maybe six to 12? We know there has been academic cheating forever. 

There would probably have to be an age limit or number of years someone was eligible. 

 

 

[Balta1701]

I’m going to use the example of Indiana basketball because let’s just be honest, what college team do I know better?

Theres some real interesting stuff happening with them. Their best player, Trayce Jackson-Davis, is in that realm where he will probably be a late 2nd round pick, so he is exploring the draft without an agent so he can decide after workouts whether to come back for one year (a really good rule allows that). If he comes back, IU is probably the B1G favorite on paper to start the year. But also for him, there’s literally hundreds of thousands of dollars he can make as IU’s best player this year doing events and endorsements. He will only make a little more if he’s drafted. I think most expect him to come back because of this, and keeping guys like him around for their senior years is a great thing for the sport as those were the experienced guys you hated losing. They make the quality of the whole league go up.

Also coming back for his super senioR year is Race Thompson. He’s a classic glue guy, plays defense and gets rebounds, no future in the NBA. Might do something else with his life, might wind up playing overseas, who knows. He isn’t TJD, but he is also making decent money on his name by being at IU. I submit that is a good thing, this might be the most money he ever makes playing basketball, and he gets something out of his skills beyond a degree.

I mention those two because they also are involved in a group NIL for charity effort in southern Indiana, along with people from other sports and schools. Apps they also expect to raise a couple million for charity with this group this season, which is extra cool.

Guys at the back of the roster might still be able to do an event or two. They won’t make the same kind of money, but those guys aren’t there for the sport to be their career, they are still guys who do get something out of playing - a degree.

There will always be room for rules to make things more fair and to protect students from unscrupulous salespeople, and it will take time to flesh those out. But so far, this is a lot more legal than bags of cash under the table and trips to the strip club or whatever else schools have been doing, and a lot more fair than Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley chasing huge contracts while leaving behind their recruits.

[Texsox]

From the Athletic 

The gist: The NCAA will try to label the new collectives as boosters, thus subjecting them to specific rules which the NCAA will use to punish these above-the-table pay-for-play schemes. The problem? The law isn’t on the NCAA’s side. 

I can't believe the NCAA is trying to rule this. Their chance was years ago, they didn't act so the courts did. 

I'd still like to see stipends for all NCAA Div 1 athletes. Without teammates those stars aren't cashing those checks. The money should be coming from the universities who are making the money from the players. 

Perhaps the players could put together a CBA and strike until they get their proper share. 

 

 

[CentralChamps21]

6 minutes ago, Texsox said:

Perhaps the players could put together a CBA and strike until they get their proper share.

What exactly is "their proper share"? Universities don't turn profits on athletics. Revenue from football and basketball go to fund all the other sports.

It might be "fair" for that revenue to go to the football and basketball players rather than volleyball and baseball scholarships, but is that really the best thing for everybody?

[Texsox]

Each sport has costs. Stadiums, coaching, scholarships, uniforms, travel, etc. One of those costs should also be stipends for players. Currently college athletes have almost no chance to earn money for simple things like going on a date. A few hundred dollars a month seems like something that would be doable for most D1 programs.

 

[Balta1701]

 

[southsider2k5]

3 hours ago, Balta1701 said:

 

Right.  The guy who Alabama paid huge money for to get from Michigan State, and is making $9.5 million a year needs to be talking about the influence of money in college football.  GMAFB.

[Texsox]

Pro teams need to sponsor college athletics. Instead of a minor league system pay kids to play college ball. In football you'd have greater parity with each NFL team funneling players to different schools. Hell imagine if the Bears were bankrolling Northwestern or U of I?

In baseball it could replace A or AA. 

[caulfield12]

On 5/8/2022 at 12:04 AM, Balta1701 said:

I’m going to use the example of Indiana basketball because let’s just be honest, what college team do I know better?

Theres some real interesting stuff happening with them. Their best player, Trayce Jackson-Davis, is in that realm where he will probably be a late 2nd round pick, so he is exploring the draft without an agent so he can decide after workouts whether to come back for one year (a really good rule allows that). If he comes back, IU is probably the B1G favorite on paper to start the year. But also for him, there’s literally hundreds of thousands of dollars he can make as IU’s best player this year doing events and endorsements. He will only make a little more if he’s drafted. I think most expect him to come back because of this, and keeping guys like him around for their senior years is a great thing for the sport as those were the experienced guys you hated losing. They make the quality of the whole league go up.

Also coming back for his super senioR year is Race Thompson. He’s a classic glue guy, plays defense and gets rebounds, no future in the NBA. Might do something else with his life, might wind up playing overseas, who knows. He isn’t TJD, but he is also making decent money on his name by being at IU. I submit that is a good thing, this might be the most money he ever makes playing basketball, and he gets something out of his skills beyond a degree.

I mention those two because they also are involved in a group NIL for charity effort in southern Indiana, along with people from other sports and schools. Apps they also expect to raise a couple million for charity with this group this season, which is extra cool.

Guys at the back of the roster might still be able to do an event or two. They won’t make the same kind of money, but those guys aren’t there for the sport to be their career, they are still guys who do get something out of playing - a degree.

There will always be room for rules to make things more fair and to protect students from unscrupulous salespeople, and it will take time to flesh those out. But so far, this is a lot more legal than bags of cash under the table and trips to the strip club or whatever else schools have been doing, and a lot more fair than Brian Kelly and Lincoln Riley chasing huge contracts while leaving behind their recruits.

Except Riley took most of his best players/recruits with him...

 

The other side of this is schools like Iowa and Iowa State...because of the limits of the Iowa economy, they just don't have the corporations to put together these meaningful NIL deals so they're behind the 8 ball, besides the fact that Iowa has never been a recruiting hot bed and most of the best players always went to UNC or Kansas with a few notable exceptions.  Iowa is losing out on transfer "big men" over and over again because the just can't compete on the NIL front, at least not yet.   I mean, Casey's General Store, Hy-Vee stores and the I-80 truck stop in Walcott is just not exactly corporate America.  At least IU has Indianapolis and just ND and Purdue to compete with.   Iowa and Iowa State also have Creighton on their western border in a major media conference.

https://theathletic.com/news/football-transfers-ncaa-immediate-eligibility-nil/RO3UUaCZUjix/

Not that Iowa was going to win the NCAA championship if they kept Joe Weiskamp, CJ Frederick and Jack Nunge, but they would have at least made the Sweet 16 or Elite 8 for the first time since the 1998 season.

Now we might even have Kris Murray go to the NBA, although that's highly unlikely...like the example above and the fact that he should be "the man" next year with his twin brother leaving for NBA riches.

The fact of the matter is that the only thing Iowa has to offer is playing time in one the the top conferences, an uptempo offense (spotty defense) and numerous opportunities to play on national television in major media markets.

Despite having Luka Garza and Murray nearly win back to back national PoY awards, they're still unable to attract McDonald's All-Americans (ironically, Kenyon Murray was one of the last in program history and they were so fortunate nobody discovered his kids until it was too late to steer them away)...but when you always rely on developing guys outside the Top 100 recruiting rankings for basketball and football, well, it is what it is.