College Football Oversight & Compensation

[Pagoda]

51 minutes ago, Home Jersey said:

My armchair opinion is that such an entity would probably only make sense for a few schools. Probably the big SEC/Big Ten schools and a couple handfuls of ACC/Big 12. All football oriented. Not sure how basketball would factor in. 

The other schools I think would continue playing in a much lesser NCAA that's also much less money-oriented. 

In whatever landscape there is going forward, I think even some B1G and SEC schools may be in a precarious position.

For example, there are a few (but I've got one in mind) bad football programs in the B1G/SEC that are showing little sign of investing more in their FB program. Schools are very competitive for revenue right now, and I've got to think conferences are going to look at schools that aren't investing in football and add very little to the next media rights deal and ask themselves if they want send those schools $100M+ per year in media rights, which of course adds up to $1B+ over ten years.  Why not cut their share or boot them?  Let the contributing schools keep that money.  Right or wrong, it wouldn't be surprising if that happened in my opinion...

Thankfully, our guy Scott gets this, he said, "In the Big Ten, you need to be relevant in football to be a relevant member in your conference. We want to pay our fair share and be a valued member in football." 

Some people get upset with Scott over CDD/IUBB not going great, regardless of it that's true or not, they're missing the big picture.  Scott's #1 priority is making IUFB an appealing media property.  Not an easy task at all, but he's doing it, and hopefully he keeps it up.  If IUFB stinks and no one wants to watch us, all of IU athletics has an uncertain future.

[TTT]

[TTT]

Johnny Unitas had several jobs in off season….as did many professional athletes.

[Scotty R]

3 hours ago, Brass Cannon said:

An in state college education didn’t cost 6 figures 20 years ago and certainly not in the 70s and 80s.  Heck I’m not sure it does now but honestly don’t know.  
 

But let’s use 2009 numbers because I know them. 7500 for a year at IU.  Multiplied by 100 football players would cost of 750,000.  For multi million(s) in revenue.  
 

 

My daughter got a free ride at IU and the total cost was 24,950 a year

[Scotty R]

3 hours ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

The revenue is because of the universities. The players, except in very very limited exceptions, are interchangeable. Look at the attendance/viewership for minor league teams. It’s nothing compared to college sports. 15k plus people aren’t packing in Assembly Hall to watch Tucker Devries (no offense to him). They’re coming to watch Indiana University. 100k people wouldn’t go watch the Tuscaloosa Tide play the Athens Bulldogs. 

I’m not against NIL in theory. If people want to buy a player’s autograph, or if Mother Bears wants to pay Anthony Leal to advertise pizzas, no problem with that. But the current “NIL” landscape is so far removed from that. It’s a complete mess, and it’s only going to get worse. 

Amen, very well said. It was supposed to be players being paid for name, image and likeness and not pay for play.

[Scotty R]

3 hours ago, Pagoda said:

I don't know.  If we changed out IU's team to all walk-ons, we'd be 0-12 this season.  What do you think attendance and program revenue would be?  The team would have Indiana University on their jerseys, but ain't nobody watching that.

NIL looks like a good thing overall.  It's basically just really rich people paying players who are generally run of the mill middle class people.  And in some cases players from tough backgrounds get lifechanging money for themselves and their families (of course they have to use it right, and while some don't, most probably do).  This looks good to me.

What I think if we take away all the top college players and let them all go play over seas and bring up D2 and D3 play. If IU or any other top programs get the top players and win you wouldn't see any decrease in attendance because we root for the team not the individual players 

 

[Brass Cannon]

6 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

What I think if we take away all the top college players and let them all go play over seas and bring up D2 and D3 play. If IU or any other top programs get the top players and win you wouldn't see any decrease in attendance because we root for the team not the individual players 

 

They aren’t going to go overseas. The market is here.  

[Scotty R]

Just now, Brass Cannon said:

They aren’t going to go overseas. The market is here.  

We need to change that market 

[AZ Hoosier]

2 hours ago, Home Jersey said:

My armchair opinion is that such an entity would probably only make sense for a few schools. Probably the big SEC/Big Ten schools and a couple handfuls of ACC/Big 12. All football oriented. Not sure how basketball would factor in. 

The other schools I think would continue playing in a much lesser NCAA that's also much less money-oriented. 

I get where you're coming from, but like it our not, it's all money-oriented these days.

[Scotty R]

I have a qt fir everyone 

If college sports changed to where it isn't affiliated with the schools any longer will you still watch it. Instead of it being Indiana Hoosiers it would be the Bloomington club team. I know I would no longer watch it because it would just be a minor league sport and I have no interest in watching minor league sports.

[Pagoda]

2 minutes ago, Scotty R said:

What I think if we take away all the top college players and let them all go play over seas and bring up D2 and D3 play. If IU or any other top programs get the top players and win you wouldn't see any decrease in attendance because we root for the team not the individual players 

 

If you did that programs would just spend the same money for the top D2/D3 players.

You’re missing that college fans root for  good college teams, and to be a good team you need good players, and those good players are rare and worth a lot of $, to the tune of $15-40M for a football roster.

We can trot out walk-ons for IUFB and IUBB, we will stink, and no one will go to games despite the name on the front of the jersey.

[Hurryin' Hoosiers]

5 hours ago, Pagoda said:

Let's assume a very expensive large football program cuts their $50M spend on staff and players down to $10M.  A $40M savings.  For a typical state school student population of 40K, that's about $1K per student per year.  It's not going to make a dent.

And of course to do this, you'd be screwing players and even coaches out of what they're worth.  And in reality, today football programs still turn a profit or at worst produce a small, de minimis loss.

If what people are worth is determined by revenue brought in then I guess teachers, policeman, firefighters etc should all just work for free.

If every player quit and we fielded teams of replacements, do you really believe revenue would go to zero?  Value added is more relevant and salary also can't solely be determined by revenue as illustrated in aforementioned fields.  It is insane players coaches makes multiple times more than doctors, regular teachers and almost every other field outside maybe overpaid ceos

[Brass Cannon]

1 hour ago, Scotty R said:

We need to change that market 

Cool.  Wanting it doesn’t make it so 

[Brass Cannon]

1 hour ago, Scotty R said:

My daughter got a free ride at IU and the total cost was 24,950 a year

Less than 6 figures.  Thats with housing as well I would guess 
 

[Scotty R]

1 hour ago, Brass Cannon said:

Less than 6 figures.  Thats with housing as well I would guess 
 

Housing and food

Once she moved into her own apartment she still got the money for housing and food but it went directly to her.

She also had pell grants and other scholarships so she got a pretty big check before each semester and it covered all of her living expenses 

[RaceToTheTop]

5 hours ago, Scotty R said:

We need to change that market 

Nothing is preventing you from not watching.

[Scotty R]

1 hour ago, RaceToTheTop said:

Nothing is preventing you from not watching.

It is getting close to that point for me. I just hate that they have really messed up the sport I use to love for years. All sports are getting harder to actually watch and enjoy the product. I rarely watch the NBA except for the Pacers and this year they are hard to watch. I have watched less NFL this year than I have in the past.

[Demo]

Couldn’t think of anywhere to put this, but here’s the NCAA just continuing to create more exceptions every day. I assume minor league baseball players will be treated the same.

Serious question: has NCAA leadership made the conscious decision that they are so irrelevant in the new world order that they want to be bypassed and ultimately dissolved and replaced by some other governing entity? Certainly feels that way.

[jermhoosierfan]

23 minutes ago, Demo said:

Couldn’t think of anywhere to put this, but here’s the NCAA just continuing to create more exceptions every day. I assume minor league baseball players will be treated the same.

Serious question: has NCAA leadership made the conscious decision that they are so irrelevant in the new world order that they want to be bypassed and ultimately dissolved and replaced by some other governing entity? Certainly feels that way.

The P4 will have to break off at some point because the NCAA just rolls over anymore.  And it will be football driven too, so a school better be in the upper half of football to be relevant.  

[Old Friend]

On 12/27/2025 at 12:25 PM, tyappleg said:

The system has taken advantage of the kids for 100 years.  I'm fine with them taking back some control. 

No it hasn't.  Stop.   Every business in the world makes money off of its employees. (and yes, I know college athletes weren't employees until recently.  Save it) There is study after study which shows people with a college degree earn over $1.1M more over a lifetime than those who don't.  College athletes get that education for free.  They eat free.  They get free tutoring.  They get preferred housing.  They have always received stipends.  If you focus on the < 1% of kids who go on to play professionally, they may lose out.  No one else does.

Listening to the demands of children is a bad recipe and no one can tell me what's happening right now is good for college sports, even if Indiana fans are seeing great benefit from it.  Nobody has "taken advantage" of kids.  Want to do a study over the last, say 75 years how many kids have been "taken advantage of" vs how many have received an opportunity they otherwise wouldn't have had?    Then we can do one on the number of athletes who are making money now vs. 5 years ago.  Yep.  The top tier are doing just fine.  What are the tennis players making?  Gymnasts?   

In any case, there is no reasonable argument for kids who are both on scholarship AND being paid being allowed to quit without penalty.