Got to admit to being a raisin bran lover back in the day until I realized the catch was just a bunch of sugar. Now, just give me the grapes.
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There are approximately 80,000 college football players in the United States across NCAA, NAIA, and junior colleges, with over 73,000 competing at the NCAA level alone in 2024.
How Many College Football Players Are There? 2025 Stats
Discover how many college football players there are in the U.S. across NCAA, NAIA, and junior colleges, with detailed breakdowns by division and level.
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That 10,200 number I believe was players on scholarship at D1 FBS schools - approximately 120 schools and 85 scholarships per school.There are approximately 80,000 college football players in the United States across NCAA, NAIA, and junior colleges, with over 73,000 competing at the NCAA level alone in 2024.
How Many College Football Players Are There? 2025 Stats
Discover how many college football players there are in the U.S. across NCAA, NAIA, and junior colleges, with detailed breakdowns by division and level.
In terms of the general state of the sport and NIL, I also proposed a clearing house around the start of NIL. If you had to go through them then the really dumb stuff shouldn't make it though. However, I haven't seen any indication yet the new clearinghouse is actually doing anything. Part of that issue is they already opened Pandora's Box, the numbers are already insane, I'm not sure what a clearing house can do with that situation.
What a lot of people didn't realize about college sports due to all the propaganda, is that instead if it taking money from poor beaten down athletes, it in fact poured billions and billions into athletic departments for them. It was always run at a loss, heavily subsidized at every step of the way (Phil Knight alone gave over a billion to Oregon athletics, before NIL even began), by boosters, students, universities, state government's etc... So with NIL these guys don't know when to stop because investment value and profit and those sort of things were never part of the equation, it was always just lavish handouts.
The thing most urgently needed that seems feasible would be the introduction of a position cap. CFL team's caps are 6 million, they would handily beat most CFB teams with those rosters (this is why players keep suing to keep eligibility, another predicted result, their fair market value is far less). So the idea that a single position player might be making more is an absolute absurdity. If they introduce position caps it will at least stop relying on the restraint of billionaire boosters to keep things sane.
What a lot of people didn't realize about college sports due to all the propaganda, is that instead if it taking money from poor beaten down athletes, it in fact poured billions and billions into athletic departments for them. It was always run at a loss, heavily subsidized at every step of the way (Phil Knight alone gave over a billion to Oregon athletics, before NIL even began), by boosters, students, universities, state government's etc... So with NIL these guys don't know when to stop because investment value and profit and those sort of things were never part of the equation, it was always just lavish handouts.
The thing most urgently needed that seems feasible would be the introduction of a position cap. CFL team's caps are 6 million, they would handily beat most CFB teams with those rosters (this is why players keep suing to keep eligibility, another predicted result, their fair market value is far less). So the idea that a single position player might be making more is an absolute absurdity. If they introduce position caps it will at least stop relying on the restraint of billionaire boosters to keep things sane.
I've been thinking a lot about why NIL is prevalent in college football and doesn't seem to be relevant in any other sport other than college basketball, but even that pales in comparison. Why isn't this done in the NFL? Both college football and the NFL have salary caps in terms of what the schools/teams can pay its players. With college football, it's obviously different in that the school decides how much of the revenue sharing it wants to dedicate to football versus other sports, but let's assume it all goes to football.
There are NFL fanbases that are on the same level of obsession as college football fanbases (Packers, Steelers, Bills, etc.). They live and breathe Packers football or Steelers football. What is stopping them from forming a collective that would pay big time free agents outside of the traditional NFL salary structure in order to bypass the NFL salary cap rules, and ultimately buy themselves a Super Bowl title? As absurd as that sounds, it's the same thing that every major college football team has done. So why is it only really done with college football?
I think the answer is one of either two things. The first possible reason is that it's a ridiculous notion that fans would pay players to play for their team. NIL is still relatively new and somewhere in its infancy the power brokers at the schools got caught up in this and decided that collectives were a good way of paying players large sums of money within the rules. But I wonder if, at some point in the not too distant future, these power brokers are going to realize "what are we doing and why are we doing it?" No one in the history of sports has ever considered doing this, because it's absurd, and now we are having buyer's remorse and realize that it's a total waste. So if it's the novelty of NIL and getting caught up in the whirlwind of it, then I believe that will subside at some point. I don't care how wealthy one program is compared to others, this is not a sustainable structure regardless of whether rules are ever implemented or not. Schools won't be able to ask its boosters to pour money into football for the foreseeable future while price tags on players go up and up. There is a breaking point.
The other possible reason that this same model isn't used in other sports, and this is a much more straight forward one, is that it's against the rules. Staying on the NFL comparison, I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the laws around NFL compensation, but I would imagine there are rules against players having guaranteed endorsement deals, brought to them by the NFL team they play for, as long as they are under contract with that specific team, and presenting it to them as part of their total compensation. Otherwise, I have a feeling someone like Jerry Jones would have taken advantage of that years ago to get around the salary cap rules. Therefore, if it's a rules issue as to why it's not done, then why isn't something being done to formulate rules around this for college football? I think the answer to that is the hazards of litigation. In other words, if there is no collective bargaining agreement, then there can't be rules around how much someone can be paid, because the courts will probably rule against that.
I wonder if this will be a game of waiting out the storm by the schools and playing along until eventually the dust settles when sensibility prevails, but who knows how long that will take. Plus, there will always be some school that says "we're going all in this year" like a Texas Tech and they skew the market rates for players. Or, does does order finally come in the form of collective bargaining, which to me can't get here fast enough.
There are NFL fanbases that are on the same level of obsession as college football fanbases (Packers, Steelers, Bills, etc.). They live and breathe Packers football or Steelers football. What is stopping them from forming a collective that would pay big time free agents outside of the traditional NFL salary structure in order to bypass the NFL salary cap rules, and ultimately buy themselves a Super Bowl title? As absurd as that sounds, it's the same thing that every major college football team has done. So why is it only really done with college football?
I think the answer is one of either two things. The first possible reason is that it's a ridiculous notion that fans would pay players to play for their team. NIL is still relatively new and somewhere in its infancy the power brokers at the schools got caught up in this and decided that collectives were a good way of paying players large sums of money within the rules. But I wonder if, at some point in the not too distant future, these power brokers are going to realize "what are we doing and why are we doing it?" No one in the history of sports has ever considered doing this, because it's absurd, and now we are having buyer's remorse and realize that it's a total waste. So if it's the novelty of NIL and getting caught up in the whirlwind of it, then I believe that will subside at some point. I don't care how wealthy one program is compared to others, this is not a sustainable structure regardless of whether rules are ever implemented or not. Schools won't be able to ask its boosters to pour money into football for the foreseeable future while price tags on players go up and up. There is a breaking point.
The other possible reason that this same model isn't used in other sports, and this is a much more straight forward one, is that it's against the rules. Staying on the NFL comparison, I'm not going to pretend to know anything about the laws around NFL compensation, but I would imagine there are rules against players having guaranteed endorsement deals, brought to them by the NFL team they play for, as long as they are under contract with that specific team, and presenting it to them as part of their total compensation. Otherwise, I have a feeling someone like Jerry Jones would have taken advantage of that years ago to get around the salary cap rules. Therefore, if it's a rules issue as to why it's not done, then why isn't something being done to formulate rules around this for college football? I think the answer to that is the hazards of litigation. In other words, if there is no collective bargaining agreement, then there can't be rules around how much someone can be paid, because the courts will probably rule against that.
I wonder if this will be a game of waiting out the storm by the schools and playing along until eventually the dust settles when sensibility prevails, but who knows how long that will take. Plus, there will always be some school that says "we're going all in this year" like a Texas Tech and they skew the market rates for players. Or, does does order finally come in the form of collective bargaining, which to me can't get here fast enough.
I'll be 70 in August, but I have two years worth of eligibility ... and I can probably petition to have four, since those two spent years were NAIA Div II! (NAIA II stopped awarding athletic scholarships a long long time ago.)
I should probably enter the portal and see what I can get, huh?
Still got dudes entering the portal. Just a few from today
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Joshua Mickens, Ohio State Buckeyes, Edge
Also plays basketball and throws shot put. Won the Midwest Indoor Championships shot put title as a junior with a 52-0 throw in March 2022. Also posted a 53-0...
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Terrance Green, Oregon Ducks, Defensive Line
Also throws the shot put. Recorded a 50-2 shot put PR as a junior for silver at the Texas District 16-6A meet in April 2022. Threw 46-1 the next week at area...
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Ryan Brubaker, South Carolina Gamecocks, Offensive Line
Ryan Brubaker is a 6-6, 270-pound Offensive Tackle from Denver, PA.
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I turn 60 in July but I am committed eternally to Alabama lol.
I mean, we should be able to pickup some good prospects still. Check out this dude. Reminds me of Damien Harris. Bet he could pickup his assignments pretty quickly
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Wallace Unamba, Virginia Cavaliers, Offensive Tackle
Wallace Unamba is an Offensive Tackle from Rowlett, TX.
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I do not profess to have powers to predict the future, but I could have told the Alabama staff on Portal day 1 that Coleman was not coming to Alabama. They should have realized this plus our WR room ain't exactly chopped liver. The truth is we did not need Coleman nearly as much as we do DL and OL transfers. I can only imagine the time, stress, and money wasted on trying to buy a Lamborghini when your budget only supports a Ford or Chevy.
Just stupid.
At this point, just eliminate redshirt and everyone gets 5 years. That's about the avg time for an engineering degree. Maybe the only thing remotely related to college in college football
One note about Texas. I was frustrated with Alabama getting in a bidding war with them, but not so much what they're doing, it was an inevitable reaction. We're entering the find out stage of NIL. They've had their fun. Ohio State bought a championship, Miami is playing Indiana. Texas Tech bought a competitive team.
The two most wealthy public universities are Texas and Texas A&M. 7 of the top 10 athletic departments in terms of revenue reside in the SEC. So sure, those other programs had their fun but we're seeing what it looks like when Texas shows up to NIL. I hate it, but if they dominate like they are capable of (only Ellison really could hang with them), then the rest of the college world will probably get sick of this pretty fast.
The two most wealthy public universities are Texas and Texas A&M. 7 of the top 10 athletic departments in terms of revenue reside in the SEC. So sure, those other programs had their fun but we're seeing what it looks like when Texas shows up to NIL. I hate it, but if they dominate like they are capable of (only Ellison really could hang with them), then the rest of the college world will probably get sick of this pretty fast.
I think they should just go to 5 years, with 0 exceptions. Everyone gets 5 years, no one gets 6. I think that becomes more easy to defend in court as well.
But you make an offer based on the value you think he is for your program. I can see that being discussed. Set a red line, if it goes above that you say then cut it off.
So Pre-NFL professionals now get an extra year...brilliant, NOT!
Now there will be even less opportunities for someone that is serious about getting an education and can't afford it.
Unlimited Transfers needs addressing far more than the Redshirting rule!
I think this is what the staff does, they lay out a value to a "name", and see if they bite. The worst they can say is "NO".
I feel like Alabama fans are knowledgeable enough to not panic because some high profile players go elsewhere.
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