Poll: Where are you as a fan for current college sports?

[BamaNation]

I think most of these guys have what I call an "Uncle Pookie" yapping in their ears. I specifically think of a guy I went to HS with that was kind of a slimy, greasy, BS'er who was always stirring up problems and we called him that. Players have that guy telling them "they're using you" "you're not getting yours" "you should be starting" "they shouldn't be playing you on EVERY play" "why is the QB not passing to you on every down" "why are they running x-scheme when you would be better off if they ran z-scheme" "XYZ University has a guy like you that's making $$$$ and you're only getting $$$" etc etc etc.

Until and unless there are structures in place that would mitigate the Uncle Pookies of the world, we're going to have all this chaos. Here are some of my thoughts on what should happen beginning this summer:

1) Legal structures to allow collective bargaining. Possibly MLB-like collusion/monopoly/national pasttime exclusions to anti-trust laws with periodic congressional review/oversight)
2) Collective bargaining with player unions
3) salary caps
4) True NIL revenue sharing (think: jerseys with a guy's name & # on the back, promo videos for a local health system, etc.) and no more pay-for-play or pay-for-signing. You don't get NIL for coming here. You get NIL by a car dealership wanting you to be their spokesperson, the fans wanting your autograph (and paying for it), Gatorade wanting you to rap a lil'diddy about your game, etc. Your school should have NOTHING to do with NIL payments for any reason.
5) Elimination of school-based and independent NIL collectives; transition to direct payment of player salaries. NIL would be what they earn from their NAME IMAGE & LIKENESS being used commercially. Any school that can't / won't do this, you're outta here. Go back to where you belong.
6) Elimination of transfer-at-will. 1 free transfer outside of your conference with ZERO exceptions. Future transfers (or transfers inside a conference) you sit out for one full season with ZERO exceptions. The ZERO exceptions means zero exceptions ... for any reason.
7) ONE transfer portal period that makes sense.
8) Elimination of the "special transfer portal opens if your coach leaves"
9) Revenue share for playing in / being on the team for conference championships & playoff games.
10) "Larry Bird" type rules that reward a player for not transferring.
11) Euro-soccer style relegation (This one is a stretch but would allow movement up the ladder from G5 to P4 for teams that deserve it)
12) Appoint Nick Saban as the CFB/College sports Czar with great authority to make these changes post haste.
13) Six years to play 4. Clock starts ticking once you take your first class on day 1. You can red shirt, you can gray shirt, you can not even wear a shirt but you only have six years with 4 years of playing time. No exceptions. For any reason. Including medical.

 

[crimsonaudio]

I still don't understand why the universities in the P4/5 sat around and let the NCAA dictate itself into oblivion. When we got hammered 30 years ago, that should have been the impetus for complete reform. I'm assuming there were 3 main reasons for not doing so: 1) nobody trusted anybody else, 2) NCAA still has March Madness, 3) They thought that common sense wasn't a superpower.

There's a reason so many of us have been clamoring for the P5 teams to leave the NCAA for literally decades.

Just proves that the failure in 'leadership' wasn't just in Indianapolis - it was in the president / chancellor's office of every single school out there. The universities are almost universally led by people who can't see beyond this Friday.

 

[cbi1972]

There's a reason so many of us have been clamoring for the P5 teams to leave the NCAA for literally decades.

Just proves that the failure in 'leadership' wasn't just in Indianapolis - it was in the president / chancellor's office of every single school out there. The universities are almost universally led by people who can't see beyond this Friday.

Universities are going to suffer greatly when alumni engagement plummets due to lower interest in a worse football

 

[CB4]

I too had high hopes that legal issues surrounding players, universities, and NIL could be worked out to the point where we could have a system fair to all concerned while maintaining something that resembles the game we now know.

I’m pessimistic. I see it becoming “players as university employees” under employment contracts and collective bargaining agreements. Portal window restrictions, limits on eligibility, academic standards, etc. are out the window. The players become (if they aren’t already) paid contractual employees of the university that wear the school brand on the court or field of competition. No real tie to the university except for the name that signs the check and the account it comes from.

Don’t get me wrong. I fully believe the players should be getting a piece of the revenue pie. But NIL as it currently stands is nothing more than “pay for play”. There is nothing in this that includes anything that comes close to being the passionate, emotional connection of the player to the University. At least for me, that was the binding agent. It was a bond as player and fan we shared.

I don’t see it coming back anytime soon. And it saddens me.

 

[BamaMoon]

Besides the transfer portal and NIL and how the LANK situation was handled, the last two years have soured my taste for college sports for a long time, if not forever. Kudos to TN for handling their QB situation the way Saban/DeBoer should have handled the Milroe ordeal.

It seems that a lot of these "feelings" coincide with the one who shall not be named's time at the Capstone.

I think CNS's handling of that and his retirement after the loss to UM about broke a lot of us.

We also are dealing with life after the Goat and a pretty disappointing year of going 9-4.

I think if Bama rebounds and has a really good year it'll help us, as a fanbase, have more passion.

I can't speak for everybody, but I'm about as excited as I've been in the last few years for this season to roll around!

 

[AWRTR]

The changes have caused me to lose interest in the sport overall. I was a watch games all day and deep into the night guy. I was down to watch PAC-10/12 after everything else was done. I watched college football shows all week, even Finebaum from time to time. I'm done with all of the that. I don't even attempt to rearrange my schedule to watch a Bama game. I just DVR the game and watch it later.

I was like so many commenters on this thread. I kept up with recruiting and the coaching staff. I knew many of the analysts. I was deep in the weeds. I would watch a game long out of hand because I wanted to see the young guys that would become the future stars of the team. I wanted to see every snap of a Bama game. I was obsessed with the SEC and knew the other teams pretty well. If it was SEC I would watch it. I watched some Ole Miss games last year because I like Kiffin and a few other random games, but many Saturdays Bama was the only team I watched. This has been happening over the last several years. I can see myself disconnecting completely if the direction of the sport doesn't change. I can watch the NFL where the system makes sense, and I've dove back into the MLB. I'm really enjoying baseball over the last three years. The sport is broken and I don't really care to participate much anymore. I was planning on taking my daughter to her first game, we live out of state so it's a costly trip, but now I have no desire to go.

 

[PA Tide Fan]

I only watch college football but several things had made it less interesting to me. The expanded playoff make regular season games less critical since there's more margin for error. With elite programs having less depth now since players transfer the chances of an undefeated team seems to have dwindled significantly. Some teams can now basically buy a championship. The worst of all is that many players are now more concerned about money than winning. If there is some reform I may continue watching but if nothing happens within the next year or two I may quit watching.

 

[BearFoot]

Before I attended UA I was just a casual fan of the football team, but that changed during my four years (89-93). I enrolled when I was 23, and Stallings first year didn’t do much to change my casual fandom. I was fortunate to have a friend who was a team trainer during my senior year, and he gave me access to all of the practices and scrimmages. I fell in love with the football program that year, and I proudly own a “Century of Champions” football from that National Championship year (autographed by all the players and coaching staff)

After that ‘92 season, I‘ve always devoted a lot of my personal time to keeping up with recruiting, spring practice, fall practice, off season happenings etc. I‘ve watched every game, I knew the names of every player that Bama was recruiting…and I knew the names, measurables and year of every member of the team. I considered them all to be pseudo-family members because they were “full of Bama” just like I was.

Sadly, that part of my existence is now OVER.….and it‘s happened surprisingly quickly.

I can pinpoint the exact thing…..the one element at the core of it all…..that singular change within this new landscape of college football that has killed my passion for the game:

The players no longer posess the loyalty, respect, love or passion for the Crimson Jersey (or any other jersey, for that matter). Instead of being a group of brothers who grow together for four years with team goals…..we now simply have organized groups with a collection of heartless employees possessing a one year contract.….ready to change colors on their jerseys if they don’t get their way. The only color they’re loyal to any longer is the color GREEN.

I’ve watched every Bama game since 1992. I even had a television set up at my own wedding reception so that I could keep up with the game that day. Contrast that with this past season….where I only watched 3 games.

I was forever willing to give the program my own heart as long as I felt that it was reciprocated. When the players collectively chose to make the game about money, they lost touch with the most important part of the game…..the heart.

…..and I simply can’t continue to give my heart to something when it no longer offers it’s heart back to me.

It was a fun ride

 

[22Musso22]

I think it might be interesting to see if there is any correlation between age and how folks vote in this poll.

Quickly losing interest!
I'm 100 years old. What does that tell you?

 

[Padreruf]

I'm old (74) and have been a fan since 1959 when I moved to Alabama. Most of the years I have been an avid fan...even driving to hill tops in Ky so I could get the RADIO broadcast of the games. Now I only watch the games that might interest me -- and those after recording. Family, golf, and reading are far more interesting and rewarding. I lived through the hey day of CFB...what we have now is a weak relative that I do not recognize.

This may be something close to depression...

 

[CaliforniaTide]

The more I get away from when I finished grad school at Alabama, the more that I only have bandwidth for teams I root for. I could not care less about how Alabama's (or the other pro teams) rivals are performing - I don't have the time/energy for it. If I can't watch my teams on TV, then I'll read about it the next day.

 

[Bamabuzzard]

The more I get away from when I finished grad school at Alabama, the more that I only have bandwidth for teams I root for. I could not care less about how Alabama's (or the other pro teams) rivals are performing - I don't have the time/energy for it. If I can't watch my teams on TV, then I'll read about it the next day.

I used to like keeping up with college football, but in the past five years or so, that interest has diminished a lot. I think part of it is my age and overall getting older, but I know a part of it is how the game has changed. I'm getting to the point where I don't watch every Alabama game anymore during the regular season. That's when I KNOW something's going on! LOL!

 

[BamaNation]

Universities are going to suffer greatly when alumni engagement plummets due to lower interest in a worse football

Something that I have communicated to multiple UA presidents: The football team - including its coaches - are the outward, public expression of my UA degree (for better or worse and whether or not I want it that way). When folks meet me - and learn that I'm a Bama grad - they think of the football team. There's a lot to unpack in that thought that I won't unwrap here, but believe me that it is something that I have increasingly become concerned about in the NIL / transfer era. "Concerned" probably isn't exactly how I feel because as I've aged, I couldn't care less what people think in most cases...

 

[BamaMoon]

Quickly losing interest!
I'm 100 years old. What does that tell you?

But seriously, you are probably right.

Older people resist change more adamantly than younger generations.

What we are talking about is a fundamental change in just a few years. Most changes take place slowly over time, but this new NIL/portal era of college football happened so fast that we didn't have the natural time to adjust slowly.

FWIW, I think most fans of all ages see the problems with the current model. I know my son, who is 30, sees it and we have talked about it. He loves Bama football too, but the difference between him and me is he doesn't have as many years of emotional investment in his fandom as I do.

In addition, younger fans about his age can't really remember a time when Bama wasn't running college football, but us older people are more concerned because we can remember a time when we didn't in between the Bryant era and the Saban era - about 25-30 years; the 92' NC notwithstanding. We know how precious it is to have a winning program and we see NIL as a huge threat to that.

So yeah, if you're older and have been a fan a long time, you will probably have stronger feelings about this!

 

[bamamc1]

I think most of these guys have what I call an "Uncle Pookie" yapping in their ears. I specifically think of a guy I went to HS with that was kind of a slimy, greasy, BS'er who was always stirring up problems and we called him that. Players have that guy telling them "they're using you" "you're not getting yours" "you should be starting" "they shouldn't be playing you on EVERY play" "why is the QB not passing to you on every down" "why are they running x-scheme when you would be better off if they ran z-scheme" "XYZ University has a guy like you that's making $$$$ and you're only getting $$$" etc etc etc.

Until and unless there are structures in place that would mitigate the Uncle Pookies of the world, we're going to have all this chaos. Here are some of my thoughts on what should happen beginning this summer:

1) Legal structures to allow collective bargaining. Possibly MLB-like collusion/monopoly/national pasttime exclusions to anti-trust laws with periodic congressional review/oversight)
2) Collective bargaining with player unions
3) salary caps
4) True NIL revenue sharing (think: jerseys with a guy's name & # on the back, promo videos for a local health system, etc.) and no more pay-for-play or pay-for-signing. You don't get NIL for coming here. You get NIL by a car dealership wanting you to be their spokesperson, the fans wanting your autograph (and paying for it), Gatorade wanting you to rap a lil'diddy about your game, etc. Your school should have NOTHING to do with NIL payments for any reason.
5) Elimination of school-based and independent NIL collectives; transition to direct payment of player salaries. NIL would be what they earn from their NAME IMAGE & LIKENESS being used commercially. Any school that can't / won't do this, you're outta here. Go back to where you belong.
6) Elimination of transfer-at-will. 1 free transfer outside of your conference with ZERO exceptions. Future transfers (or transfers inside a conference) you sit out for one full season with ZERO exceptions. The ZERO exceptions means zero exceptions ... for any reason.
7) ONE transfer portal period that makes sense.
8) Elimination of the "special transfer portal opens if your coach leaves"
9) Revenue share for playing in / being on the team for conference championships & playoff games.
10) "Larry Bird" type rules that reward a player for not transferring.
11) Euro-soccer style relegation (This one is a stretch but would allow movement up the ladder from G5 to P4 for teams that deserve it)
12) Appoint Nick Saban as the CFB/College sports Czar with great authority to make these changes post haste.
13) Six years to play 4. Clock starts ticking once you take your first class on day 1. You can red shirt, you can gray shirt, you can not even wear a shirt but you only have six years with 4 years of playing time. No exceptions. For any reason. Including medical.

Everything you just said makes too much sense.

 

[Tideflyer]

I'm old (74) and have been a fan since 1959 when I moved to Alabama. Most of the years I have been an avid fan...even driving to hill tops in Ky so I could get the RADIO broadcast of the games. Now I only watch the games that might interest me -- and those after recording. Family, golf, and reading are far more interesting and rewarding. I lived through the hey day of CFB...what we have now is a weak relative that I do not recognize.

This may be something close to depression...

Right there with you. And I’m older!

 

[BamaHoopsBoi]

I'm a relatively young Alabama fan, started watching FB during the Shula years, basketball during the Grant years. Of course I was blessed to watch the GOAT win all his trophies for us. It was fantastic, attending Alabama football, basketball, gymnastics, softball and baseball games all throughout my childhood made a significant impact on me growing up. I LOVE anything Alabama. I truly do. These past few years with basketball soaring to new heights, I've been ecstatic. That is the sport I played and love. So, when I see a noticeable decline in the quality of the game I love, I have real concerns.

I miss the Riley Norris, Retin Obasohan, Herb Jones types that stay around with the program for several years. Whether they develop significantly or not, they still add to the program and the fans connect with them. We are slowly losing those players and that fan connection more and more each year.

Basketball hasn't taken away any major fan experiences yet. Unless you count the large increase in season ticket prices over the last 2 years.

Football taking away the A-Day scrimmage really left a sour taste in my mouth. Taking away a FREE fan experience for the average Bama fan is a slap in the face. Many people only get to experience A Day because it is free.

I'm slowly but gradually losing interest in football. I'll hold on to basketball for dear life and hope that it doesn't sink. But I'm sure that it's coming too.

 

[Redwood Forrest]

Feeling personal connections to the players Alabama recruited was a big driver of fan interest. You get to see a kid signed out of HS, become a member of the Bama "family," and you see him play for at least three years. You get to know their stories, family stuff, personal struggles, etc. That type of stuff is what opens the pocketbooks of fans to pour into the product once called CFB. But now, that element is gone, and make no mistake, the fans' money will begin to dwindle as well. NFL players stay at their teams longer than CFB players do. So why not just watch the NFL more? I think that's what going to happen.

CFB will always be around, I just think it's headed down a path where the financial bubble is going to bust and the fans will be what start the popping of it.

I hope it burst all the way to bankruptcy, then we can go back to real, honest to goodness STUDENT athletes.

 

[BamaNation]

Everything you just said makes too much sense.

If a dummy like me can come up with common sense solutions, it tells you how stupid / corrupt those in charge are. Regardless, until and unless my #1 point happens, nothing else happens. The word lawsuits makes the university presidents pee in their diapers. Theyre on the hook for $2BB+ for their inability to make decisions previously. Now they're paralyzed by the prospect of future lawsuits to the point that they've raised their hands, lowered their heads and are yelling "what can we do? It's so haaarrrd and compleeeexxxxx" Buncha spineless weasels. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't want their job if you paid me $5MM / year. Well, maybe for 1 year.

 

[Obieone42]

I think most of these guys have what I call an "Uncle Pookie" yapping in their ears. I specifically think of a guy I went to HS with that was kind of a slimy, greasy, BS'er who was always stirring up problems and we called him that. Players have that guy telling them "they're using you" "you're not getting yours" "you should be starting" "they shouldn't be playing you on EVERY play" "why is the QB not passing to you on every down" "why are they running x-scheme when you would be better off if they ran z-scheme" "XYZ University has a guy like you that's making $$$$ and you're only getting $$$" etc etc etc.

Until and unless there are structures in place that would mitigate the Uncle Pookies of the world, we're going to have all this chaos. Here are some of my thoughts on what should happen beginning this summer:

1) Legal structures to allow collective bargaining. Possibly MLB-like collusion/monopoly/national pasttime exclusions to anti-trust laws with periodic congressional review/oversight)
2) Collective bargaining with player unions
3) salary caps
4) True NIL revenue sharing (think: jerseys with a guy's name & # on the back, promo videos for a local health system, etc.) and no more pay-for-play or pay-for-signing. You don't get NIL for coming here. You get NIL by a car dealership wanting you to be their spokesperson, the fans wanting your autograph (and paying for it), Gatorade wanting you to rap a lil'diddy about your game, etc. Your school should have NOTHING to do with NIL payments for any reason.
5) Elimination of school-based and independent NIL collectives; transition to direct payment of player salaries. NIL would be what they earn from their NAME IMAGE & LIKENESS being used commercially. Any school that can't / won't do this, you're outta here. Go back to where you belong.
6) Elimination of transfer-at-will. 1 free transfer outside of your conference with ZERO exceptions. Future transfers (or transfers inside a conference) you sit out for one full season with ZERO exceptions. The ZERO exceptions means zero exceptions ... for any reason.
7) ONE transfer portal period that makes sense.
8) Elimination of the "special transfer portal opens if your coach leaves"
9) Revenue share for playing in / being on the team for conference championships & playoff games.
10) "Larry Bird" type rules that reward a player for not transferring.
11) Euro-soccer style relegation (This one is a stretch but would allow movement up the ladder from G5 to P4 for teams that deserve it)
12) Appoint Nick Saban as the CFB/College sports Czar with great authority to make these changes post haste.
13) Six years to play 4. Clock starts ticking once you take your first class on day 1. You can red shirt, you can gray shirt, you can not even wear a shirt but you only have six years with 4 years of playing time. No exceptions. For any reason. Including medical.

This is the best post on this thread, in my worthless opinion. I hate it that it has come to this because as most older posters on here, I share the sentiments (I'm 50). I followed Bama football religiously. I didn't watch a single game last year in its entirety. It was kind of like watching Houston's (in this year's basketball final 4) offense...painfully bad. I'm hoping I can actually stomach watching it this coming year but the jury is out.