The SEC itself is on its way to the annual billionaire’s club as a business.
“As the entire college athletics enterprise works through significant change, SEC universities are uniquely positioned to provide new financial benefits for student-athletes while continuing to deliver transformative, life-changing college experiences,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said in a statement. “Beyond providing an exceptional, debt-free education, this experience includes world-class support in coaching, training, academic counseling, medical care, mental health support, nutrition, life-skills development and post-eligibility healthcare coverage for SEC student-athletes.”
The $808.4 million figure is a more than $67 million increase from the $741 million generated from 2022-23. It’s also an almost three-fold increase from the 2021-22 and 2022-23 fiscal years.
The last sentence does not make sense given the preceding sentence, but one point would stand in a substantial revenue increase as compared to 2021 to 2022, which was was the last season that was impaired to some degree by the pandemic. I don’t see this point being made as one made well to otherwise indicate exceptional revenue growth.
Of course the answer is yes, for it is pro football.
The spring games were a marketing ploy and pure money grab for the schools, with that associated money not going to the players (yet?) anyway.
The idea is nothing new, but it is gaining traction. Sources told CBS Sports that FBS coaches discussed a potential proposal to eliminate spring practices and implement OTAs in the late spring and early summer months at the American Football Coaches Association annual meeting in January. The goal is to better organize rosters before the summer semester and combat tampering before the spring transfer portal window opens in mid-April.
Of course players will be unionized all-around before too long, so we shall see what really happens and what really are the terms, for the coaches are no longer dictators.
Early in the 2014 football season, a Nike representative entered the Penn State athletic trainer’s office and confronted the football team’s two doctors and head trainer.
The representative ran down a list of players, including the star quarterback, whose socks and shoes had recently been taped over to help stabilize previous injuries. The tape covered the Nike swoosh, and the representative wanted it stopped, court testimony showed.
Soon, the coach, James Franklin, began to interfere, requiring the trainer to provide a list of players who needed their ankles taped over their shoes, along with an explanation. The episode was just one instance that troubled Scott Lynch, the head team doctor, who had begun to feel that in the face of pressure from the coach and administrators, he was the only line of defense for the athletes. He complained to supervisors about the coach’s meddling with medical decisions. Ultimately, Dr. Lynch was removed from his position. Then he sued.
And just what is a representative of Nike, at a public university as well mind you, doing in the athletic trainer’s office in the first place? Why does such a representative even have such privileged access in the first place!?
James Franklin can go already for his antics, but that’s just a personal opinion.
Last year a Pennsylvania jury awarded Dr. Lynch $5.25 million in damages for wrongful termination. The trial offered a rare glimpse into how a high-profile college football team handled decisions around injuries — and revealed the pressure on trainers and doctors to greenlight students to get back on the field, despite reservations.
A 2019 survey by the National Athletic Trainers’ Association hinted at the scope of the problem: Nearly one-fourth of the 1,800 respondents said that they did not have medical autonomy, and more than one-third said that coaches had influence on the hiring and firing of medical staff. Nearly one in five reported a coach playing an athlete who had not been medically cleared.
You bet these issues will be addressed in union contracts by players as well.
It also baffles me how in the world any coaches at a PUBLIC university would have any influence on the hiring and firing of ANY medical staff, who are employees of a PUBLIC university!?
It’s public money paying for such settlements at such universities and for the care of injured players, mind you.
Things went well off course a long time ago in college athletics, via that NCAA as well, so as to even be here in 2025.
A “Super League” via a coup of the existing CFP is coming. This is a decent article by Tom Fornelli.
So, what’s your favorite season of the 12-team College Football Playoff? Was it the 2024 season, or will it be 2025?
Those look like your only options right now. There’s long been speculation about the CFP expanding to 14 or 16 teams as early as 2026, with the Big Ten and SEC slowly beating the drum of automatic bids for their leagues over the last year. It seems we’re closer to that becoming a reality. According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, it’s a matter of when, not if, we see a further expanded field that will include four automatic berths for both the Big Ten and SEC.
As for the rest of the conferences: the ACC and Big 12 will likely each get two auto bids, with the top Group of Five champion and Notre Dame (provided the latter finishes ranked high enough) rounding out the field. If you’re good at math, you may notice that adds up to 14 teams! That means if the CFP expands to 14, there may be some seasons in which it doesn’t include a single at-large team.
I do match some of the author’s sentiment as follows, but I differ like most in that I do like an expanded college football playoff better than the previous edition with only four teams, often a farce with regards to which teams were included, and the prior pretenders for a playoff, including especially the BCS.
I don’t like the expanded playoff at all. I watch the games, and they’re fun, but I don’t think it’s the best way to determine the national champion, nor do I buy that it leads to more meaningful games during the regular season. But I know I’ve lost that battle. I’d have better luck standing on the beach yelling at the tide to go back out because eventually it will, and I can feel like I accomplished something.
The author here no doubt has it right:
By setting guidelines for auto-bids by conference – fair or not – we at least have some semblance of an actual playoff. Every single team enters the year knowing exactly what they need to accomplish to get into the field. It’s not up to a room of administrators who have far too many other responsibilities in their day-to-day lives to be trusted to pick the “best” 8-4 team.
Right on as follows too - bowl game locations for playoff games before the semifinals are seriously lame - and far more costly.
Have the Orange Bowl and the Rose Bowl, both outdoor venues, be the semifinal locations every year and then have the championship indoors in either Arlington, Texas, Atlanta, or New Orleans.
Both semifinals would be outdoors, and every one of the top bowl locations gets its turn that way.
Now, if the even larger College Football Playoff tells the bowls to kick rocks and starts playing at least every round up until the semifinals on campus, I may even celebrate it.
As more teams now hire general managers just like the NFL, as anticipated last week, non-news news is at hand here, with many other big programs undoubtedly to make this move to eliminate the spring game and replace it with off-season training activity.
So there is a mounting discussion, now after the associated meetings by the conferences took place this week, about just what will become of the College Football Playoff for 2026 and beyond, including repeated reports of expansion to 14 teams, for which in turn the format would match what we have in the NFL for those playoffs.
The SEC and Big Ten are throwing their weight and combined majority interest around.
One common critique that I have been reading is that too many guaranteed slots for the SEC and Big Ten would be bad for NCAA FBS Pro Football overall if the guaranteed slots are such that for the most part, the “playoff” will resemble an invitational tournament in many regards, as has been of course March Madness for especially all the invitations to mediocre teams from the big conferences, but the NCAA Tournament of course is conveniently not branded as an invitational tournament.
I don’t think many want the College Football Playoff resembling anything like a basketball invitational in such regards, except perhaps some of those SEC types who have probably convinced themselves now that perhaps six slots of fourteen should be SEC teams, but they’ll “settle for only four.”
Yep, with their chief “shaman or priest” and ESPN’s resident homer long before Nick Saban, the sorry likes of Paul Feinbaum, the situation could be much worse, for those people do exist.
On the other hand, there’s nothing to stop the SEC and Big Ten from accomplishing just that in their own playoff, and ultimately perhaps also a Super League if you will for the regular season, with first a “playoff” that would in my opinion be more of an invitational tournament than an actual national playoff.
Such are our bizarre times decades after the mounting concerns in the 1990s about how a “national champion” is to be determined.
And here’s where things stand on some fronts with the SEC and Big Ten.
Please note, I’ve selected some quotes independently, as I find this article by John Talty great with the reporting but somewhat jumbled in presentation.
Big Ten, SEC aligned on seeding changes
Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey both expressed support for changing the CFP’s current seeding process. The two commissioners agreed that the CFP Rankings, not conference championships, should determine automatic first-round byes.
More automatic qualifiers coming?
Speaking of greater control, the conferences are again expected to push for multiple automatic qualifiers and an expanded playoff format. Sankey was mum on specifics Wednesday, saying he wanted to discuss the matter with the other commissioners first, but the expectation is that the Big Ten and SEC will try for four automatic bids each, while the Big 12 and ACC would get two each if the field expands to 14 or more teams.
If the Big Ten and SEC can’t get it done for this year, it’s a good bet to go into effect in 2026 when the two conferences gain even greater control over the playoff format.
One way or the other, 2025 looks to be the last year that the current 12-team format for the College Football Playoff will be intact,
which would conclude a 2-year experiment that looks to me like for the most part is already a failure with most fans, including me though any more though merely a casual fan.
Otherwise at the very least, a national championship has been determined in a better fashion than via only the recent mere four-team playoff or via any prior formats.
But do most fans even care about that point on high integrity in the determination of a national champion? Or are we headed in the direction of NBA now more than ever even in its history since about 2000, in which it’s more about a popularity contest when the scales are weighed down for only certain teams to be far more likely to win, as opposed to a true equal shot for all good teams? We shall see for 2026.
I don’t think the situation is looking good on this front of an equal competition for more of the better teams in the future of such a College Football Playoff, though alternatively, I would be pleased with a break-off Super League and multiple post-season tournaments, with the SEC and Big Ten at the forefront, in place of any supposedly unified system that would be reverting to even more rewards for the haves than already at the expense of the have-nots.
$55,000 for quarterbacks in the UFL, and remember that number folks, for here’s what that means. Note that number is for the highest-paid players.
And so folks we can now already read even more tea leaves whatever becomes of the UFL 4.0 after only one season of play. Maybe just the name is bad luck and should be ditched forever in any case, for if you are on 4.0 for your brand and having a hard time at it again, well folks, maybe your brand just plain sucks too? Change the damn brand, but that’s only a restart with that debacle.
So, we are at now the prospect of the following for any above average player in high school, generally All State as well, who is being courted by a large number of schools:
Two years of play in junior college or other prep school no longer counting towards NCAA eligibility (see the post linked above) AND
In my view though this is speculative on my part, but we are already there to a higher degree than ever, college football eligibility will be expanded to a full five years for all players, with none of the current various exceptions, including any seasons during the COVID years not counting, needed any more.
The prospect of many young men having a seven-year career at this level and cashing out big could be here and now especially if that ruling on the matter of junior college and prep school goes in favour of players. That number is already five and not merely four for more than ever, and it’s been more than that with the COVID exceptions.
And so enter the other football options for these athletes after “school,” with of course the NFL for only the top 1% plus the longshots who make it as free agents.
Formerly after not making the regular season in the NFL if getting through tryouts or training camp, there was the CFL and, any given indoor, arena, or local semi-pro league, but now the UFL, but in any case, let’s go back to pro football in college.
There are now more “college” football players (and college athletes in general) making more money than many CFL players, with the stars more than ALL CFL players, so what does that fact tell you?
There’s far more that is going to be made as well via the expanded College Football Playoff, NIL, and various litigation in favour of the players that will end up paying them, private equity flow via those “collectives,” all on top of that athletic scholarship with a paid college education.
So what’s the average talented 15-year old or 16-year old thinking now?
Dare I say,
Cash in while in college, then maybe the NFL, but definitely CASH IN NOW. There is no CFL or UFL in sight. It’s college ball for as long as they can play and earn, and then maybe the NFL, then well, crossroads in life.
This reality is going to be a problem for both the CFL and the UFL so as to draw such players who are not going to the NFL, though they will find others, but we know from the 2023 CFL season that the slippage is vast in the quality of play when a certain calibre of player is not as available.
Wow, the timing, perhaps five years will be the new prospective MINIMUM for college athletic eligibility, for as this case goes, that number could end up being higher.
Essentially the thinking has been: What if Pavia’s suit prevails and the NCAA again chooses the path of least (legal) resistance. That is, junior college players’ eligibility clocks don’t start until they reach FBS (or any other NCAA level for that matter). Theoretically, that would mean six, possibly, seven years of eligibility.
“Now, if you do two years of untimed JUCO … what if kids say, ‘I’m not doing to go Division I out of high school anymore? I’m going to do this JUCO thing,’” Brown said. "If you do that, you get an agent … He says, ‘I’ll get you a draft status after two years of JUCO. You’ll play one for one at a four-year level.’ Those big schools will have to pay that kid for one year of service and [they’ll] enter the draft.
“It will be the Wild, Wild West times 10.”
For years there was the unwritten code as FBS coaches would “send” prospects not quite ready for the big time to junior colleges for seasoning.
Ah, there’s that “unwritten code” or even more egregious as a euphemism, “gentleman’s agreement” that was the old “plantation” system between the good ol’ boys amongst the established coaches (/cough, Saban, cough).
That’s what that “unwritten code” was under the previous rules penalizing players for transfers between schools with uncommon exemptions by the NCAA, so the established “college football” media can stop with the sugar-coating any day now.
Now via a favourable such ruling in the Pavia case, the future could look like this example via a formal and PAID contractual arrangement in place of such an informal and unpaid one as for years in this example:
Those sources aren’t ready to go on the record just yet, but one example emerged: Lackawanna College in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
“You can certainly see a scenario where Penn State would say, 'We’re going to assist you with hiring coaches and some funding. You just have to run our offense and our schemes,” said a person briefed on the idea who requested anonymity due the sensitive nature of the subject. “‘[We’ll help] with training table, strength and conditioning. We’re just going to send all of our student-athletes who are not ready straight for the major leagues straight to your schools.’”
The author Dennis Dodd notably treads lightly even more later in this fine article, and that fact itself says a whole lot about the reality of the matter.
The settlement would implement a revenue incentive for schools to earn extra dollars based on television ratings, sources said. The structure would be available to all schools, with no specific carve-outs for FSU or Clemson. (FSU presented this idea to the league in 2022 to no avail, another source said.)
The revenue distribution would be in addition to the ACC’s new “success incentive” program, which offers $20 million to $25 million in extra revenue based on a school’s football postseason success. The league has also earned $600 million in additional media-rights revenue by adding Stanford, Cal, and SMU, which is bumping revenue distribution even more, the first source noted.
And so as anticipated and after all the litigation, the ACC will stick together after Disney was able to find some extra money to smooth things over with a revised ESPN deal.
And evidently there is more to the ACC story, but none of this will matter until 2030 after all else that will change for pro college football in these next five years:
Young star players, who are now ages 14 to 17 in high school and those who are freshmen in college this autumn, seem to stand to cash in more than ever in pro college football.
The ACC’s D-Day has been delayed to 2030 thanks to a compromise reached by the schools and the ACC. It includes a significant tweak to a hefty exit fee that will drop to $75 million in the summer of 2030. Simply put, if a program wishes, it has six years to raise the funds necessary to bolt for another conference. Meanwhile, the ACC has bought itself some time and has six years to strengthen its position in the media market.
I think the UFL is already going to be the leftover league at best, or a low-budget “NFL Meat Squad League” at worst should it even survive after 2025,
via also any given rebranding, for young and able college pro football players in the US.
How many more examples of a player like this one could we see, especially in 2026 with the future of the UFL already very questionable.
What a change in only a few weeks, when the banter was about changes in the rules rather than in the viability of the UFL in its current form!
We go now to hidden surveillance footage at a secret location near Austin, Texas:
“…love my Dos Equis with my loaded nachos for a late night snack you know, but darn if it does not get me in the gut like …‘Alright guys! So then we told the NCAA that there were only five violations, and well, they believed us again!’”
The Texas athletic department has self-reported five NCAA violations in relation to sports betting that took place between July 11 and Nov. 4, 2024, according to the Austin American-Statesman.
The American-Statesman obtained documents that censored the names of the involved parties. Texas’ self-reporting submissions listed two football players, a non-student athlete that had ties to the women’s tennis team, a student assistant, and an uncategorized athletic department employee.
The five people totaled $14,885.76 in their impermissible bets as a group. The wagers were placed with the daily fantasy sports website PrizePicks, where bettors can wager on a player’s statistics. Traditional sportsbooks are illegal, but PrizePicks is legal within the confines of Texas.
Per NCAA rules, players, coaches and staff members are prohibited from wagering on any sport in which the NCAA sponsors a championship.
So in the following article about the Big 12 by Dennis Dodd is this nugget with regards to what is seen as the objective of the next meeting of the FBS conferences on 3 April on the future of the College Football Playoff in 2026, when the new deal with ESPN begins.
Some are almost resigned to the fact there will be automatic qualifiers in the field at the urging of the Big Ten and SEC. Their proposed model of 4-4-2-2-1-1 means four AQs each for the Big Ten and SEC, two each for the ACC and Big 12, one at-large spot and one for the highest-ranked Group of Five conference champion.
So we know the following so far:
The lead objective is to expand the playoff from 12 teams to 14 teams AND
In most seasons, the Big Ten and the SEC would have NINE of the 14 spots in the College Football Playoff between them.
In my opinion, this reality is check for a presumed “College Football Super League,” without the actual need for the formation of a Super League as would be owned exclusively by the SEC and Big Ten,
which would structure its own playoff in about the same format by percentage when inviting teams from outside the two conferences.
The SEC and the Big Ten conferences have just about won the game already so as to effectively control all of NCAA FBS Pro Football.
I didn’t know where to put this as it is specifically NCAA basketball related and I didn’t see any existing threads and didn’t want to start one for my least favourite sport. I put it here because it also relates to NIL earning power. A Canadian teen by the name of Olivier Rioux is the tallest teen in the world at 7’9" and is expected to start playing NCAA basketball for Florida next season. It is expected that he will have a lot of earning power even though he has yet to suit up for a game and chose to be redshirted this year.
