Man, did I pick the losers this year

Man, did I pick the losers this year

I don't think it is you. I think it is the game itself. Too many star players are skipping out. Between the guys going pro and others entering the transfer portal chasig NIL $, there is no incentive to play in a bowl. How are we supposed to pick a game when the coaches and players do not care if they win or not? I used to love college football, but each year it is getting harder and harder to watch.

All pro sports and the top two college sports of football and basketball are all chasing the $$$$.  It has diluted the talent pool in pro sports and has ruined the two best sports in the world in the NCAA.  At some point, people will be tired of watching the games on TV and the networks will not be able to pay the money they are paying to the leagues.  It will end, but it will never be like it was pre-covid for NCAA and pro sports have been diluted for at least a decade due to having too many teams in every league and not enough talent to go on every team.

Completely agree with both you guys!

FSU has the opportunity to prove their point om New Year's Day against Georgia; we'll see then if the committee was correct!

Do you think Georgia may have had a bit of a chip on their shoulder? Given the final score, you would think FSU played in the Big 10!

This game was a microcosm of what is wrong with college football. Most of the starters for FSU either opted out or transferred, leaving a skeleton crew to play against a Georgia team that was mostly intact.

Am I wrong in saying that due to NIL and transfer rules, football players have gone from student-athletes to semi-mercenaries? I think as a result, the quality of college football(and in a way, the NFL, since the players drafted now need additional training) has dropped, since few good players stay at a school for 3-5 years now.

This game was a microcosm of what is wrong with college football. Most of the starters for FSU either opted out or transferred, leaving a skeleton crew to play against a Georgia team that was mostly intact.

Am I wrong in saying that due to NIL and transfer rules, football players have gone from student-athletes to semi-mercenaries? I think as a result, the quality of college football(and in a way, the NFL, since the players drafted now need additional training) has dropped, since few good players stay at a school for 3-5 years now.

Having played at the college level, I completely agree with you.

I did not realize that the "Portal" is simply free agency for college sports.  I had not looked into it until yesterday!

It really is just a version of free agency.
And with the NIL money they can literally go to the highest bidder.

Congrats on the Big Win JD!  Strong finish Hugh!

Congrats on the Big Win JD!  Strong finish Hugh!

Thanks, it was luck! Go Blue!

Congrats on the Big Win JD!  Strong finish Hugh!

Congratulations! I think we could've done just as well with a coin flip!

My halftime snack, Maize (corn) soup and Blue heat takis. Go Blue!!

Congrats to all the Michigan pelletfans out there!

Saban has started the college football coaching carousel in motion.  Washington coach to Bama without any prior ties to the school was a shocker to me.  Dominos will begin to fall now.  And, if Harbaugh decides to leave, it will get even crazier.  Oh, and what does all of this mean to the transfer portal where kids get 30 days to opt into it if their head coaches leave and they do not have to sit out a season.  My head is spinning at how this continues to spiral out of control as the coaches move around after the CFP.

Not to mention NFL coaches being dismissed that are top rated and some of them HoF caliber - Belichick, Carroll, Vrabel.  At this point, I am glad to be a Steelers fan with only 3 head coaches in my lifetime.

Crazy time in our lifetime where loyalty and solid year over year performance means nothing if you don't bring home a title.  And even then, you have top notch coaches in NCAA and NFL who win titles and have a few off years and are shown the door.

Welcome to the short term thinking mentality that the internet and all of the things attached to having data and information (true or false) at your fingertips in seconds has brought to our world.  Far cry from the days when you had to watch the 5 o'clock news to get a snippet of what happened locally let alone in the world that day.

Good and bad comes with all of it, but it is the new world we live in.

I found this to be an interesting story that I think all head coaches in almost every pro sport and the top college sports deal with nowadays - https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/39295019/football-people-decided-fate.

This one is even crazier - https://nypost.com/2024/01/11/sports/john-tortorella-rips-journalist-over-kevin-hayes-cutter-gauthier-report/.

I am waiting for the libel lawsuits that begin to hold these "reporters" accountable.

If you can't tell, I am pretty fed up with the media and all of the other things that are destroying the sports I used to love!

I have no inside info, just a gut feeling based on my experience.  I think Saban retired because the portal and NIL has made college football more like pro football and you now have players who think they will dictate to coaches.  He did not like that in the pros and that is why he went back to college.  Now he is facing it in college. 

I think he is old time, old fashioned.  It was part of the reason I retired when I did from my specialty legal practice.  Just too many changes by clients not letting us be lawyers but trying to second guess, micro-manage and penny pinch And then complain that the results weren't what they expected.  I don't know if he still wants to coach, but if he does and I was him, I would go to a smaller, Division 2 (or whatever they are now called) school where players are not media stars and would be fighting to be coached by me.