What is Killing College Football

Of the 5 New Years Day bowl games, 4 were ultra competitive.  3 were decided by 3 points or less.  Looks like the product on the field and competitiveness was fine.

The playoff games were trash because the twobest teams are Alabama and Georgia...no one is close this year.  No one.

For a few years it was Alabama and Clemson, then everyone else.  Now its Alabama and Georgia. 

Top to bottom the B1G is the best conference in the country,  that's pretty evident, but if you think that Alabama and Georgia aren't head and shoulders better than everybody else this year, you are delusional.

The rest of college football is competitive.   It's the top few who separate each year...generally Alabama and 1 or 2 other teams.

 
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BigRedBuster said:
It doesn’t have anything to do with someone being old. 
 

Somewhere, I remember seeing stats that show interest in college football is declining. That’s  a problem for the long term viability of the sport. If any time a concern is brought up about how things have changed and hurt the sport is met with this attitude, it diminishes the ability to have an honest discussion about it. 
 

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why a player opts out. But, that doesn’t change how that hurts the sport and adds to why some people aren’t watching. 
 

The sport has to figure out how to counter that. 
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A big part of why the sport is declining is that College Football isn't all that exciting anymore. 

Don't get me wrong, individual games are often very exciting. But the march to the Playoff, who gets in, and the end result is entirely predictable. The sport has extreme talent consolidation where 6 or so schools get all of the talent. It's not fun and it's growing more and more stale by the year. 

As far as opt-outs, they absolutely do not bother me. The players are doing what they do mostly for free. Most now get small NIL deals and scholarships to state schools - although most of these players would qualify for a Pell grant to attend their state's flagship University anyway - these players don't owe us anything. If you want to complain, give them a share of the revenue they generate. 

 
admo said:
Maybe they should take a portion of the bowl game payout, and pay the players as a reward.  You might change your mind and play in a bowl game, if you knew every player who plays get $5 g.  Especially around Christmas time. 
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No problem paying the kids for the bowl game but it won't stop the NFL bound kids from opting out.  5k vs millions...  

 
chamrocck said:
I would hate the playoff to go beyond 8 teams which seems inevitable. College football is great because every game matters. It is must watch TV every Saturday because that school that is having a hu-hum year can rise up and create the big upset and knock that big name team out of the playoff. Don’t mess that up!  I watch very little NFL. Why? Because a week 7 game between the Packers and Vikings doesn’t mean anything. Or a week 10 game between the Cowboys and Giants probably doesn’t matter. But if Ohio State loses in week 2 or Alabama loses in week 8 it is huge. I was shocked hearing how many OSU players sat out the Rose Bowl. This is not the Gasparilla Bowl, it’s the freakin’ Rose Bowl! I’m concerned we could be losing a very special thing. Don’t screw it up!
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Football has already been ruined. Corruption and greed has already set in. 8 team 16 team playoffs doesn't really matter. One thing that is bad is that if your not in the playoffs teams as a whole are just choosing not to go to games large part of teams players are opting out of playing it's a mess. Bowl season is a joke

 
Dr. Strangelove said:
A big part of why the sport is declining is that College Football isn't all that exciting anymore. 

Don't get me wrong, individual games are often very exciting. But the march to the Playoff, who gets in, and the end result is entirely predictable. The sport has extreme talent consolidation where 6 or so schools get all of the talent. It's not fun and it's growing more and more stale by the year. 

As far as opt-outs, they absolutely do not bother me. The players are doing what they do mostly for free. Most now get small NIL deals and scholarships to state schools - although most of these players would qualify for a Pell grant to attend their state's flagship University anyway - these players don't owe us anything. If you want to complain, give them a share of the revenue they generate. 
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I said that I understand why they opt and and I don't necessarily have a problem with their individual decisions.  They have to do what's best for them.

However, I'm looking at it from the other side.  How does the sport adjust to start building back interest in the game.  Don't get me wrong, I still feel there's huge interest.  That's obvious in the fact that football is still the money maker sport at most schools.  However, long term the sport needs to figure out how to negotiate these issues.

Also, I don't believe I have ever said this is what is killing the sport.  I actually believe it's a much more complicated issue than just one factor.  Kids are going to opt out unless they are in the playoffs.  Nothing is going to change that and we just need to accept that.  My issue was with people just dismissing someone for bringing up issues instead of actually discussing the validity of them.

 
Players were always getting paid, now its legal.  Corruption can now be a little more evenly distributed. 

Some teams don't show up for bowl games,  happens every year.  This isn't new.

Having players opt out is good for the on field product.  Better product when players are fully invested,  not protecting their draft stock.

If you want to win in college football, you better have a super disruptive front 7 on defense (more specifically,  DLine), and you better have an ace QB.

And you better have the money to pay for them.  That was always the case, it's just not cheating now...

 
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Cobra Kai said:
Players were always getting paid, now its legal.  Corruption can now be a little more evenly distributed. 

Some teams don't show up for bowl games,  happens every year.  This isn't new.

Having players opt out is good for the on field product.  Better product when players are fully invested,  not protecting their draft stock.

If you want to win in college football, you better have a super disruptive front 7 on defense (more specifically,  DLine), and you better have an ace QB.

And you better have the money to pay for them.  That was always the case, it's just not cheating now...
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O line and D line most important. Then rest of defense followed by special teams closely.   QB and RBs and WRs are least important.  Imo.  Scholarships should be used accordingly.  Not sure Frost agrees although we are seeing a general shift this direction so that’s a hopeful sign longer term.  

 
84HuskerLaw said:
O line and D line most important. Then rest of defense followed by special teams closely.   QB and RBs and WRs are least important.  Imo.  Scholarships should be used accordingly.  Not sure Frost agrees although we are seeing a general shift this direction so that’s a hopeful sign longer term.  
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Just like the NFL it's a quarterback driven league.

National championship quarterbacks last 5 years

2016 DeShaun Watson 

2017 Jalen hurts/Tua

2018 Trevor Lawrence 

2019 Joe burrow

2020 Mac Jones 

 
I don't know how we'd measure whether college football players of today are giving as much effort as they were X number of years ago. Probably an impossible thing to try to measure.

But there are no doubt those more blue collar, pure work effort teams out there that clearly find some measure of success by just flat out working harder and wanting it more on Saturdays than other teams.

With that said, here comes a classic offseason comment...but I'll say this as far as how any of this does or doesn't translate to the 'skers: Frost has made it clear he doesn't really make an effort to motivate his team. Now maybe he just says that to the media because the question itself pisses him off.

But I'm going to wager that he and his staff could probably find a few more points on the board for us and few less for our opponents by tapping into the kind of culture-building elements that some of these other teams clearly have that we don't.

 
If only we could decouple football from the other sports, shrink D1, have smaller conferences (10 or 11 team) that are regional based, and expand the playoffs. It would also be nice if we could stop acting like these are non-profits running football teams and cap certain resources. 

 
Undone said:
But there are no doubt those more blue collar, pure work effort teams out there that clearly find some measure of success by just flat out working harder and wanting it more on Saturdays than other teams.
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So BYU and uhh... I forget who the other team is

 
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