Letters to the Editor: College football has long been ‘just a business’ — but it’s fairer for athletes now
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Letters to the Editor: College football has long been ‘just a business’ — but it’s fairer for athletes now

LA Times  

Notre Dame and Navy face off in an NCAA college football game in Baltimore in 2022. To the editor: I must respectfully challenge the recent opinion piece claiming that “name and likeness” agreements and modern college football economics have corrupted the sport. Ending the NCAA’s nonprofit status and allowing schools to pay athletes directly, just as they pay coaches, would bring college sports in line with economic realities. College football stopped being about amateurism long ago, and clinging to that pretense only perpetuates outdated norms. In the interest of NIL money, hundreds of college players are greedily hopscotching every year from one campus to another to earn a few extra bucks.

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History of this topic

A plot twist from what college football has become: A player who stayed
2 days, 17 hours ago

A plot twist from what college football has become: A player who stayed

Associated Press  

DANIA BEACH, Fla. — When Penn State moved a different linebacker into what had been Tyler Elsdon’s starting spot, Elsdon made a choice that doesn’t really fit into the storyline college football has been selling these days. In an era in which NIL money, more playing time and the promise of the transfer portal are a click or a phone …

When 2025 arrives, so will the end of the amateur athlete in college sports
2 weeks, 5 days ago

When 2025 arrives, so will the end of the amateur athlete in college sports

Associated Press  

When the page turns on 2024, it will be time to say goodbye, once and for all, to the amateur athlete in college sports. “We’ve got problems in college football,” Penn State coach James Franklin said. “I don’t know that fans have this really great love for the idea of 100% pure amateurism,” said Nels Popp, a University of North …

Opinion: College football is now just a business, each player a free agent — and the fans lose
1 month, 2 weeks ago

Opinion: College football is now just a business, each player a free agent — and the fans lose

LA Times  

On Saturday at Yankee Stadium, Notre Dame’s Fighting Irish played Army’s Black Knights in one of the great rivalries in college football. It’s through schools like Notre Dame — those that claim a conscience — where we truly see corruptio optimi pessima. Charlie Baker Jr., is advocating for a proposal to get past the current system’s “dysfunction.” This is the …

EA Sports College Football 25 has sparked millennial nostalgia for NCAA Football 14.
5 months ago

EA Sports College Football 25 has sparked millennial nostalgia for NCAA Football 14.

Slate  

Timothy Foster needed something to look forward to when he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma last summer. Yes, he had owned an NES and SNES in the ’90s, but the last video game he had played in earnest was NCAA Football 14—a beloved 2013 college football simulator that was the final entry in a series that was discontinued following an …

It’s a college football player’s paradise, where dreams and reality meet in new EA Sports video game
5 months, 2 weeks ago

It’s a college football player’s paradise, where dreams and reality meet in new EA Sports video game

Associated Press  

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! There was only one move to make, really: Lagway benched Graham Mertz and inserted himself into the starting lineup for a quick game of EA Sports College Football 25 against teammate Tank Hawkins. It’s surely happening across the country, with college football players finally getting to …

How college sports video games became the entry point to dismantle the NCAA’s amateurism rules
5 months, 2 weeks ago

How college sports video games became the entry point to dismantle the NCAA’s amateurism rules

Associated Press  

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! “I went to him and said, ‘I think these are getting screwed,’” said Vaccaro, the former sports executive perhaps best known for helping Nike sign Michael Jordan out of college. He said, ‘Well, now you gotta find me a guy who’s gonna sue.’” Searching for an …

The New College Football Game Turns Me Into Everything I Hate
5 months, 3 weeks ago

The New College Football Game Turns Me Into Everything I Hate

Slate  

To recruit good players in the new College Football 25 video game from EA Sports, you must be willing to engage in activities most adults would find odd. This led to a major legal defeat and NCAA Football’s cancellation, since the game studio could not compensate players for their appearance in video games under NCAA eligibility rules. Managing a college …

SEC gathers to sort through consequences of settlement, comes away with more questions than answers
7 months, 1 week ago

SEC gathers to sort through consequences of settlement, comes away with more questions than answers

Associated Press  

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! “It’s going to be a process,” Florida athletic director Scott Stricklin said. “We have to recognize we don’t have all the answers right now.” One way to boost revenue schools are already considering is selling advertising that would be displayed on football fields or uniforms. In …

Paying college athletes is closer than ever. How could it work and what stands in the way?
8 months ago

Paying college athletes is closer than ever. How could it work and what stands in the way?

Associated Press  

The proposed settlement of a federal class-action antitrust lawsuit that has been approved by the NCAA and major college conferences would cost billions and pave the way for college athletes to get a cut of the revenue that has been flowing to their schools for years. FILE - Footballs stand ready before the Virginia Tech at Wake Forest NCAA college …

Mandel’s Mailbag: Is NCAA really to blame, what are college football’s ‘what if’ moments?
10 months, 2 weeks ago

Mandel’s Mailbag: Is NCAA really to blame, what are college football’s ‘what if’ moments?

New York Times  

I passed on writing a mailbag last week because I had my hands full covering first the potential College Football Playoff expansion mess, then the bombshell Tennessee NIL ruling. Whereas every football fan knows about Caleb Williams, Michael Penix Jr., Bo Nix and Marvin Harrison Jr. • It doesn’t help that college basketball is almost entirely detached from the NBA. …

NCAA spent years fighting losing battles and left itself helpless to defend legal challenges
11 months, 1 week ago

NCAA spent years fighting losing battles and left itself helpless to defend legal challenges

Associated Press  

Years of fighting losing battles have left the NCAA almost helpless to defend itself. Amy Perko, CEO of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Sports, said the NCAA’s insistence of trying to govern major college football while it has no jurisdiction over its postseason and no say in how the billions in revenue it generates are spent is the root of …

College football is as scared of the unknown as the known, and rightfully so
1 year, 1 month ago

College football is as scared of the unknown as the known, and rightfully so

New York Times  

Mack Brown is 72 years old. College football is changing faster than anyone can keep pace with, and it doesn’t figure to take its foot off the gas pedal anytime soon. “It’s literally open free agency for all of college football, and so our guys are no different than anyone else’s that are going to be in that conversation,” Mike …

President Biden, ex-CFB players discuss college athletes’ rights: Will it lead to change?
1 year, 2 months ago

President Biden, ex-CFB players discuss college athletes’ rights: Will it lead to change?

New York Times  

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Andrew Luck, Desmond Howard and a delegation of former college football players went to the White House on Wednesday hoping to just share thoughts with a few Biden administration officials on the rights of college athletes. “Just to think they see this issue as important enough that they would carve out time of the President’s schedule to …

Coach-to-player technology could have prevented sign-stealing scandal hitting college football
1 year, 2 months ago

Coach-to-player technology could have prevented sign-stealing scandal hitting college football

Associated Press  

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! “It’s easier, obviously, when you take certain steps.” The NCAA football playing rules committee has been slow to embrace the use of coach-to-player communication technology because of concerns that it could provide a competitive advantage to schools based on budgets. The scandal has coaches around the …

College football is booming, after all the hand-wringing, thanks to NIL and the transfer portal
1 year, 2 months ago

College football is booming, after all the hand-wringing, thanks to NIL and the transfer portal

New York Times  

The Athletic has live coverage of the college football transfer portal window. Total viewing of college football is up 12 percent this season and up 28 percent over the past five years, he tweeted, adding, “among well-established major properties, I don’t know what in all of TV is trending any better than CFB.” Total viewing of College Football across all …

Ubben: College football’s ruthless next step is a matter of when, not if
1 year, 4 months ago

Ubben: College football’s ruthless next step is a matter of when, not if

New York Times  

In the 2022 fiscal year, the 11 Big Ten schools receiving full shares of revenue earned $58.8 million. Or the SEC surpasses the Big Ten and its members become the sport’s highest earners, edging out the clear other college football superpower. The Pac-12’s most valuable properties — USC, UCLA, Oregon and Washington — are already headed to the Big Ten. …

Column: Football rules, and every other sport will suffer from realignment frenzy
1 year, 4 months ago

Column: Football rules, and every other sport will suffer from realignment frenzy

Associated Press  

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! $$$$$$$$$$ No one in a position of authority seems to care that Arizona State’s softball squad, the one that Cunningham plays for, will go from a sensible conference schedule comprised of long-time regional rivals, like UCLA and Stanford, to taking on far-flung Big 12 schools it …

Vannini: College sports may not like what lies at the end of the path paved with TV money
1 year, 5 months ago

Vannini: College sports may not like what lies at the end of the path paved with TV money

New York Times  

The final nail in the coffin of the modern Pac-12 came from the golf course, as Oregon Board of Trustees chair Steve Holwerda conducted a board meeting via Zoom. Big Ten commissioner Tony Pettiti and SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at their respective media days last month that they weren’t interested in expanding. If TV money is worth killing a …

EA Sports College Football: The rise, fall — and return — of a beloved video game
2 years, 3 months ago

EA Sports College Football: The rise, fall — and return — of a beloved video game

New York Times  

When Joey Harrington arrived at Oregon in the fall of 1998, he had lofty goals: become the starting quarterback, win the Heisman Trophy and compete for a national championship. On Feb. 2, 2021, EA Sports announced on a new Twitter handle, @EASportsCollege, that a college football game would return “for those who never stopped believing.” A press release was issued …

Miami’s Wong shows college sports hurtles toward free market
2 years, 8 months ago

Miami’s Wong shows college sports hurtles toward free market

Associated Press  

The AP Top 25 college football poll is back every week throughout the season! The brazen demand made on behalf of University of Miami basketball star Isaiah Wong last week provided a rare, unvarnished glimpse into the way elite college sports have been transformed by athletes’ rights to earn money through endorsements. “It’s very clear it’s really not about endorsements, …

College football kicking off in pandemic all over again
3 years, 4 months ago

College football kicking off in pandemic all over again

Associated Press  

The Wild West nature of the upcoming, pandemic-challenged college football season can be illustrated in part by 160 miles of Texas highway that connects the trendy college city of Austin with the bustling metropolis of Houston. “Inevitably,” Longhorns coach Steve Sarkisian acknowledged, “we’re all just trying to protect one another.” There are more than 2,500 schools across the country with …

The NFL and College Football Are Competing for the Most Absurd COVID Denial in Sports
55 years ago

The NFL and College Football Are Competing for the Most Absurd COVID Denial in Sports

Slate  

Whatever America’s central problem is, football is probably the best metaphor for it. “We are hopefully providing our fans a small but welcomed respite from the critical matters at hand with some exciting football news and optimism,” Goodell said in mid-March, when trains-running-on-time NFL free agency was hammering the sports news tickers into complete surreality: “Yet another league has canceled …

Commentary: There’s a path to playing college football. Clearly, lawyers have found it
4 years, 4 months ago

Commentary: There’s a path to playing college football. Clearly, lawyers have found it

LA Times  

The Southeastern Conference, along with the Big 12 and Atlantic Coast Conference, are moving forward with season plans amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, with the same information available, the Big 12, Atlantic Coast and Southeastern conferences dug in their cleats and decided they’d keep the ball moving toward a fall season. “I feel like the Titanic — we have hit …

A kid who never outgrew his love for college football got the best job in the world
5 years, 5 months ago

A kid who never outgrew his love for college football got the best job in the world

LA Times  

The college football-obsessed kid from the Deep South is still here. Actually, there’s another big change afoot as we enter this fall: The kid is now a mid-career sportswriter walking into a dream job: national college football reporter at the Los Angeles Times. But the 13-year-old who spent cross-country road trips forcing his dad to pose as Steve Spurrier and …

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