2025 NCAA Football Thread

[Deleterious]

22 minutes ago, buddha said:

if were af the point where we can all admit this is minor league football designed to make a profit for the supposed non-profit academic institutions, then i suppose its an improvement.  it further waters down an already watered down regular season, but that ship has passed.

in a world where their labor must be paid OVER the table, the universities need cash.  more product for television is the easiest way to do that.

Nonprofit doesn't mean you don't seek profits. it's just a designation that defines what is done with the profits.  Nonprofit gets invested back into the entity. For profit gets distributed to an owner and or shareholders. 

[Shelton]

27 minutes ago, buddha said:

if were af the point where we can all admit this is minor league football designed to make a profit for the supposed non-profit academic institutions, then i suppose its an improvement.  it further waters down an already watered down regular season, but that ship has passed.

in a world where their labor must be paid OVER the table, the universities need cash.  more product for television is the easiest way to do that.

Yep. Call it what you want, but it is what it is. 

[gehringer_2]

31 minutes ago, Deleterious said:

Nonprofit doesn't mean you don't seek profits. it's just a designation that defines what is done with the profits.  Nonprofit gets invested back into the entity. For profit gets distributed to an owner and or shareholders. 

It can be more than that. A profit making venture has a positive obligation to generate an excess to make a return to its owners/investors. This also generally generates an imperative for growth. Missional non-profits are a) not specifically seeking income above their operating expenses b) are often quite content to sustain their mission at status quo scope - i.e - they are much less driven by growth imperative  - though without question there are  plenty of non-profit operators with growth ambitions - religious orgs commonly!  But in the rest of the charitable service world I've worked around, it is absolutely a different operational mindset.

As a more concrete case with college sports, the tradition at Michigan was that profits from the revenue sports were not only plowed back into those sports, but were directed  to fund recreational facilities for the general student body, faculty and staff. If you have PE guys waiting for their cut, they're not standing still for that kind of 'extravagance.'

Edited 18 hours ago by gehringer_2

[Tigeraholic1]

4 hours ago, Shelton said:

Relative to the current 12-team system that includes conference championship games, a 24-team system without auto bids or conference championship games feels like an improvement. I would assume 8 byes and 16 teams playing in the first round at campus sites during the first week of December in place of conference championship games. A 9-24 matchup is likely to be more interesting than the current 5-12 (who is a true 20ish ranked team).

A second set of campus site games in the round of 16, giving the top 8 seeds all a home game and a true 1-16 matchup feels ok. 
 

The toothpaste is out of the tube with the current system. Eliminating auto bids (which won’t eliminate the good group of five teams), and replacing meaningless conference championship games in the first week of December doesn’t seem so bad. 

This the way.

[MichiganCardinal]

When the Steelers hire Tomlin and the Irish offer Cignetti $100MM.... does he accept?

[buddha]

1 hour ago, MichiganCardinal said:

When the Steelers hire Freeman and the Irish offer Cignetti $100MM.... does he accept?

ftfy

freeman should take that job if its offered.  the steelers are a sound organization even if they dont win every year.

[MichiganCardinal]

45 minutes ago, buddha said:

ftfy

freeman should take that job if its offered.  the steelers are a sound organization even if they dont win every year.

Thanks for the fix. And I agree. Freeman would be dumb not to take it.

Though the Steelers need a full blow up and rebuild. I think their fans know it and their front office knows it, but being theoretically 3-14 is a lot easier than actually going 3-14.

[Tigeraholic1]

Coming back to the state of Indiana!  Here he is with my son, New Haven Bulldogs!

 

[Deleterious]

 

[buddha]

12 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

It can be more than that. A profit making venture has a positive obligation to generate an excess to make a return to its owners/investors. This also generally generates an imperative for growth. Missional non-profits are a) not specifically seeking income above their operating expenses b) are often quite content to sustain their mission at status quo scope - i.e - they are much less driven by growth imperative  - though without question there are  plenty of non-profit operators with growth ambitions - religious orgs commonly!  But in the rest of the charitable service world I've worked around, it is absolutely a different operational mindset.

As a more concrete case with college sports, the tradition at Michigan was that profits from the revenue sports were not only plowed back into those sports, but were directed  to fund recreational facilities for the general student body, faculty and staff. If you have PE guys waiting for their cut, they're not standing still for that kind of 'extravagance.'

it IS more than that.  the university's purpose - and the reason its granted non-profit, non-taxable status - is that it is a public good, paid for by the state, to educate its citizens and produce value for the state.  that education and the fruits of it through research, development, and producing the next generation of talented americans is the reason it exists.

not a football team.  not a rock climbing wall.  not a state of the art food court and gym.  not a assistant to the assistant provost for student inclusion at the dental school.

universities have lost their way in some many areas.  the relentless pursuit of profit via the football team is just the most obvious example.