NIL: The rich getting richer

With each passing change of college football as we know it, you can excuse Temple sports fans not being overly excited.

As of yesterday, the NCAA adopted the latest reality: Name, Image and Likeness.

To me, it’s another in a series of changes that mean simply this: The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

It makes sense that the teams with the larger followings, like Duke in basketball, and Alabama in football, will have players who rake in the money over, say, the Temple’s and the Cincinnatis.

Fairness?

An even playing field?

Giving everyone an equal chance to win?

Bleep that, says the NCAA, which has reluctantly joined the call for paying the players through this method.

One of the barometers for this is social media following and, just for an example, I can’t imagine Temple basketball ever having a larger social media following than Duke (see above).

Or Temple football against any P5 team.

That 2016 American Conference football championship that Temple had now seems so far away.

Can the Owls win another AAC title?

Sure, but expecting the “amateurs” to compete with the “professionals” in a playoff with be damn near impossible. That 2016 Owls’ team would have been a worthy foe for anyone in a 12-team playoff. It lost by a touchdown at Big 10 champion Penn State despite 130 yards in home-cooking penalties. Have a rematch in a bowl game on a neutral field and things might have gone the other way.

Especially if Matt Rhule saw a playoff game against his alma mater as a better reason to stay at Temple for one more game than a meaningless bowl.

It would have been a mighty blow for the G5 to have one of its champions beat the Big 10 champion in a playoff game. Maybe the biggest boost ever for the G5.

We will never know.

Now Temple faces huge obstacles in the transfer portal and this Name, Image and Likeness development.

If this NIL thing works out the way we think it will, it might just be time for the G5 to break away and form its own organization with its own playoffs. Give similar sized schools with similar followings (and presuming players benefit the same with pay) an even playing field. I had been against that because I always thought that Temple could join the P5 but it seems like the P5 doesn’t want to share its money with anyone.

Except the players who commit to those schools and that’s sad.

Monday: Temple 2021 Measurables

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5 thoughts on “NIL: The rich getting richer

  1. Wasn’t this forced on NCAA? I don’t think it is something they want to regulate and oversee. Congress couldn’t come up with any rules to organize it, so the states are in charge for the time being, with every state being different.

    A new component enters in recruiting. Will companies be involved (go to University X and we’ll have you endorse this and that)? Could the Nike man line up an entire recruiting class for Oregon by offering them shoe endorsements? Could Mrs T’s reach out to recruits of Polish heritage to go to PSU or Pitt and endorse pierogis? How about car dealers in every college town?

    Will the softball players, many of whom are very attractive, get offers to model or endorse beauty or fashion products? Gymnasts already are being featured for other products and services.

    This is a mess for all college sports. As you write, the G5 situation becomes acutely desperate, while the P5’s are confronted with a situation that presents very uneven, non-comparable factors in the process of bringing in elite players. Suddenly, playing time, coaching, and personal development could take a back seat to how much $ a player can generate. Will a player be focused on his deals and become academically ineligible? What does that do to his payments?

    Can you say Patriot League?

  2. Agree with everything you said here Mike. First the player portal and now the player $$ compensation thing for name, image and likeness! College sports are forever changed, and not for the overall better IMO! We’ll just have to wait and see what shakes out with our Owls. As you say – sad situation.

  3. Yep, the big boys get bigger and richer with this bs, and isn’t that what it really is all about (and always has been) – money? By way of further separating the P5 from all the rest. Next thing they’ll start eliminating one or two of the “lesser” P5 conferences to consolidate the riches even more. It just never ends.

    • No way a Rutgers competes with a Penn State in this. This will not only impact G5 but the lesser P5 brands and this was (as the original commenter stated) forced upon the NCAA. Doesn’t make it more palatable to Temple fans. To me a scholarship worth $200,000 plus should be enough compensation.

  4. As I have asked all these years : Just who the hell is this NCAA org anyway? Why have they been allowed to take in so much money, and as ‘he’ once said: ‘for who, for what ?’ . This is nothing more than a racket where the insiders club there gets fantastic pay and benefits. How about an accounting for what these insiders get ? Much like our Turnpike commissions and all that where ex politicos get appointed and take in lots of money for years and years, to do about nothing . Talk about ‘The Swamp’, this is a big one too.

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