To be a TU fan now you have to believe in magic

Even Depressed Ginger, an Ohio State fan, is against the transfer portal.

Hell month in Tallahassee, Florida began on Sunday when Florida State football fans screamed bloody murder both on campus and in social media.

The Seminoles were left out of the four-team college football playoff and they have a point for wanting to be in there.

The second-leading tackler in Temple history gives his thoughts on the NIL and the transfer portal and his feelings pretty much reflect what every Temple fan is thinking today.

There was a lot of boo-hooing going on Sunday afternoon in the state capital of Florida.

I had to laugh because Florida State fans are going to be fine compared to Temple ones. They will go to the Orange Bowl with a 13-0 record against a Georgia team they can make a statement against. They have gobs of NIL money and will be able to retain 99 percent of their players for the forseeable future.

Hell for a month isn’t so bad.

Temple might have entered a period of five or less years of hell by comparison. The Owls don’t have money and probably won’t be able to keep nearly that percentage. They probably won’t be going to a bowl game.

Temple football fans are the ones I feel more sorry for and it extends beyond the logic than I am one.

Fixing college football is easy.

Actually doing it is hard.

Here’s one solution: Eliminate the NIL and to put all of the college football TV money is one pot, split it in two (50 percent for the schools and 50 percent for the players) and give an equal share to every single college football scholarship player. That way nobody on the No. 1 team makes more than anyone on the No. 130 team and everybody has an equal shot. Make the transfer portal active for any team that loses a head coach. Otherwise, 90 percent of the college teams have no chance to succeed and the sport will lose 90 percent of the fans of more than half their teams.

Those numbers aren’t sustainable for the sport overall even if the blue bloods in the sport refuse to admit it.

The fact that a head coach, even our own favorite Matt Rhule, is this involved in the NIL is a sad commentary on the state of college football today.

More importantly, no single player on any team makes more money than any other single player and that would eliminate the prima donna problem that exists in most locker rooms that didn’t exist, say, a decade ago.

That would also rebut the two arguments that started all this NIL and transfer portal nonsense: 1) If the coaches can move, the players should be able to (solved by a transfer portal for coaching changes); 2) The schools are making millions and the players also deserve a share.

Making it an equal share should make everyone happy.

Everyone, with the exception of the rich.

Kent State or Temple or Toledo would have a much better chance to compete against the Oklahomas, Ohio State and Penn State under those parameters.

You have a better chance of losing your free ride to college than you have of getting a single penny once you enter the portal. Those are the facts.

The Kent States and the Temple and Toledos don’t make the rules, though. The people who make the rules are the Ohio States, the Oklahomas and the Penn States. If it benefits them to “steal” players developed by schools like Temple, they will do it. They will take the best and leave the rest behind. Screw the kids who get talked into going into the portal. Seventy percent of them did not find a home and lost their scholarships last year. Who knows how many this year?

As long as this system benefits those who make the laws, the rest of us can go to hell and that’s where most of FBS college football fans are now. Certainly the G5 ones.

Excuse me if I don’t shed a tear for Mike Norvell or Florida State.

Friday: How Temple can succeed in this system

14 thoughts on “To be a TU fan now you have to believe in magic

  1. All true Mike but you’re beating an already dead horse. Hell I just posted a comment on the Inky slamming the NCAA and the playoff system and it was rejected for “community standards” or some bs like that. I didn’t cuss or anything! But really and as you’ve recently said, Temple’s problems go way beyond the NIL and portal – they’re internal problems that need to be cleaned up before Temple can be competitive. Sure the NCAA decisions, NIL and portal are major headaches but Temple is shooting itself in the foot right now and as you’ve said, other smaller programs are weaving their way way to success – why can’t Temple?

  2. Could you post what you said on the Inky site here?

    • I can’t find it now but basically I said the NCAA is a corrupt organization where money is the primary thrust of its activities and that the “play offs” with only 4 participants is just a way to zero in on the programs that are going to be in the 2 big conferences down the road. The article was about who got into the playoffs and who didn’t. I mentioned UCF and Cincy as recent G5 schools who didn’t and did respectively make it in and how FSU, of all programs, was left out this year because the committee was focused on “which players” weren’t going to play. It’s all BS with the NCAA. Sorry but that’s all I can remember – I’m getting too old for this shit (’68 TU grad).

  3. As far as the dead horse, I don’t see how this is sustainable not only for Temple but for all but maybe Memphis in the AAC. Every single conference mate for us is in the same boat as far as the transfer portal and NIL. If only Memphis is able to keep its “good” starting quarterback, it creates a power imbalance and will eventually destroy the conference.

    • the facts will not change in our lifetimes. Play the cards you are dealt or move away from the table. TU has chosen to abstain, just as it did during the Arms Race.

      The BE kicked us out. AG and belated EO improvements saved the day.

      At one time, UCF, Louisville, Tulane, SMU, Cincy, and Houston were athletic peers. We can bemoan NIL all we want, it won’t help us compete. I’d trade our BOT for our former peers BOT anyday. Head in the sand, yet again!!

  4. Can you live in this world w/o a personal cell phone? Unimaginable even as little as five years ago. Try to stop the ocean from rushing to the shore.

    Big time college athletes are heading towards becoming university employees….,

    Look forward, not back. Answer the question, “how can we best compete today and tomorrow?”

    Nostalgia is based purely on emotions.

  5. Unfortunately, the courts have already ruled that each player has a right to obtain compensation for his NIL. There is no way to end this by agreement among schools or conferences.

  6. A little off topic but saw some postings regarding USFs $340 million OCS project. Wasn’t TU admin talking about spending $150 million to build one here? With construction costs generally running higher in this part of the country shows me the admin and BOT was never serious about this and in my opinion is just using the neighborhood push back as a convenient excuse for inaction.

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