MEMBER SINCE March 05, 2013
The most interesting part of this story is that Olivia Dunne is actually making money off of NIL.
Most college football NIL news that I have seen is about players being paid to play the sport with no actual marketing of their NIL.
2* in the class of 2019 . . . earned his degree in 3 years . . . has started 21 games.
He's a grown-ass man now. I expect he is going to contribute.
I think that NIL is going to become more manageable once the dust settles some.
Boosters all around the country are paying out too much money in exchange for almost no value. As Warren Buffett said, "when 'dumb' money acknowledges its limitations, it ceases to be dumb." Once people with too much money realize that there is almost no value to creating a college football team full of players with too much money, the madness is going to stop.
The Texas A&M boosters are not going to pay players who can't do better than 5-7 and last place in the SEC West. And once the car dealerships, restaurants and clothing stores figure out whether sponsoring student athletes is good advertising or not, they will act accordingly.
Silver Lining -- There should be very good seats available for those willing to pay the Per Seat Contributions.
Because the 2022 home schedule was so strong, the transition to the new PSC system was artificially smooth. Season ticket holders with blocks of good seats paid the PSC to keep them. 2023 might be Armageddon under the new system because people with 8 seats will go down to 4, etc. That is likely to make very good seats available to people buying a pair of season tickets for the first time.
The schedule looks even worse if you add in the dates and think about tailgating.
Sounds like a bad idea, but I make bad choices too so here is my $0.02. If you don't have tickets yet or have flexibility, things would probably go more smoothly if you bought individual chair seats with extra room for the child to stand (if old enough). That means, club, B-Box, and D-Box seats. I would not do Row 1 of C Deck for safety reasons. If you have club seats, with access to the heated lounge, you would end people's concerns by saying so!
The biggest issue may be the temperature, since regulating that for a child so young may be difficult. I suggest that you wear a big enough coat that your child can be zipped inside of it with his or her face sticking out on and off throughout the game. If the child is too big to tolerate much of that, he/she should have a snow boots, snowpants, winter coat, mittens, and hat.
The people suggesting you go to Gate 5 an hour or more before kickoff, are setting up 5+ hours outdoors in temperatures between 35 and 40 degrees with a child under age 2. You should at least check whether lap tickets might be available from the Schottenstein Center box office . . . which is inside of a heated building. Or get the lap ticket early and find a warm place to shelter until just before kickoff.
Brutus has been an "active participant" in the bubble events for a long time. Brutus getting leveled shows that the students who participated have been paying attention!
Your kids are really young, so the best bet is to focus on conserving energy so that maybe they make it to the end of half-time before melting down. At 3 p.m. take an Uber to Ohio State's preferred drop off at the Schottenstein Center (or get dropped off at the French Field House on Lane). Don't walk across campus, your youngest is only 5!
Walk to St. John Arena for the Skull Session (go straight there, but enjoy the view of the river from the bridge). Once inside, take your kids to the cleanest restrooms you will see for the rest of the day. Sit, rest, and feed the kids food that you brought from home (limit thier drinks). After the skull session, stay in your seats until it clears out then use the restrooms again.
Go to the stadium, find your seats, ask the redcoats/ushers where the closest family restroom can be found, watch warm ups, watch the fans fill the stadium, and watch the band come in.
As soon as the game kicks off, tell yourself that you have already made it longer than many people with kids this age. After 15 minutes, give each kid a dum-dum lollipop. When they finish the lollipops, start handing out M&Ms a few at a time (bring a 16 oz bag from home). Tell them they can have another lollipop when the clock shows 5 minutes left in the first half (but, give them out earlier when the first kid starts crying). Watch the half-time show . . . and then get the heck out of there.
Decisions are made by the Presidents (perhaps guided by Trustees). Two current B1G Presidents and one future B1G President are Stanford alumni:
The other B1G Presidents did their undergraduate work at places like University of Chicago (Mich/MSU), Cal-Berkley (Maryland), etc.
I think it is a safe bet that the B1G Presidents would have a favorable view of a top-shelf academic university like Stanford . . . and a less favorable view of a University like TCU.
ND is fine as an independent because they are a great draw for home-and-home games. And, the 4-Team CFP will continue to need 4 arguably-worthy (not actually-worthy) teams. The super-sized SEC & B1G, are going to have fewer 1-loss runner ups and no 2-loss team has been selected to the CFP for good reasons ($$$). After expansion, the CFP final four will be (1) SEC Champion; (2) B1G Champion; and (3 & 4) the 2 next most marketable teams regardless of conference.
The CFP will need teams like N.D., Clemson, Florida State, Baylor, Washington, and Arizona State to finish undefeated or with 1-loss and enough buzz to argue they might beat an SEC/B1G champion.
The CFP will only expand if the SEC and B1G will make more money. They will make more money by cutting the Group of Five out of the CFP and giving less money to whatever survives of the ACC, Big 12 and Pac 12.
That means -- Round 1 of the CFP will be a "Conference Semi-Final Game" (B1G on Fox and SEC on ABC/ESPN). Round 2 of the CFP will be the Conference Championship Games. The SEC and B1G will each get 1 automatic bid in the final four and whatever other conferences survive will provide them with two patsies to beat up on.
A lot of games, may not be available to everyone . . . But the top 3 B1G games each week will be shown on the BROADCAST networks, Fox, CBS, and NBC. That seems like excellent positioning in a cord-cutting world.
With expansion, the B1G will likely have at least two very interesting football games scheduled each week of the 13-week regular season. Combinations of OSU, Mich, PSU, Wisc, and USC, along with non-conference games, interesting rivalries (MSU/Mich, USC/UCLA, Wisc/Iowa), and whichever team might break through in the West that year (Iowa, Nebraska, or Minnesota) can definitely support a schedule of three broadcast games per week.
The third and fourth "super-conferences" do not need to be truly "super," they just need to produce undefeated or 1-loss champions that can be fed to the lions in the CFP.
Right now the B1G and SEC are giving equal CFP shares to the ACC, Big-12 and Pac-12, then having the CFP write a check in the ballpark of $90-100 million every year to the Group of Five. With my suggestion, the B1G and SEC: (1) kill off the Group of Five handout; (2) divide the 4-team CFP money by 4 conferences instead of 5; and, (3) keep their own revenue from the Rd. 1 "Conference Semi-Finals." It is a much better deal for the B1G and SEC than either (a) adding teams that can't justify their split of conference revenues or (b) continuing to evenly split the CFP money with unworthy conferences.
Having each conference "own" 100% of its revenue from the 1st round might be the biggest advantage. The networks will pay huge money for the B1G and SEC Conference Semifinals: -- Ohio State vs. USC and Penn State vs. Wisconsin; Alabama vs. Texas; LSU vs. Georgia. The ACC and Big-Pac will make less money, but it won't be "unfair."
4 Super Conferences, with no at-large access --
Rd 1: Conference Semi-Finals 16 Teams (conferences do not share revenue)
Rd 2: Conference Championship Games 8 Teams (conferences do not share revenue)
Rd 3: 4-Team CFP, with 4 Automatic Bids for Conference Champions
Rd. 4: CFP National Championship Game
I actually think it makes sense for ND to join the ACC as a full member, which would likely force ESPN/ABC to renegotiate the ACC's contract. They should be a top two football program in the ACC and feel pretty good about themselves. Good vibes keep the alumni money flowing.
Conference expansion is happening whether we want it or not, so it makes sense to want the best possible outcome. There is plenty of room to debate what potential outcomes are positive.
The mouse (Disney) wants to fill air time on ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, the SEC Network, and the ACC Network. Because it broadcasts so much more college football than the other networks, Disney/ESPN would be the biggest loser if two equal super conferences were the end result. ESPN certainly does not want the ACC to dissolve with half of its best teams going to the Big Ten (and Fox)!
The ACC is weak, but it has a several things going for it: (a) moving up to 18 members should trigger a "composition clause" in its ESPN contract, reopening negotiations to some extent; (b) it already exists as a valuable brand that ESPN does not want to kill off; (c) ESPN might lose Big Ten programing entirely (perhaps 18 teams worth), such that they need the ACC; and, (d) unless the SEC and Big 10 grow enough to schedule a College Football Championship Game between their two champions, they need 2 other conferences to supply teams for a playoff.
Corn, wheat and tumbleweeds do not watch or play football. The Big 12 needs Baylor, BYU, Houston, and Central Florida. After the Big Ten takes Stanford, an 18 team Big-Pac merger will make more sense with two 9 team divisions (and Cincinnati being encouraged to join the ACC).
No one ever suggested that Washington Generals should be paid the same as the Harlem Globetrotters. With a 30 team conference, there will be too many stooges.
I think we are headed towards Four 18 team Super Conferences with their champions feeding into a 4-team CFP (after a 4-team Conference Playoff). The Big Ten and the SEC must allow two other conferences to survive in order for that structure to exist. Dumping the "Group of Five" frees up its $90 million share of CFP revenue, so there should be enough money available to allow two "lesser" conferences to survive.
To reach 18 teams, the Big 10 will add Stanford and ND. ND could choose the ACC in that scenario, but that would be a surprise. The remainder of the Pac-12 would merge with the Big-12. The Big-12 would need to jettison WVU, UCF, and Cincinnati, all three of which would be better fits with the ACC. The ACC would still need a couple more teams . . . maybe UConn, and Florida International.
The Big Ten and SEC could each find good candidates to take them to 20 teams, but I don't think the TV money would increase enough to justify it. Once the Big Ten and SEC each have enough teams to justify a 4-team conference playoff, adding teams might reduce per-team revenue. And the ACC and the combined Big/Pac-12 cannot be stripped of all dignity or the CFP will lose value.
Dinner Friday: Patio @ LIndey's (beautiful setting, excellent service and food)
Saturday Breakfast: When in Columbus, you must go to White Castle. Their bacon egg & cheese sliders are revelation. You will never think about White Castle the same way again. Or for an amazing bakery that would be at the top of the list almost anywhere in the country try Fox in the Snow.
Saturday Lunch: Wario's . . . you may want a nap, but you won't *need* to eat again on Saturday.
Pre-Game: Tailgate.
Sunday morning before you leave: You will go back to White Castle because the B/E/C sliders actually did change your life.
I really think that Stanford and Notre Dame make a nice package. They have played football annually since 1997. If they were brought in together, the Big Ten would have 4 elite private universities as natural rivals/peers (USC/Stanford/ND/Northwestern).
The next pair to the Big Ten -- Stanford + Notre Dame.
Big Ten West: USC, UCLA, Stanford, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois
Big Ten East: Wisconsin, Purdue, Indiana, Michigan State, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland
