PhildnStream

Bingo. And what isn’t even mentioned is, does anybody really believe these kids are actually doing any school work? ‘College’ football died at the D1 level when NIL was implemented. Just adopt the NFL rules and let the kids that really want an education pay for it out of their salary.

I didn’t think we would make the NCAA Tourney earlier this year. We just look awful a lot. But this could be Pearl’s best coaching job so far. The team is finally learning to play their roles somewhat. As Greene goes so goes Auburn. He can be really bad at times. But he has been good at the end of games. Flannigan getting better has been huge. It’s all about being good in March. Last year we were great in the regular season and did nothing in the tourney. We will see.

Which is the entire problem with the rule in the first place! There is entirely too much ‘gray area’ in the rule itself! Like Lake Superior area gray! It’s a poorly written rule and even more poorly enforced.

Rule

I have hated this time since day 1. There is zero consistency in how it’s called. Nobody can really agree on what targeting actually is. It should be limited to the most egregious circumstances like when a QB is sliding or earholing a receiver coming over the middle. But calling it for just making a tackle is ridiculous!! Way too many games have been decided because a kid was just trying to make a football play!

Same here!

Having contact with and making an offer are two completely different things. I just don’t believe everything I read or hear. Especially in a situation where agents are constantly manipulating the messaging to their advantage. Doesn’t matter if we did or didn’t. He ain’t at Auburn. Thank goodness!!!

According to who? Message board moderators? They are so manipulated by agents it’s a joke. I don’t know if we did or didn’t and neither do you. I for one never wanted him for this very reason and I am so glad he isn’t our coach!

I’ll never understand why Dabo was so stubborn with him. Clemson will be in the hunt again now that he is gone.

Tutors

I’ve been saying NIL opened Pandoras Box and killed ‘college’ sports. This was inevitable. What kids need to understand now though is they can be fired just like any other employee. The schools now need to install the rules of free agency and salary caps just like the pros and stop giving scholarships. Let the athletes pay their own way if they want an education. Stop the chirade that these athletes are doing the school work to stay eligible. Most aren't. 'Tudors' are doing it for them. If they want an education make them pay for it and earn it. Maybe then they will actually appreciate its value. If they think they can rely on ball to set them up for life go for it. Most will find out the hard way they should have gotten an education when given the chance.

Just because you spread the field with formation doesn’t mean you can’t be physical. Hugh is an offensive genius at taking advantage of matchups. How about we let him coach a game before declaring he is going to fail.

Actually before that. Justin Fields was asked how he liked the OSU campus a year after transferring from UGA. He said he didn’t know because he hadn’t really seen it because he took all his classes online. Right. I’m sure he was the one taking the classes.

Who? I haven’t heard of anybody being academically ineligible at an SEC school since the pandemic and everything went online.

Great point! And one that gets lost on so many.

For instance. In the case of an insurance company paying a player for his endorsement of their product, how in the world could you ever determine how many policies were actually bought based on his endorsement? There is no way to regulate it.

You say it can be easily regulated. No it can’t. That’s why there was a rule against it in the first place. Who is going to determine the limits to the ‘royalties’ the jerseys or whatever else a company is selling can be to the player? Who determines a players’ market value? The NCAA nor anybody else can’t keep businesses from making bad business deals so if they want to throw mega millions at players for little or no return on the actual investment for the players ‘sponsorship’ of their product then so be it. The government can’t keep businesses from spending their money any way they like so the NCAA sure can’t. Once they said it was ok, they can’t regulate the amount or who gets what. Even if they tried it wouldn’t hold up in court. So college football as we knew it died the day that ruling was made. Might as well treat it for what it is now and be done with it it.

Where do you think all this money comes from in the first place? What a remarkably ignorant thing to say. And please don’t say ‘it’s the TV money’. Without these horrible fans watching and driving the ratings the networks couldn’t charge billions for ads and couldn’t pay the teams billions to appear on TV. You clearly have no clue about simple economics about how wealth is created in the first place. Yes the players AND coaches are the product but without a consumer for that product there is no wealth creation!! So if the consumers get sick of the product and quit watching there will be no money to hand out. The players are getting paid now and still getting a free education and they can leave anytime. That is an infeasible business model to continue. The NFL doesn’t allow that and now that ‘college’ football is dead NFL rules will have to be put in place or the consumers will eventually get sick and tired of watching a sport full of complete chaos where you are basically just pulling for a jersey.

So how much of the revenue? And how much does each player get? Do they all get the same amount? And who determines those things? Each school? The NCAA? The state legislatures? It’s easy to say ‘well the players deserve something more than just a free education’ (which I hate it when I hear that because parents footing the bill for a college education these days would beg to differ) but the devil is in the details. That’s why we have such a convoluted mess now. There was no real thought put into all the ramifications from combining pay for play (which is really what NIL is) and unrestricted free agency. ‘College’ football no longer exists and it’s time to recognize that and just make them employees. If they want to get an education they can pay for it out of their own pockets from the salary they will be getting from the school.

I was against NIL from the beginning because I knew where it would lead. Well, there is no putting the toothpaste back in the tube so might as well go all the way. This halfway stuff is worse. The kids aren’t going to class anymore. Everything is done online and tutors are taking the tests. When is the last time anybody was declared academically ineligible? Did the kids all of a sudden get smarter or more responsible? No. But the people shelling out the big bucks aren’t about to let a little thing like grades keep their guys off the field. As it is now the kids get paid, don’t have to do the school work they are supposed to be in college for in the first place, and can leave and go somewhere else each year if they so desire. So roster management becomes almost impossible. In the NFL you don’t have unrestricted free agency. The owners and the players unions have agreed to a system that makes roster management possible. So we might as well do away with the false narrative these players are ‘student athletes’ anymore and just call it what it is and put the rules in place much like the NFL. Make the players employees of the school and give the employer some say so in how the contracts between employee and employer are derived. I don’t like it but it was inevitable once NIL opened Pandora’s box.

Need a new name for ‘college’ football period. Very little ‘college’ going on.

I’m fully aware of Bama’s record. Believe me. I’m simply making the point that this run is nearing its end. And it has been a heckuva run. But Saban is losing his edge. Happens to everybody. He will retire soon and there will be a transition period. I wouldn’t want to be the one to follow him. His record will be impossible to duplicate.

You know the dynasty is crumbling when Bama has to hang its hat on pointing out what other teams did what they couldn’t do.

And only allowed 14 sacks all year. Yeah he sounds awful!:)

Every Auburn fan I know is ecstatic about Freeze. The only naysayers I’ve seen are on social media. I haven’t met one in person. Makes me wonder how many are actually Auburn fans.

They will.

Nope. Just sit back and watch. He isn’t the only coach leaving Ole Miss for Auburn. And Auburn’s roster will be revamped quickly.

Klieman is a heckuva coach. I started watching him when he was winning all this National Championships at North Dakota State. His teams play hard and smart and are physical. Add the fact that this game will mean a lot more to Kansas State than Bama and I’ll take Kansas State in this one.

Dabo

Never could understand Dani’s stubbornness with DJ. Had he started Klubnik earlier in the year they would be in the CFP. Heck. If he had just played Klubnik the second half of the SC game they would be in the CFP. Klubnik is the real deal. Clemson will be back next year.