2026 preseason thread What a mess and a shame. I wondered if more coaches would quit, here's one. I though I remembered hearing that Saban quit because of all of this money nonsense. I was sort of in favor of players being able to get NIL money from 3rd party advertisers/corporations, but having schools and school alumni/supporters raise money to pay kids just doesn't make sense. Just a bunch of wasted effort/energy and money that could go elsewhere. There are lots of trades that require unpaid internships, so can't college football be considered the unpaid internship. Is that so horrible? For many with scholarships you are getting a free college degree, so not entirely unpaid. Is that worth nothing? Is the showcase and the platform a big time school provides to the player that gives them the opportunity to play in the NFL worth nothing?
I can see the players' point of view that at least the top 20 to 40 schools make money off their football program, so shouldn't the players get a piece of that? At all other schools the football program does not make money but is a big drain away from other sports teams' budgets. I'm not sure what to do about the top programs. Is there a way to create a separate division that is essentially a professional division and the rest go back to amateur status. In the professional division, maybe the leagues which negotiate the big TV contracts where most of the money comes from, dishes out a pool of funds for the teams to allocate to their players. But the school and their supporters cannot add to that so that it just becomes a deal where the best fundraisers and the most money win the championships.