In our College Football ‘22 Review we wrote about NIL and what it’s done for college football so far.
Is surely will change the game. But what does that mean for this game we love?
Well, we discussed it on our podcast last week, and our college football correspondent Jordo gave some great insight to what may be on the horizon.
As Jordo said, there’s a good chance it becomes more like what plays on Sunday. And a good chance it becomes watered down.
What made college football so special was its regionalism and the rivalries therein. I can pay a ton of money to go watch a football game on a Sunday in a massive stadium in a metropolis somewhere. But that stadium isn’t on a beautiful college campus that I drove through rolling farmlands and the beauty of the South to get to, like Auburn. It isn’t nestled on the banks of a river, where people tailgate after driving up on boats, like Tennessee. And it doesn’t have the personality or architecture of the capstone at Alabama, to name a few.
And yeah, we know the Eagles and Cowboys hate each other, but do they hate each other like Tech and Georgia do? What about Texas and A&M?
Look, I love pro football. I have invested too many hours in a mediocre franchise to not. But I love college football for different reasons. It’s the difference between minor league baseball and pro: two completely different ideations of the same game.
Same principle with football. Just like your town’s minor league team is your team, your favorite college is likely your team. Where you went, or where you watched games with your parents, or near where you grew up.
And that’s what makes college and pro both so great. They’ve been different for so long. I’m afraid of what happens when they become the same.
I’m all for kids getting their due. Goodness knows the colleges have. But I hope NIL doesn’t eventually mean “Not Immediately Local” for college football.
The Message Pitch 