Chip Kelly advocates for single conference and revenue sharing
I think Coach Harbaugh’s message is gaining traction. From a news conference yesterday, Chip Kelly said:
And in what was perhaps the staunchest point of his answer, Kelly also called for revenue sharing between schools and players which, in his mind, would alleviate a lot of the murkiness that name, image and likeness has brought to the sport in recent years.
"The players should get paid and you can get rid of [NIL] and the schools should be paying the players because the players are what the product is," Kelly said. "And the fact that they don't get paid is, really, the biggest travesty."
He’s advocating for a single Power 5 conference, splitting football from everything else. Not sure how this could work with Title IX and why not just call it what it is, a minor league for the NFL?
December 17th, 2023 at 12:51 PM ^
It’s going to happen. The only thing that will prevent it are conference commish egos.
December 17th, 2023 at 2:19 PM ^
I like there to be just 4 power 5 conferences, B1G, SEC, BIG 12 and ACC.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:05 PM ^
I like regional rivals playing every year
December 17th, 2023 at 4:37 PM ^
He's right and as a for profit sport you could find a way to split it from regular athletics. It's going that way and it will end up there in a couple of decades.
December 17th, 2023 at 4:51 PM ^
I've been advocating for Four, 16 team regional conferences since this realignment garbage started.
Each Conference is then 4 x 4 team divisions. You play 3 divisional opponents. Two divisions paired up every year for schedule parody. Everybody then schedules 4 non-standing games. If you want to do a protected rivalry in another division, fine, it wont count for final division standings that year. Only the 7 in-division and cross-division games count for final standings. 11 game season.
Each conference has their own 4 team playoff. Winners of each conference go to national final four.
Keep Bowl system as it is right now. Final Four + whatever.
No more comittees of stupidity picking who deserves it most or who will bring in the most ratings dollars for ESPN.
December 17th, 2023 at 5:11 PM ^
Oh no... Now there will be rumors of him taking NFL head coaching positions every off season. When that doesn't workout, the NCAA will find some sort of infraction to charge him with. And when that doesn't get rid of him, someone will hire a PI firm to look into every dark corner, spy on him, and possibly hack an university computer to get some illegally obtained proof of some BS (not really) prohibited activity to report to the NCAA. When that doesn't get rid of him, they will start then NFL head coaching rumors again.
His hope of ever building an annual power house program is over!
December 17th, 2023 at 5:54 PM ^
Interesting discussion, all. Of course, I start thinking about endless cans of worms being opened.
If you pay players at state-supported schools, they become state employees. An unanswered question is how much control the state then has over the teams. Is the state not entitled to a share of the income of its employees and state-supported schools? Can the state control player activities?
Does the state legally have a say in, for example, the hiring and firing of coaches?
Can the employees be made to sign employee handbooks and contracts with non-compete clauses and NDAs, like employees at many companies?
Should the revenue UM earns at football games via attendance be shared with other state schools, like MSU, the directional schools, etc?
What if, in its infinite wisdom, the state decides that the mission of state-supported universities isn't sponsoring professional football teams?
Can the state insist that paid employees pay their own tuition, like anyone else who isn't on academic scholarship?
I can probably think of more questions, and I have no answers. But it's interesting to think about this stuff.
December 17th, 2023 at 8:17 PM ^
I believe you're conflating state-supported / state-funded with state-run. As far as the University of Michigan goes, while the Board of Regents is elected via a statewide vote as a public university, there's no state control over hirings/firings and certainly the State of Michigan does not get any revenue from the University. Likewise, employees of the University of Michigan are not "state employees".
December 17th, 2023 at 6:11 PM ^
Kelly’s system is fine. It’s really pathetic that football has devolved into this current situation. The schools have all of the power but exercise none of it. NIL is out and there’s no putting it back in the box.
There are plenty of professional football leagues, there is no reason to turn college into another one.
Go back to a more traditional college system. Pay all of the players a flat rate. If you want NIL, go to one of the professional leagues. Allow players to be able to go pro when they are 18. You get to choose one of two routes, go play for a school(the traditional route) and get paid a competitive flat rate, or give up your amateurism and go pro and get your NIL. It’s really pretty simple.