hshivers

At least Kiffin is trying to think of the entire system - if you poke in here, what pokes out over there? The current system is not sustainable and all athletes are not contributing to the institutions’ profits at the same level but expect compensation. Fans are not financially benefitting from the profits but are expected to pay all of the NIL anyway. Why not make all athletes part time, no benefit university employees with four or five stages of compensation from practice fodder to super star and be done with it? Provide no benefits or retirement, etc., but Uncle Sugar (taxes/social security) and states still get their cuts from the paychecks, so some life preparation learning right there! Universities and conferences can and will spread the NIL cost over ticket and concession sales (broadcast networks and pro teams also should contribute), but that is far fairer to fans than the current fiasco those institutions have caused by running from their obligation to share their profits made from the players they “hire/recruit.” After all, weren’t those institutions the parties that the original NIL ruling said should pay?

Agreed. And a few athletes are beginning to put their “brand” before their team and that is not good for any team.

Shortening is the best simple idea so far to fix the mess the institutions, the conferences, the NCAA, the networks and the pro teams, et al, have created by refusing to pay the NIL as the courts said they should and passing the NIL bill along to corporate sponsors and PRIMARILY to fans/donors. Yes, folks will adjust but I believe two weeks at most in the two periods or one period of 3 weeks following the football championship should be sufficient. That limits shopping around and helps coaches plan better for recruiting and executing a season. Maybe football is three weeks after the championship and the other sports are in the summer or after their championships, just not all at one time. There’s no perfect time, maybe the last week of June and two weeks in July, but at least that is a start. Next step, @GregSankey and others, is get the ppl (above) that are actually making money from athletes to pay the NIL freight! Stop running from what you know is the right process. Yes it will be passed on down, but that “peanut butter spreading” is far better than what I have seen so far.

Shortening is the best simple idea so far to fix the mess the institutions, the conferences, the NCAA, the networks and the pro teams, et al, have created by refusing to pay the NIL as the courts said they should and passing the NIL bill along to corporate sponsors and PRIMARILY to fans/donors. Yes, folks will adjust but I believe two weeks at most in the two periods or one period of 3 weeks following the football championship should be sufficient. That limits shopping around and helps coaches plan better for recruiting and executing a season. There’s no perfect time, maybe the last week of June and two weeks in July, but at least that is a start. Next step, @GregSankey and others, is get the ppl (above) that are actually making money from athletes to pay the NIL freight! Stop running from what you know is the right process. Yes it will be passed on down, but that “peanut butter spreading” is far better than what I have seen so far.

Maybe the 6 highest ranked conference champs and the next 6 highest ranked teams. Then seed based on the same rankings with 1-4 getting byes. You'd have (seeds, not rankings, but likely close) 5-12, 6-11, 7-10 and 8-9 in first round. In second you would have most likely 1-8, 2-7, 3-6, and 4-5, with the "worst" matchup being a possible 1-9. Twelve teams using this criteria and even a 5-7, or 4-8 conference champ to rankings split would seem to be similar to give the season and championships their due. More than six conference champs might get into the "not such a good team" championship problem; Louisiana is 23. Using 2021 rankings: Alabama 1, Michigan 2, Cincinnati 4, Baylor 7 get byes. Alabama 1 bracket first round is Miss 8 vs OK ST 9; Mich 2 bracket is OSU 6 vs MI St 10; Cinn 3 is ND 5 vs Utah 11; and Bay 7 is UGA 3 vs Pitt 12. You get a little noise this season plus several in-conference repeats. This season, going with the top 12 gets the same teams in because the 6th champion is number 12, but the brackets shift if the top 4 ranked teams get byes rather than the top 4 conference champs. Ala, Mich, UGA and Cin get byes and the brackets are: Ala 1 bracket first round is Miss 8 vs OK ST 9; Mich 2 bracket is Bay 7 vs MI St 10; UGA 3 is OSU 6 vs Utah 11; and Cinn 4 is ND 5 vs Pitt 12. Conference count is SEC and B1G 3 each, Big 12 2, American, PAC 12 and ACC 1 each, and 1 independent. BYU at 13, an Independent barely misses out and if you just take the top 16 you get the above plus Oregon, Iowa and Oklahoma if there are no byes. But, everyone can figure out a scheme, and none are perfect.

This was the fourth time AU fans have rolled Toomers this season. AU rolls Toomers after every football victory and after significant victories in the other sports. The more notable football victories result in more fans and more TP. The tradition started before punt bama punt.