Beerman

Break a contract, pay a penalty. If there is no penalty, then was there ever really a contract?

Major college sports has been a business longer than you have likely been alive

Even if a NIL deal is stated as being for multiple years, it's a one year deal. Calling it a multi-year deal just means you're spreading out the cash over a longer term. Colleges can end the madness anytime the wish to.

...and not just a nostalgia hit

... to "prove this will fail", bad things are bound to happen

All of those same parents ***** and moan about the alternative childcare arrangements they've made, or day they have to take off work, when it turns out that a closure wasn't necessary. They ALSO ***** and moan when schools aren't closed, and they have trouble getting up the driveway or have to deal with horrific snow day traffic when schools aren't cancelled. Basically ... miserable gits are going to ***** and moan because *****ing and moaning validates their pain.

Football coaches fail. A lot. I feel like the REAL American Dream is to become a TV preacher. They don't even have to deliver anything!

There's nothing illegal about entering into a NIL deal and not subjecting it to Clearinghouse approval. There is only the possibility that the NCAA finds out about it and tells a school "Stop! Or I'll say stop again..."

It's highly probably that not all of the NIL deals are even NCAA-vetted. Nationally, at least, even if VT has decided to play by the rules.

Uh oh 😉

When you tell a guy it isn't in the cards for him, and that playing time will be hard to come by going forward, if they want to play they'll move on. It helps when the coaching staff works to find them a good landing place. I don't doubt there are a few guys who don't want to leave VT and will stick around the bottom of the roster being worthwhile practice bodies and emergency depth. That's fine, in sufficiently small numbers, and we will probably never hear a word about it.

Made no cleaner by the fact that what (some) fans want and what the powers actually driving the sport want are not particularly the same things.

...and Congress can change federal laws. Or create exemptions to them. Title IX is not part of the Constitution, it is not inviolate. The better question is why should they? Using sham amateurism and non-profit status to shield profits is, and has always been, a crock of ****. I fail to understand why Congress should do anything to preserve that just because some number of college sports fans want to preserve a fantasy.

Congress passes laws that supersede prior laws all the time. They also pass laws that affect big business vs. small business differently all the time.

...if I'm not mistaken the GA passed a law putting limits on how much and/or how rapidly state schools could increase student fees, in response to what JMU did

...he can't win the big one again. lol. get a grip

The Big Business aspect is not what what divorced fan expectations from reality. College football fans have had a tenuous grip on reality for decades. The present dollars are just a convenient excuse.

If, in five years, the always reasonable fan base is somehow tired of empty 10-win seasons then nothing has us tethered to the James Franklin ship any longer

Now that Franklin is here, all the moaning about "but he can't win the big game" is transferring to the decisions he's making about his staff. Same ****, different day is all.

And some of those late career transfers have already completed their undergrad already anyway ** Edited by Beerman at 12/9/2025, 10:25:50 AM

First of all you DO have things to lose...but we'll come back to that This is an IPTV service. There are lots of them out there. They are not, strictly speaking, entirely legal. They operate in countries that have looser licensing laws (or don't enforce them) and then stream pirated content out over the internet. There are really only about half-a-dozen providers, but dozens of other shady operations resell those handful of original services. There is some variation from one provider to the next as far as what content is available but they pretty much all have the popular stuff. Don't commit to a plan. If you try them (or any IPTV service) purchase it one month at a time. Be prepared for it to disappear with no notice, and shop around for your next service. The upside is literally thousands of channels for less than $20 a month. It's kind of glorious. The risks: 1) It's not really legal. Mostly that's between you and your God, except that it might be against your ISP's Terms of Service to stream unlicensed content, and if they care they might boot you. Mostly they don't. And you can probably get around it with a VPN anyway. 2) You're buying a sketchy product from a sketchy foreign vendor over the internet. Be VERY careful how you apply payment.

...but it would be something else if we played tOSU someday soon and Franklin beat them

...and if you ARE giving megabucks, I'd suggest that the athletic department will be more than happy to talk to you about it

950 would require sticking around another year. 1000? One or two after that. All assuming he doesn't slow down much. I have a bad feeling that he's going to hang it up tho. The jersey-trading tour he seems to be on with other teams' stars this season isn't giving me good vibes.

85 scholarships > 105 and no longer a 25-new-per-year means there's a lot of suction up to the top schools willing to spend. That won't be every year, but it will be for a couple at least. Schools that are less financially able are going to be building teams by portaling in I-AA performers and larger I-A castoffs.

UVA's success is largely due to portal acquisitions. They may not worry too much about recruiting at this stage.

The more true that is, the more likely it is that VT has explicitly given Franklin the things he only thought that he had at PSU.

Franklin can offer these kids some opportunities, today, that hopefully won't be around in coming years once the roster has some more talent on it

Larger class = more points = higher rank So if you want to win the off-season, which has been a perennial source of pride amongst folks who's teams don't win during the actual season, then sign lots of guys.

It's no way to appreciate sports