Money
Money has ruined college sports. First coaches and now players. All are getting rich at the expense of us naive fans. This is all simple math. There are no more games to win than in the past. Someone has to win and someone has to lose. It will always be this way, a cumulative 50/50 proposition. There is also a finite source of players. More kids play today at the youth level than 50 years ago, but on a proportional basis there probably aren’t more “game changing” players. There are 134 division 1 schools trying for 12 playoff spots so based on math a 9% chance of making the playoff before you factor in other variables. There are 350 division 1 schools trying for 68 spots in basketballs march madness or a 19 pct chance of making it before you factor in other variables. The point is it is hard to win unless you are one of the elite with unlimited resources. Everyone at our wannabe level is paying their coach $4 million and have multi million player budgets. From a pure business standpoint fans paying for all this is foolish. The odds are way stacked against it. There are no more wins or good players to go around then there was years ago. All you have now are rich beyond belief below average coaches and 3 star athletes making more in college than many of us will make in years of working. Why do we do it. And don’t get me wrong I want us to succeed as much as anyone else.
8 Replies
Most times, you get what you pay for....
Schools like Tech will never be able to compete with the blueblood football programs. That was true even 30, 40, 50 years ago. Unless Tech can strike gold with another Michael Vick, our chances of winning a football national championship or even making the quarter or semi-finals are extremely low, maybe 1 in a 1,000 chance at best. Tech has tried to keep up but the P-2 schools have 2 or 3 times the resources now. NIL money has further complicated things and furthered lowered our chances of competing with the so-called "big boys". Let's be realistic, Tech has lost two home games to mid-tier Big Ten schools the past 2 years. BC, GA Tech, Syracuse. Wake, Duke, ... are just as competitive as Tech on the football field these days. Maryland, yes the Twerps, have even passed us in the pecking order. Losing to the SEC's worst football program Vandy hurt too. Some years, JMU and/or Liberty are the state's best football programs.
I don't think our ptrogram is as bad as some say it is but it isn't a top third ACC program or a Top 40-50 national program. Tech needs a Michael Vick-type player and with NIL, that player would leave Tech after one season to maximize his earnings.
(In response to this post by Battlesuggs)
1y
I agree with what you say but Purdue and Rutgers were 3-6 in the big ten last year so I wouldn’t call them mid tier. Couple that with losing to Vanderbilt and we are losing to those leagues bottom feeders
(In response to this post by Old Line Hokie)
1y
(In response to this post by Old Line Hokie)
1y
JMU is a nice story. But they aren’t competing with the elite either. They may make the playoff because of the league they are in, but they are light years behind the big boys
(In response to this post by CPVT3)
V
VTCALS72
1y
(In response to this post by Battlesuggs)
1y
The elite teams need to break away into a legitimate NFL farm league and the schools like VT can drop back into some form of a lower cost amateur program. It just makes no sense how you have college players making more than some NFL players. In what other sport, organization, etc is that a working long term model?
(In response to this post by Battlesuggs)
1y
No one is coming to save us with a better tv deal. If espn doesn’t extend in 2025 it will likely get worse, not better.
Even if fsu and Clemson bolt and the rest of the teams get their GOR money it still won’t make us a better football program.
The acc isn’t a conference with good leadership and it hasn’t been for a long time.
Without the deep pockets of alumni with oil wells or billions in net worth it’s going to be a struggle for schools like VT to keep up.
And this isn’t just a VT problem. Colleges by nature aren’t very well run either and admin focus is on issues other than revenue production and efficient spending. they let athletics and the compensation issue get out ahead of itself and they have no real chance of getting it back under control.
Frankly the best run organization that has paid football players is the nfl and they will continue to expand their audience and revenue sources.
Unless we find the next MV, Corey Moore and a once in a lifetime supporting cast we have very little if any chance of being relevant again in college football. But don’t worry because that is the case for about 80 other D1 programs too.
(In response to this post by cajun_hokie)