Casey Wasserman on the Seismic Shifts Coming to College Football | The Rich Eisen Show 

I pay taxes in Oregon so the U of Oregon can go off, screw the region, and go make millions entertaining. I am such a chump.

You can't put the genie in the bottle. Have you turned on a TV? Have you noticed how much money March Madness and college football generate? You think it's fair that coaches get tens of millions, the conferences get billions, the schools get hundreds of millions, and the players get tuition? That's all? Be serious.

@@danholmes2369 No it's not fair. But the answer to all that money isn't to throw more money at it. States should put salary caps on their public employees (including football coaches). Universities should treat ALL MONEY that comes in via conference media contracts/bowl appearances/merchandise as revenue for the university (and not the athletic department), and as such be restricted completely for general university - scholarship purposes including the school's scholarship fund. If a donor wishes to make a gift to the athletic department, that donor MUST also make a matching donation in the equal amount to the general university fund. Schools need to shut down bs jock diploma departments aka "Youth Studies." I have no problem with "paying" athletes. But it would be a modest stipend that every athlete equally receives from QB1 to the No. 6 runner on the cross country team. NIL needs to be banned. And the NFL needs to start their own minor league. That would be exciting. And If you actually cared about the fairness of the business and the well being of these young men (doubtful), you know that a NFL minor league is the best place for these players.

You think the money comes from taxpayers??........Broadcast rights with network deals, advertising, video games and sponsorships, attendence at the games themselves etc The money generated from college football is subsidizing all the other programs a school runs. Its the collegiate cash cow. Players don't deserve something from the millions being generated?

@@ericparker163education, room/board and training. That is the compensation. That is amateur athletics.

So, should colleges stop creating future doctors, engineers, teachers, and truck drivers? What sort of point are you making? Why can't professional athletes go to college too?

⁠@@danholmes2369You know that those things are not the same. College was first and foremost simply higher education for those seeking knowledge past high-school. You had to have taken Latin to get into college before. And as the world became global and more industrialized, it became the path by which the leaders in society (military officers/engineers/doctors/lawyers/scientist/etc) had to go through. College, like the rest of society became more democratized and open and more “professional” vs intellectual in nature. Instead of studying English in college to learn about the world and how to communicate, people went to college to studying marketing and instead of going to college to seek knowledge and learn how to think, it became something you did just to get a job. At no point is “developing” professional sports athletes an educational mission of a college because sports are not an intellectual discipline. Music and art? Computer science? Yes. Yes. Finance and economics? Yes. Running with a pigskin? No. Collegiate sports are incredibly important to test character/leadership/teamwork/honor which is critical to a school’s mission in developing thinkers and leaders. But The University of Texas/Ohio State/UGA/Notre Dame etc. do not exist simply to field a football team. Professional minor leagues are great. We need more of them so these young players can make money and states can have their schools focus on education.

Unfortunately in the U.S it’s impossible to separate college and athletics. College sports is driven by one thing: money. Money from game day attendance and ratings from fans watching games at home. And fans like schools before they like the players. So once you separate players from schools the money from viewers isn’t there because the loyalty to schools is no longer necessary to drive viewership. “College” football without the college would collapse.

Or look at the academy systems in Europe for football (soccer) and basketball. Prospects who can make it pro go there instead of college.

@@danholmes2369 Your question only underscores the original poster’s point. If you sincerely are reducing the value of college to something that only produces professionals in a trade - truck drivers and professional athletes at that - then we are in desperate need of resetting higher-education. What a horrible time we are living in.

Well said: then guys like Wasserman can explain away NIL because he thinks they are getting enough in tuition. I love how Eisen doesn't challenge him on this point. We all know the "cost of college" is not a fixed, real-world thing. It is not tied to a set of numbers like how much the parts cost and how much it costs to heat a dorm, etc. It's almost completely made up, and the biggest, most popular schools can essentially charge whatever they want. And then corporate greed mongers like Wasserman can say "See? College football players are getting $80,000 per year!" Eisen is a good guy, but videos like this illustrate that he isn't a journalist.

400 kids in an auditorium classroom being taught by a professor making $80k a year.

It's refreshing to read your comment and the responses. This interview was, at best, a misrepresentation of the CFB landscape and, more generally, the broken system that is university education tuition. And, it's laughable the picture painted by the media claiming the pac12 somehow "couldn't keep up." The Pac12 failed bc the presidents and ADs were fools - and I'm being kind by leaving it at just "fools". They, literally, had half a dozen chances to remain "haves". It wasn't about what schools could "afford it" or having to compete with the SEC schools. The presidents and ADs thought ESPN and Fox "needed" the pac12 bc, as they said themselves, "we're the conference of champions." I followed this closely as it happened and the hubris and greed involved is staggering. The system is designed to continue this grift. The fact that education loans are bankruptcy-proof is evidence of that. Load a kid up with massive debt and send him into the world with a degree that often only matters if trying to get into grad school. While I did need a college degree to get my post grad education, if I had it to do all over again, I'd have skipped all that and gone straight to work after HS. I love CFB, but the system as it is now being run by the major networks, is broken. None of that money makes its way to lowering tuition. Instead, it's pumped into the athletic facilities while "regular students" pay more and more. The federal govt plan to forgive student debt isn't for the debtors. It's a govt bailout of the lending institutions. Just like 2008-09. When finance took over our economy, we were doomed for failure. The parasite can't be the host.

@@ericparker163 I remember sitting in a lecture hall at OSU packed with so many students that kids were sitting in the aisles during the lecture because all the seats were taken.

@@reidawg72Even more a joke when you look at these billion dollar endowments these schools have and their plays in hedge funds like the whole thing is broken

California is on another dimension from the rest of the states. Please know that.

Except the guest did talk about it.

Ya it's a sports show. Uk...fun. Following sports is fun. U listen on your way home from work.

No true..you are trying to romanticize things my guy

@@shallojalloh ??? Do you even know what “romanticize” means? From your comment I don’t believe you do.

@jpm5205 | You are blabbering about the point of college athletics. The point is to make money.. It's a business. Point Blank period. Get outta yo feelings my guy, that's a female trait. If you don't like the way college football is headed, go watch lacrosse or some other non revenue generating sport. Noone is forcing you to watch or even care about college football.

@@shallojalloh “Get outta yo feelings my guy, that’s a female trait.” 😂

100%

He probably seriously thinks Elon Musk is a genius. That’s the vibe I get from this guy

@@nickh2935 was it the crossed legged, beard, or sneakers?

🤣 As a Buckeye, us non-football students didn't even go class that week. I remember classes on friday before the Game being canceled in most cases.

@@nvo7

"The athletes are not getting the full experience because they have to spend so much of their time working on their, in the case of the Big 10 and SEC, probable careers." -- As a Buckeye, I've always felt a little bad for guys like Justin Fields. Love him. Glad he came to OSU. He's a legend. But I remember reading that all his classes were online and he was never on campus. Fully focused on football and his future. I thought "he's never going to return to Columbus have 'memories' of his time as a student." He didn't hit High Street on a Wednesday night, didn't cross the Oval, etc. etc. He didn't pick OSU for any personal reasons; it was purely a business decision. Again, love him. He's a Buckeye legend, but this is the reality of CFB today - teenagers making million dollar business decisions.

I agree in part but the solution is to limit training and practice. Treating these kids like football is there job is robbing most of them from the real value of a college education. Most of these guys don’t go pro so the university needs to be held accountable and ensure their student athletes are given an education so they can have a future.

As an addendum, who cares about the Olympics?

I'm a Buckeye fan and let me say this we have most or 2nd most college sports and about 90% don't make a dime, like the rifle team. It's football that literally pays for everything and we can't get new football...go figure facility.

Lol

The ACC is done! That media deal is a killer, till 2036 they will be making a fraction of the power 2. Better for them to just jump to whoever could take them and let the lawyers figure it out.