I love the old days. Where it was about loving the school, teammates, and coaches. Its a money 1st league. Good for teams doing it because they can.
It was about money then too for a lot of them. Guys were getting paid 10-20 years ago also. The problem is the portal without repercussions.
No matter what its dumb. Stop doing a LeBron im taken my talents, just to leave a year or two
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I hate the idea of pay for play in college athletics, part of the reason why I loved it so much was the aspect of amateurism. That said, when these conferences are signing billion dollar tv deals, I’d much prefer a chunk of that be paid to the players and lowering tuition rates. Colleges have lost sight of their primary objective - to educate, and are functioning more as business entities than public educational institutions. I saw UM was opening a business school in LA, why? An executive MBA from that campus was approximately $180k, however they were offering Michigan residents an instate discount of $5k. And don’t get me started on the whole aspect of admitting foreign students in lieu of educating our own. Sorry for the tangential rant.
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I loved developing players no matter what school it is. Recruiting was fun, but 60 percent will be gone.
People in glass houses marty, people in glass houses
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Let me guess you love to throw at them?
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not my point.
It’s definitely changed and not a huge fan of it.
At the same time Dusty and UM have the second ranked recruiting class of HS players so it isn’t just the portal. And, yes, I’m sure some of those HS kids are getting paid.
It’s a new world and as I said not a big fan but if you don’t adapt to the current model you will get left behind. UM has the donors and pockets to excel in this model.
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I agree with you 100% on the current model.
There needs to be rules in place across the board no matter the state or conference. Start with one free transfer and then go back to sitting out a season that would limit some of the movement.
But
Money has been part of college sports for decades it just wasn’t out in the open. As I’ve been telling all my SEC friends here in GA, those southern car dealerships just don’t hit the same anymore…. The big money is in the northern and the oil schools.
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Michigan didn’t win the title because of the portal
Michigan won the title because they have an elite coach who can take guys, make them better, and get them to play unselfishly. Danny Wolf wasn’t an NBA prospect. He also wasn’t particularly highly rated as a transfer. One year later he was a first round pick and averaging double digit scoring.
Same for Cadeau, Mara, Johnson. Yax is the unicorn but he didn’t do it alone.
Be mad about it or not, but Michigan played a beautiful version of basketball all year. That wasn’t because they were “bought”
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The rules were changed though…
because the courts decided that the players responsible for generating all of the interest (and therefore revenue) ahould be able to earn income for their role in a multibillion dollar industry.
I would also venture a guess that the reason there isn’t a salary cap (and may be one), is because that would require a collective bargaining agreement. Since there is no Player’s Union, that is likely impossible to establish. Also, the NCAA definitely wouldn’t WANT a collective bargaining agreement, because the players would actually be getting paid much much more on the whole.
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I thought last season was a really good college basketball season. Tons of talent, multiple historically good teams with one a cut above.
If we keep getting those seasons but it’s semi-pro I’ll allow it.
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I do agree that it isn’t ideal for players to be transferring every year, but I can offer a story of why there is some good in a player being able to move freely.
When I graduated high school, one of my baseball teammates got an offer to play D1 baseball at the same school I chose. He wasn’t really a close friend, but I will say he was an amazing SS who had onpy committed 4 errors for our entire senior season. He had a very strong arm (hit 88 mph on the mound), a quick release, and uncanny accuracy. He could also hit well.
I went to watch a doubleheader when the season started, and my former teammate was on the bench. They guy playing SS for our school made 3 errors in that single day! And… the kid had a weaker arm… and didn’t hit for much.
It continued for most of the season. They refused to play my former teammate, even though the kid playing ahead of him wasn’t as good.
When my former teammate wanted to transfer after the season to go somewhere he was actually going to get playing time, he to ASK for his RELEASE in order to play at another school. Like he was a prisoner to the coach that wouldn’t play him. Some coaches in football have even stipulated that they will grant a player’s release ONLY if the player agrees to transfer out of the conference, so they were able to dictate a student’s future.
That is a broken system.
There is a salary cap. Instituted in 2025.
Direct payments from a University to it’s student athletes as a whole, across all sports, is capped.
That has nothing to do with NIL.
NIL is outside of the Universities scope and cannot be capped.
For the ‘25-’26 season the cap was $20.5 million to be spread across all student athletes for each institution. The expectation was that this cap should raise by 4% for the ‘26-’27 season.
NIL falls into a completely different category and by federal law cannot be capped.
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What are the “is’s” in this scenario. That the richest teams should be allowed to be the best? Or that it’s just the way sports works? Well it’s not how the NFL works, and the league is all the better for it.
MSU, OSU, etc can all spend up to $20.5 million on their student athletes just like every other institution in the power 5 conferences. If they don’t spend that money then that’s on them. Call out your own institutions rather than whining about the institutions that are.
That $20.5 million number was established based on media rights deals, ticket sales, endorsements, revenue sharing, in an attempt to try to level the playing field across all the universities. Are you telling me that MSU, as a member of the B1G Ten, cannot afford $20.5 million to be used for it’s sports programs?
Oh that’s right, Izzo is the guiding light for morality and by God he’s going to continue to do it the “right way” come hell or high water.
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Under NCAA revenue sharing rules, 15% of a team’s total revenue (including football and men’s basketball) is allocated to the conference for distribution among all member schools. For the Big Ten, this means:
Estimated Big Ten share from Michigan’s men’s basketball revenue: About $3.06 million in 2025–26, based on the 15% allocation rate.
This amount is not paid directly to Michigan; it’s pooled with other teams’ shares and distributed by the Big Ten according to its own policy (in this case, equally among members).
Go spend the money Sparty. You should be thanking Michigan.
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I don’t think too many of these NIL millionaires are going to classes
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