Excuse me while I interrupt Jim Larranaga’s heartfelt takedown of all things player empowerment, and bring some balance to the zero attention society clutching pearls in his wake.
There’s a good chance that one or two college football teams will play 17 games this season. Read that again.
Seventeen games in one season.
There’s a better chance that one or two teams will play 16 games before the end of the College Football Playoff.
A basketball team will play 40 games by the time the NCAA tournament is complete.
Tennessee played 73 baseball games last year – seventy-flipping-three – and won the College World Series.
And we’re worried about players earning off their name, image and likeness?
Best I can tell, Larranaga – the now former Miami (Fla.) men’s basketball coach and one of the sport’s true gentlemen – is done dealing with players and agents and demands for more money, and free player movement. Understandable, all.
Meanwhile, Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula – read that again, backup quarterback – is upset because he believes the college football calendar doesn’t coincide with his ability to play with the Nittany Lions before leaving to play for Missouri in the 2025 season.
To this I say, to both players and coaches: stop whining and figure out a way to deal with the most profitable and popular time in college sports. If you can’t work within the new laissez-faire rules, get off the ride and find something else to do.
Because there are hundreds of players and coaches willing to step into the void and hold on tight for the white knuckle ride and free-flowing cash.
Get on the train, or get run over by it. It’s just that simple.
QUICK FIX: Easy solutions for making the playoff system better
HIGHS AND LOWS: Winners and losers of the playoff’s first round
Look, you can’t build a money-making beast and expect players to not profit from it. And you can’t make $5-13 million annually to coach those players, and complain that the system is broken.
It is here where we return to college football, the beast of all things new and strange and ridiculously profitable. There’s one thing we’re missing in this back and forth about players and defacto free agency and the lack of loyalty (whatever that means) in a sport that forced loyalty, like it or not, for the first 150 years.
Penn State and Texas could play 17 games this season. Why, you ask?
Because those who run college football (university presidents) want a better product that can drive more revenue that currently sits at more than $4 billion combined annually for all Football Subdivision conferences. That’s billion, with a B.
Those same presidents sure as hell aren’t giving up their conference championship games because, well, someone has to take a stand for history and pageantry in these ever-changing times. That and, yeah, they make a boatload of money.
So Penn State and Texas play 12 regular season games, then play in the Big Ten and SEC championship games, respectively. Then advance to the CFP, which – for some inane reason – is structured to give the four highest-rated conference champions first-round byes.
That means Penn State and Texas, which both already won College Football Playoff games last week, still have three games to play to win the national title. Now, how can I say this in a way everyone will clearly understand?
That’s three more games, or an average of 60-70 plays a game (or more). So about 210 more car wrecks over the next month of the season.
That’s right, car wrecks.
Talk to any player – specifically those on the interior lines – and they’ll tell you the force and impact of every single play is like being in a car accident. Over and over and over.
All for Dear ol’ State U.
Players know what they’re getting into. They know the only way to reach the NFL is through college football, and they know that now means they could play 17 games in one season.
Guess what other professional football league plays 17 regular-season games?
That professional league has rules and regulations that are collectively bargained for players. In that league, players share media rights revenue with the owners, and are moving closer to a complete 50-50 split.
College football players still aren’t sharing specific pay-for-play media rights money like the NFL. All of this current money, all of these crazy numbers being thrown around for backups and high school players who haven’t proven a thing, is players earning off their name, image and likeness.
The NCAA still is in the middle of a legal settlement (House case) that will likely lead to an expected setup where schools can directly pay to players in all sports approximately $20 million annually. If the schools can afford it, or want to do it.
Meanwhile, university presidents and conference commissioners are steadfast against student athletes becoming “employees.” Gee, I wonder why?
Because if players become employees, they’ll collectively bargain with university presidents (see: NFL owners), and they’ll earn much more than than that $20 million.
If players are employees, then they’ll negotiate College Football Playoff bonuses for each round completed. Not unlike the NFL and its playoff bonus structure.
You can’t ask players to play more games (to increase your bottom dollar with booming media rights deals), and not give them a bonus structure for those extra games. I’ll say this again because it’s getting lost in the greedy players narrative: Penn State and Texas could play 17 games this season.
That, everyone, is insanity for two rosters that aren’t yet paid directly to play. A majority of the players on those rosters make little to nothing in NIL deals.
Excuse me if I’m not buying Larranaga’s college sports isn’t what it once was exit interview. He’s right, it’s not — and never will be again.
So get on the train, or get run over by it.
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.