A Jersey Guy: Show me the $$$ world of CFB is here
We are going to show you three Top 10 lists from the wide and wacky world of college football.
List 1
1.Georgia
2 Alabama
3. Michigan
4. Ohio State
5. Cincinnati
6. Baylor
7.Oklahoma State
8. Notre Dame
9. Michigan State
10. Utah.
List 2
1. Alabama
2. Ohio State
3. Georgia
4. Oklahoma
5. Texas A&M
6. Baylor
7. Notre Dame
8. LSU
9. Clemson
10. Arkansas
List 3
1. Texas A&M
2. Oregon
3. Tennessee
4. Miami (Fla,)
5. Texas
6. Florida
7. LSU
8. Penn State
9. Ohio State
10. Alabama
List 1 is the final rankings from the 2021 college football season.
List 2 is one of many way too early pre-season rankings for 2022.
And list 3...?
Well that's a projection list of schools with money being set aside by Power 5 schools for Names, Image and Licensing.
And that is the world of college football which is upon us,a world where players are PAID to play, which should end the nonsensical reference to student-athletes the NCAA likes to project at that level.
Oh, it still exists in pockets on almost every campus, but when it comes to college football at the Power 5 level, it's a money game, now more than it ever has, without the pretense.
The NCAA has already started to disassemble itself from running the show, with the long awaited departure of President Mark Emmert announced earlier this week.
There is already wide-spread speculation on Emmert's successor, which might not happen until June of 2023, but good luck with that until college athletics decides if it wants the NCAA to only be an administrative body, running championships, while the revenue producing giant sports of college football and basketball, conduct their own business of compliance and membership.
If there is a bit of sunlight and tranquility in a chaotic college world of NIL issues and transfer portal madness it is that new pay for play guidelines have created situations where players opting for early moves to professional sports might be faced with the dilemma of taking a cut in pay to leave college athletics.
Somebody, at sometime, will have to put in some rules to follow to establish some sanity in what is a college athletic landscape that is unrecognizable from the one which existed as recently as 10 years ago.
Right now, however, there is no sign of any of that, so the wildness will continue.
What should be of some comfort to everyone involved is that the game atmospheres during the season will not be diminished.
Fans will cheer for their college teams, even if they are salaried employees of the university.
The Show will still be The Show, but the money being pumped into the athletes accounts will change what schools emerge at the end.
Count on it.