Professionalization of College Football Looks to be Well Underway

You’ve probably heard now that the vote for College Football Playoff expansion was delayed. But it’s only a matter of time before expansion becomes reality. The original ESPN contract was a 12 year, 7.2 billion dollar deal. Don’t think for one minute that a newer expanded deal won’t be worth much more.

So much more, than in fact, that’s one of the primary reasons the vote was delayed. Everyone wants to make sure they get a piece of that cash pie. Other reasons were stated as well, but make no mistake, cash is the biggest reason.

The SEC added Oklahoma and Texas for a reason this off-season. That reason certainly wasn’t because of their football prowess; the SEC already has the largest gauntlet of good teams of any college football conference. Once again, the reason was good ole hard cold cash. Texas is the richest program in college football, with Oklahoma coming in at number eight, per 247 Sports.

The NIL was just the first baby step to paying players. A federal judge has refused to dismiss a motion for classifying student athletes as employees of universities. And employees must be paid. That’s right, at some point college football players will have to be compensated by the universities or NCAA itself, not just seek out NIL deals.

And who could blame them for asking to be paid? When the college football programs are bringing in millions and millions of dollars? The players see this and feel like they should be compensated for the hard work and dedication they put forth to make these vast sums of money, to begin with.

Getting back to the NIL, now you have players who are making upwards of a million dollars or more, who haven’t played a single snap of college football. High school quarterback sensation Quinn Ewers has an NIL deal worth 1.4 million dollars and hasn’t sniffed the field yet at Ohio State. Players all over the country are reaping the benefits of NIL.

Personally, I think that players earning cash is a good thing. But there are pros and cons to everything. Just look at the NFL. Once players get that big contract, many times production goes out the window. The thought process is why play that hard when I’ve already gotten paid? It’s one of the reasons why you see so many draft busts. Money has a way of changing some people.

On the other hand, it will give many folks that grew up very poor a leg up in life. Players will have the opportunity to earn money straight out of high school.

The list of consequences from such an occurrence are endless, but just keep one thing in mind. It’s not a question of if college football will become professionalized anymore. The question is when.