90% of the players are black. >90% of the coaches are white. White fans see the past as the “good ole days” while black fans have mixed emotions about players who once lived in glory not getting fairly compensated.
Top level CFB players have been getting paid something for at least 45 years. Relatively speaking (including inflation), their compensation has not risen that much.
The average and above average player is getting more of a piece. Why? The sport has more eyeballs and teams are in an arms race to get the money and the wins.
We can’t just say “I want a salary cap.” That requires a certified players union and collective bargaining. I’ve really no idea why that’s better for the players, unless there’s some major carve outs to dramatically share profits.
That’s the rub. The schools don’t want to equitably share profits, but players need to get paid fairly. So we have what we have - the market. This requires people to adapt and carve out their niche in the market. What we’re seeing is the consequences of folks who don’t want to adapt.
Few people, and that few doesn't include the loudest voices screaming about it, understand Critical Race Theory. I've looked into it enough to know a general idea behind it but am very far from knowledgeable on it.
It does however, and this is the part that many don't want to acknowledge, take a serious academic look into the realities of the experience of race in this country.
Slavery legally ended at the end of the civil war, the civil rights act was passed in 1964. The numbers today (not just perceptions, the data is clear) show that people of color, especially Black people in this country are far from achieving equality economically, politically, and socially. Those are simply realities. My white skin got me a free pass to opportunities that a Black kid (or other kid of color) didn't get the day I was born. That free pass was even more significant when my father was born, and so on.
We still are dealing with a system that is strongly rooted in a legacy in which the men who have the money to donate to the programs, to pay the NIL, to call the shots are older and almost exclusively white not only in color but in culture. The players in contrast in large part come out of backgrounds where the inequities created by race have been a reality for them since the day they were born. Again their parents, grandparents, etc. felt the weight of those inequities even heavier than the current players do but this legacy is impossible for them to ignore.
Even for those players for whom athletics is a ticket to economic mobility for themselves and their families the realities of the power inequities are a real part of their thinking.
With all this it should be no surprise that Black players, Black coaches, Black families and Black fans aren't willing to fall in line and agree when the rich white men say "Trust us."
As I stated I am far from knowledgeable about CRT but I can say that the limited exposure I have had to certainly makes me aware that there are a lot of things in our society that I need to look at with a little different perspective. Doesn't mean I completely agree with everything I have seen around the issue but it certain is worth taking the time to find a different understanding.
