I have to jump into this discussion with my proposal for how to save College Football, and it addresses so many of the issues that you all bring up, and I am not naive enough to dispute that this will never happen unless the schools have the balls to take charge and collectively force it to happen.
I was driving home tonight and kept hearing CFP this and CFP that, and realized that my plan is the CFP for the real CFP
Colleges, Fans, and Players fixing college football
The College Football Playoffs, the Networks, the Conferences, and the current Power 2 are all ****ing over the entire country and every college football program, even their own.
The Colleges and Universities need to take back the power and control of College Football
The Fans must demand that a cooperative solution is implemented that supports and solidifies their beloved programs
The Players deserve a system that pays them a solid and fair wage, but that cannot come from the college or university itself
My plan is the Collegiate and University Football League
It is a Hybrid of the Bundesliga, the Green Bay Packers Ownership Model, and the traditions of College Football.
I am with everyone who thinks there should be 64 to 70 Programs in the new College Football League
The CUFL is a Franchise/Program/Club model like the Bundesliga with everyone that will be in the league essentially forming a Professionally Operated Semi-Pro Athletic League of Programs. Each Program has an initial Valuation of $1 BILLION equal to the estimated value of many current programs, and the same value as some of the most valuable MLS Franchises.
These Franchises/Programs/Football Clubs will have the same Ownership Model of 51/25/24
The current College or University will own 51% of the new Entity
A Professional Equity Operator/Partner will be selected from applicants and will pay the School a fee of $250,000,000 to essentially RUN the Football Program in the most innovative, professional, ethical manner possible under the rules of the league
Finally, there will be a Fan Consortium that will own/invest/donate $240,000,000 for the benefit of the program to support, pay off debt, make improvements, and whatever is needed to make the facilities, infrastructure, and program the best it can be in that area.
All the new programs will then pay $10,000,000 into a new entity "College Football League" ($640,000,000) to create the infrastructure, offices, operations, and programming to run the league according to the Bylaws created collectively and to work with the Networks to craft the best possible Media deal for the entire group of teams, likely in the range of $100,000,000+ PER SCHOOL
Additionally, the current CFP will be put into the CFL as essentially its playoffs and Super Bowl
Each Program will be required to pay around $80 MILLION PER YEAR to the School for the purpose of running the Olympic Sports on campus, and allowing them to pay their players via scholarships or stipends.
The players in the CUFL are not going to be traditional College Students, unless they want to be. CUFL Players will be required to take Core Sports Business classes/lessons and will hone their skills in Public Speaking, Finance, Media, Business, Health, Wellness, Nutrition, etc... Approximately 9 Credit Hours per semester, and if they want a full college degree, they can also do that
The CUFL will have a Roster Size for all teams of 85 players and a Salary Structure for the Players that I estimate could be about $29 Million or about $285,000 per player on average. All Players shall have 2-year Contracts, that are renewable with incentives, or they can transfer after two years. Most top players will go to the NFL after two seasons anyway, and there is NO Redshirting, but Medical Year exemptions are possible.
Potential Salary Scale using a base and a bonus
85 Player Roster all with a scholarship ($50k academic stipend and base Salary of $150 k each = $17,000,000
Bonus/Ladder structure Potential - Depth Chart determines Bonus
- [4] QB = $500k and down $1.1 M
- [16] OL = $250k and down $2.4 M
- [13] Safety and CB = $225k and down $2.275 M
- [11] Edge and LB = $200k and down $1.65 M
- [16] DL = $175k and down $2.0 M
- [13] WR = $150k and down $1.3 M
- [4] TE = $125k and down $300 K
- [5] RB = $125k and down $375 K
- [3] Kickers = $75k and down $75 K
TOTAL $11,475,000
AVERAGE [$135,000]
I will post again about how this solves 99% of the problems
GO AHEAD AND CHEW ME UP BOYS
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