None of it feels good or right but there were always serious problems, whether it was the 90s when 6-5 teams would get left out of bowl games, or well...for 100 years of Alabama handing bags across the table, to the broken poll system determining "champions". When I was younger I didn't realize that stuff was so toxic, but it was. Now we just have a different, more in your face toxicity. At this point, frankly, conferences should be disbanded, revenue shared with collective bargaining, and schedules need to be normalized. It's bat**** crazy insane that the SEC still only plays 8 conference games. It's nonsense that some teams play two FCS opponents a year while one conference doesn't even allow games vs FCS opponents. All this stuff needs to get normalized, but then it's the death entirely of college athletics and the rebirth as a minor league.
And NIL was completely botched by the NCAA. They should have done the revenue sharing that they're doing now from the sportsball video games, but allowing non program constrained entities to pay players is, again, bat**** ****ing crazy insane. We're already seeing teams stash walkons to save scholarships by just paying them. That's super messed up and is undoing 50 years of adjustments the NCAA has rightly made to level the playing field. The baby has gone right out with the bath water.
When Oregon landed a recruit before it meant something. Hey they like the culture, they feel at home, the program is like family, they like the Willamette Valley, whatever. They liked something, genuinely about Eugene and the UO and the program. Now as a fan it's so dissatisfying. Those 4 and 5 stars don't give a flying **** about Oregon football, they're securing the bag. None of this feels good.
