Who Killed College Football?

The epilogue may be out, but Steven and Ryan are not done reviewing questions submitted by the wise and learned paid subscribers to Who Killed College Football. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

From Richard Nixon to the United States Senate to the Virginia Governor’s Office to the California Board of Regents to the Supreme Court of the United States, college football has been subject to grandstanding, criticism, and scrutiny at all levels of government. But can our nation’s elected institutions (or its courts) actually solve the sport’s problems, and do they even have the ability to do so?Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

From its earliest days, college football has had a tense relationship with players and money. But it wasn’t until the market for coaches started exploding that the gulf between what coaches earn and what players cannot really started to look outlandish. Agents, of course, helped usher the age of absurdity in, by winning contract terms that gave their clients more and more, even if they weren’t successful. As their pay skyrocketed, coaches were mostly silent about structural issues popping up in the sport, and for good reason: the status quo was entirely too good to overturn.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

Once upon a time, the NFL shaped its Draft policies (and date) around not angering college football. The power and popularity of The Shield have increased dramatically over the last four or five decades, but the league spent many of those years keeping underclassmen out as a default, and it took years of pressure from players like Barry Sanders, Cris Carter, and Herschel Walker to eventually open up a pro pathway for juniors. Why has the NFL shied away from taking on college football, and what has it meant to the college game to keep players trapped in one system for most of the sport’s history?Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

The NCAA spent the better part of 70 years stamping out threats to amateurism wherever they could find them. From big scandals to seemingly minor violations, the Association was there to defend the idea that college football shouldn’t be about money, at least for the players. For a while, the courts, media, and public opinion all backed them up. But as the riches in the sport grew, the NCAA became something of a comic villain, and when the time came for college football’s relationship with labor to evolve, the NCAA never seemed ready to lead the charge.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

As we do after each suspect, we took questions from the paid members of the WKCFB community about the conferences episode. (Temple is mentioned twice here, to give you a sense of how winding this gets.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

After we review each suspect in our college football murder mystery, we’ll be taking questions from paid subscribers about that episode – what went into making it, topics we didn’t cover, questions about the history we laid out, whatever. We got some great questions after the TV episode and enjoyed batting them around. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com

Before we dive into the six suspects in the death of college football, let’s begin with a confession. College football is, in fact, very much alive, with upsets being sprung, conferences continuing to realign, and expanded playoff spots to fret over. The sport remains incredibly popular, entertaining, and, at least for certain segments, financially lucrative.But the college football you used to know? That might be dead, whether you’re unhappy about the slow erasure of amateurism, swollen superconferences disregarding geography, the power of television networks to shape the future, and any number of other changes that could shake your belief in what college football was, is, or should be.If you’re feeling that way, well, so is Nick Saban. So let’s start digging into how we got here in the first place.Producer: Michael HenahanResearcher: Alex McDaniel This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit wkcfb.substack.com