The new era of college football is here, defined by the transfer portal and the influx of NIL. Recently, Missouri football head coach Eli Drinkwitz warned that college football could quickly become what we have seen in the MLB in recent years. His warning stems from the fact that if teams are playing each other with a difference of up to $30 million, there's a real competitive balance issue.
Missouri football head coach Eliz Drinkwitz spoke with On3's senior college football insider, Chris Low, about the overall state of college football, and that's where he raised concerns about competitiveness. When blue bloods and powerhouse programs outspend certain programs by almost $30 million, there is an issue. Without any regulation, such as a salary cap, it's only going to continue growing exponentially.
“If you're going to have teams that have $45M rosters competing against teams that have $15M and $20M rosters, you're going to run the risk of turning into Major League Baseball, where you have the LA Dodgers and the Florida Marlins,” Drinkwitz explained. “And that's a professional league that's not growing, that's struggling in their TV deals.”
Drinkwitz is on the right track with what he is saying because, despite the House settlement, which allowed all schools to pay players directly, some schools are still investing heavily in NIL. When schools pump a lot of money into NIL, on top of direct payments from the school, the competitive gap will only grow.
In principle, the House settlement was a great thing for college athletes, and it also allowed some smaller schools to at least try to keep up with the times. However, bigger schools still have the capacity to pay NIL on top of that direct money, and in most cases, it is the same or exceeds the $20.5 million allocated by the House settlement.
Eli Drinkwitz has been at the forefront of discussing the issues facing college football, and, dating back to their bowl game last season, he said the sport is sick and needs help.
