Cry me a river – NFL draft edition

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The one benefit of the chaos of the current state of the college football NIL market is this:

The union closed shop with a rookie salary cap and scale doesn’t allow players to be eligible for their league until 3 years out of high school. The owners and player personnel people of the teams have taken advantage of the college football system as a free minor league for decades are crying because the back end of the draft has dropped off due to free market NIL.

A player with eligibility remaining with a late 3rd round or later grade can improve his draft stock and get paid for it instead of rolling the dice in the draft and betting he can make a team. He likely is able to make as much or more with less risk by returning to college for that 4th or 5th year.

NFL insiders cannot let this stand.

The law of unintended consequences is still the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Pass the Kleenex.

Maybe this will bring the NFL to the table to discuss how they can work more effectively with the power brokers of college football.

Refugees, assemble and discuss.

This entry was posted in It’s Just Bidness, NIL and tagged , , by eethomaswfnc. Bookmark the permalink.

About eethomaswfnc

I've been a Dawg my entire life. UGA was always my dream school where I received 2 Terry College degrees and met my DGD wife. I've been a season ticket holder for over 30 years and love the in-stadium experience over anything from Section HD. My first game in Sanford Stadium was the 1981 Auburn game where we clinched the SEC championship. The best game I've attended in person was the Midnight Miss against Ohio State (nite, nite!). The best home games I've attended were the 1984 Clemson game (the Butler did it) and the 2013 LSU game (that 4th down is still the loudest single moment I've experienced between the hedges). The game I love to win is against the Handbags (FTMF), and the game I hate to lose is the NATS (Tuck Fech).

13 thoughts on “Cry me a river – NFL draft edition”

  2. I’m sure the Billionaires Boys Club will come up with a solution that helps.

    /s

    • Don’t look for the next level to raise their rookie contract formula, put to chase after the lowering of nil compen$ation at the college level…#YOURCASHAIN’TNOTHINGBUTTRASH!!!!!!

  3. The NFL has deep pockets, only euro soccer can compete with the money the NFL has.

    • I didn’t say college football is competing with the NFL. Those deep pockets don’t like the fact that their tackling dummies and special teams players aren’t coming out early in the volume they would like.

      They don’t like that they may have to make their rookie pay scale competitive to entice them not to stay an extra year.

      It’s classic economics. Those 4th-7th round prospects that have college eligibility remaining are in more demand between a college who is paying market value NIL and a pro team with a rookie pay scale. The price has to rise for the pro team to compensate.

      A college is never going to be able to pay the kind of NIL to convince a 1st or 2nd rounder to stay. The only way to get those players to stay is the allure of a championship.

      All of this also makes the professionals in the middle to lower end of the pay scale (especially in their 1st contracts) a better situation. The NFL team may not be able to find the equivalent player in the draft at a lower wage point because those players are electing to stay 1 more year.

  4. Since the free market rules above all, do away with all restrictions to entering the NFL draft. If you think you are ready, put in the papers. No more waiting 3 years.

    • Talk to the NFLPA about that. That’s collectively bargained. It keeps wages artificially inflated because of supply.

      The NFL can’t do that without the permission of the PA, and the PA isn’t going to agree.

  5. What the NFL can do is bargain with the NFL Players Association to raise the eligibility for entry into the NFL to require that all Players eligible for the draft have used up their college eligibility. That would be a legal way for the NFL to eliminate competing with college NIL money.
    Why would the NFLPA not prevent it? No college player is a member of the NFLPA. All of its members are NFL players who could benefit from not having to compete with a 20 year old with NFL talent for another couple of years.
    I am not advocating for it but the NFL can cure that, if it thinks it is a problem, without giving money to the president for an EO or lobbying congress.

  6. What would be justice is if the NFL set up a minor league and cut the colleges out. If, in doing so they said, “you can join by or before your 18th birthday, but if you don’t, we won’t sign you until you’re 22,” that would be even better. That way there would be no market at all for professional football on college campuses.

  7. So the college game is better at the expense of the NFL. Another positive effect of NIL.

    • Why not get rid of eligibility limits and the requirement of being enrolled in school? That way “college” football is made even better!

      Eventually maybe we can force a merger and we’ll host the Philadelphia Eagles one glorious day?

      The dream of all “college” football fans realized!

  8. Wouldn’t this affect the number of players for only 1 year?

  9. I didn’t mean the number of players, I meant the number of “higher quality “ players. Because those “higher quality “ players who didn’t come out after year 3 because of NIL will come out after year 4, and so on.

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