My 2 cents, not that it matters

[Sjslhill]

I have come to the conclusion that college football fans have lost their minds. By the time this season is over at least 30% of the coaches will be fired. I must admit I have been kinda cheerleading the firings but I’m wrong.

keep Stoops until his contract is up unless he wants to leave. Let’s not be an LSU, Oklahoma State or Penn State
LSU is a doomsday situation. Clemson is gonna be the next one. There has been some firings that are justified, Freeze and Napier.

flame suit on

[Jaxcat]

I think it's more the administrations that have lost their minds. Paying outrageously high salaries to HCs, guaranteeing them all of these riches and then firing them when they don't win championships. Wash, rinse, repeat except pay the next HC even more money.

Last time I looked, only one team each year wins a championship. Yes, every job comes with expectations but, at some schools, expectations are way out of whack with reality. Every single season there are maybe 10 schools that will have a chance of winning the championship. In many years, 7 or more of the 10 will be the same names that have had great football for many years: Ohio State, Michigan, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, Oklahoma, Notre Dame, USC, et al. The fortunes of those programs wax and wane but it's extremely rare (and short-lived) when one of these storied programs have more than a year or two of being 'down'. The other 3 can fluctuate from great-but-not-quite-elite programs (LSU, Oregon, Clemson, FSU, et al) to big surprises (IU, Boise, SMU, TCU, et al). But, this arms race with HC and staff salaries plus NIL has fundamentally changed CFB (for the worse, imo) and will lead, eventually, to a much smaller subset of basically semipro teams and everyone else. May take a few years but I think it's coming. In football, I believe UK would be smart to become one of the 'everyone else' and not try to compete with the elite, cash-rich schools. And, if we're in a conference with UofL, Cincy, WVa, IU, IL, MO, Vandy, VA, and similar teams, I'll still watch and support and root just as hard for UK. But, that's just my opinion.

[Pobilly]

The whole money / sports world making college sports as important if not way more important than the Pro sports franchises as there are more college towns than all the sports towns put together. SEC / BIG 10 / ACC / BIG 12 have huge followings and then add in all the smaller group below them and then the smaller group below them all with college town folk following their teams. Then the broadcasters started putting in big money, bigger money and then outrageous money and you have the problem of today.

If this was back in the 50's the coaches that are failing would be canned. There would be no buyouts (or not much of any buyouts) and you would still have your big boys on down.

The problem is greed, greed of money all the way down to fans making their teams their religion and finally seeing the world and all its greed wanting to control it all. Add in the WWW and now we have exploded where we are today. Dont worry one day it all will not matter again for each of us as we lose our tinted glasses and lose our desire to follow the sport as closely as we once did. My dad passed when I was 18 and he was 50. But even at 50 he no longer watched the games with me or my brother. He would get the Herald Leader and read what the writers wrote about the game. That was about it. He had taken off the tinted glasses several years before.

[Matt Dillon]

^
Not everyone loses their edge as they get older but that definitely happened to me. I used to be an avid Baltimore (Later Indy) Colts fan, also a Brooklyn (later LA) Dodgers fan as well as a Boston Celtics fan. Beginning in 1954 (at the age of 10) I would follow UK fb and bb no matter whether they were competitive or not. I haven't watched a UK fb game in nearly two seasons simply because it hasn't been entertaining. I haven't watched a pro game of any kind in decades.

[ganner918]

Put all the top teams in the same few conferences together, some of them are gonna take Ls. There are about 10 SEC teams that are disappointed if they aren't in the top 4 and the rest are going to be disappointed to not at least make a bowl game.

[Pobilly]

^
Not everyone loses their edge as they get older but that definitely happened to me. I used to be an avid Baltimore (Later Indy) Colts fan, also a Brooklyn (later LA) Dodgers fan as well as a Boston Celtics fan. Beginning in 1954 (at the age of 10) I would follow UK fb and bb no matter whether they were competitive or not. I haven't watched a UK fb game in nearly two seasons simply because it hasn't been entertaining. I haven't watched a pro game of any kind in decades.

I myself am over 60 and stopped following MLB - NBA - NFL. Reds - Steelers (before the first superbowl) - Lakers fan along with UK sports. I have watched football UK a few games this year but usually have on app on laptop while wife and I watch a movie or binge a show. I have the sound off on the game. Basketball my wife knows since Pope is here (not Cal years), I will have the game on. I did watch 2 parts of the world series for the first time in probably 10 years. I have not watched a superbowl in at least 5 years (besides clicking during a commercial to see the score update).

I have lost a ton of my wanting to follow sports. Mainly due to the greed of the major league sports and now college sports.

Last MLB game I went to was 1990 Cincy - Pitt Pennant race. We got our seats for my boss as he was friends with the Reds dugout manager. We sat just a couple rows behind home plate close to the clocking device. Was awesome games. We even went to one of the world series games that year. My wife was 7 months pregnant but we had a blast. Now could really care less.

Hope I always have an edge with UK sports but can feel it slipping. I told my brother last year when we went to a game at Rupp that was going to be my last time in Rupp and said the same thing a month before about Commonwealth. I will catch a baseball game at UK as it is easier on the legs.

[Matt Dillon]

The greed factor hits home with me as well. All the pro players striking was a big turnoff for me.

[Catgrad7072]

77 here y.o.... not class of... LOL.

NIL and the portal have just about broken my 'give a darn' meter. I still watch a little SEC FB and UKBB when convenient.

Several years ago, I finally realized that my life wouldn't change one iota if UK won every game or lost every game. So no, I'm not really invested anymore.

[Sjslhill]

I never watched more than an inning or so of MLB for several years. I have only been to the Red's new stadium once. The last UK game was over 22 years ago. NFL not interested to sit and watch. I do however watch college football. UK sucks at football and always will.

[bthaunert]

A few thoughts:

1. Grown ups are what suck. Schools/alums will always find a way around the rules/intent. I think NIL, in premise, is great. If a kid can do a commercial, make money off social media engagement, sell his own merchandise, or sell autographs as a college athlete, and make money how NIL was intended, then it would be great. But, no, we immediately have grown ups putting together these collectives and finding ways to pay college athletes money way beyond their NIL evaluation.

2. As for pro sports, someone is going to make that money. I'd rather it be the athletes than the owners. While salaries are ridiculous these days, the amount of money pro sports brings in is even more ridiculous. Give to to Dak Prescott instead of Jerry Jones.

3. As for firing coaches, when coaches got control over schools through these crazy buyouts that say losing is not a fireable offense, it was done from there. All the leverage in the world.

4. What I 100% don't agree with at all are the schools that have drastically increased student fees that go to athletics, so they can pay their athletes. That's straight up BS. Paying your football and basketball team should not be put on the shoulders of the every day student. Clemson and South Carolina both increased their student fee that goes to athletics by $300/year per student, with very little increase in perks for the student, so they could raise millions per year to pay athletes

[blueheretic]

I waffle on this.

Love/Hate thing, I think.

I'd much rather Stoops pull it together, have a good two or three year run...maybe one more ten win season and a playoff berth and then retire.

If he can't pull it together, I'd rather he be gone. Yet, I don't want Kentucky to pay that buy out. I'd rather Kentucky suck it up and make him stay until he retires or resigns.

With the NIL era, a good coach, staff and strategic NIL spend can turn a program around pretty quickly.

Save the resources while Stoops mucks around or pulls his head out of his butt.

Then when his contract is up or he walks away, throw the resources necessary at the program.

It all starts with a plan, a good coaching hire. Take the time to research candidates. Go young and energetic with potential.

The thought of paying Stoops millions for failure just sticks in my craw.

[Pobilly]

A few thoughts:

1. Grown ups are what suck. Schools/alums will always find a way around the rules/intent. I think NIL, in premise, is great. If a kid can do a commercial, make money off social media engagement, sell his own merchandise, or sell autographs as a college athlete, and make money how NIL was intended, then it would be great. But, no, we immediately have grown ups putting together these collectives and finding ways to pay college athletes money way beyond their NIL evaluation.

2. As for pro sports, someone is going to make that money. I'd rather it be the athletes than the owners. While salaries are ridiculous these days, the amount of money pro sports brings in is even more ridiculous. Give to to Dak Prescott instead of Jerry Jones.

3. As for firing coaches, when coaches got control over schools through these crazy buyouts that say losing is not a fireable offense, it was done from there. All the leverage in the world.

4. What I 100% don't agree with at all are the schools that have drastically increased student fees that go to athletics, so they can pay their athletes. That's straight up BS. Paying your football and basketball team should not be put on the shoulders of the every day student. Clemson and South Carolina both increased their student fee that goes to athletics by $300/year per student, with very little increase in perks for the student, so they could raise millions per year to pay athletes

Agree with your points.

My point is that it should not cost $500 to $2000 to take a family to a ballgame in the NFL, NBA or MLB. Cost for tickets and then the cost of food at the game and such for a family to have a good experience is just ridiculous. Typically cities help with building stadiums, meaning tax payers pay. Even if you do not follow that team you are paying for the 60k to go watch the game each week. Then they have the TV contract and such to help pay the sports franchise. Then you look at ticket prices, parking prices and food costs and now you can no longer afford to take your family out to the ball game.

That is coming to all college sports. Just wait the road we are on is crazy and ends at the nut house.

I will watch on TV until no one can afford that and will just listen on the radio and watch news for highlights.

No matter what, owners get $$ more than they are worth, players get $$ way more than they are worth to play a game and the citizens continue to fork it over.

[Jaxcat]

Pretty soon, the consumer will have to pay to see any major sporting event, imo. They won't offer CFB, CBB, MLB, NFL, the major golf championships, etc. on 'free' TV much longer. When that happens, I'll greatly reduce my consumption of sports. Most likely, I'll continue to get CFB in the fall, but I'm not paying to watch the other sports as I'm just not that much of a fan.

With the hundreds of millions of dollars the NFL rakes in from TV revenues, the franchises literally could allow every fan to attend for free and they'd still make a ton of dough. IIRC, each NFL team receives something like $430M every year from TV revenue. That does not count local broadcast rights, which adds to the stack of thousand dollar bills. I believe it includes merchandise that is distributed evenly. So, figure $450M in revenue every year - that's GOT to be > their expenses. So, maybe the tickets, parking, concessions, etc. don't need (and shouldn't) be astronomical. Charge $50/ticket, $10/parking, $4 hotdog and $3 soft drink or $6 beer and the team would still make a crap-ton of dough. Completely unreasonable that a business that makes that much profit from TV still gouges the fans who want to attend in person.

[Pobilly]

Pretty soon, the consumer will have to pay to see any major sporting event, imo. They won't offer CFB, CBB, MLB, NFL, the major golf championships, etc. on 'free' TV much longer. When that happens, I'll greatly reduce my consumption of sports. Most likely, I'll continue to get CFB in the fall, but I'm not paying to watch the other sports as I'm just not that much of a fan.

With the hundreds of millions of dollars the NFL rakes in from TV revenues, the franchises literally could allow every fan to attend for free and they'd still make a ton of dough. IIRC, each NFL team receives something like $430M every year from TV revenue. That does not count local broadcast rights, which adds to the stack of thousand dollar bills. I believe it includes merchandise that is distributed evenly. So, figure $450M in revenue every year - that's GOT to be > their expenses. So, maybe the tickets, parking, concessions, etc. don't need (and shouldn't) be astronomical. Charge $50/ticket, $10/parking, $4 hotdog and $3 soft drink or $6 beer and the team would still make a crap-ton of dough. Completely unreasonable that a business that makes that much profit from TV still gouges the fans who want to attend in person.

Concessions prices are what they are due to teams not typically owning the concessions: they prefer to have someone else own, charge for the booths and such, with a large cut going to the team, a large cut going to the management team for the concessions. 1.00 dog, gets marked up to 5 bucks because 2.5 of that goes to the team and management. Then the 1.5 profit is due to the price of the booth itself. I have a gourmet popcorn business and before covid UK contacted me wanting me to have a tent at UK games around the concession area. My $6 dollar bag of caramel corn was going to have to be marked up to $12 bucks for me to make a small profit. I decided not to do UK as I could pay $200 bucks for a festival, sell my caramel corn for $6 bucks a bag and in a day make around 1100.00 for a small festival (1day) and much more for larger festivals. At UK my $6.00 a bag (UK food service was going to get another 25% on top of the $6 bucks that was already coming out off the top. So even if I sold 5k worth of caramel or cheese popcorn my profit by the time paying staff (which I did not have to do at a festival as wife and I would do all the work) would be maybe $200 dollars for the day. Fans overcharged for product and such. But the rest I agree 100%.

[Jaxcat]

Concessions prices are what they are due to teams not typically owning the concessions: they prefer to have someone else own, charge for the booths and such, with a large cut going to the team, a large cut going to the management team for the concessions. 1.00 dog, gets marked up to 5 bucks because 2.5 of that goes to the team and management. Then the 1.5 profit is due to the price of the booth itself. I have a gourmet popcorn business and before covid UK contacted me wanting me to have a tent at UK games around the concession area. My $6 dollar bag of caramel corn was going to have to be marked up to $12 bucks for me to make a small profit. I decided not to do UK as I could pay $200 bucks for a festival, sell my caramel corn for $6 bucks a bag and in a day make around 1100.00 for a small festival (1day) and much more for larger festivals. At UK my $6.00 a bag (UK food service was going to get another 25% on top of the $6 bucks that was already coming out off the top. So even if I sold 5k worth of caramel or cheese popcorn my profit by the time paying staff (which I did not have to do at a festival as wife and I would do all the work) would be maybe $200 dollars for the day. Fans overcharged for product and such. But the rest I agree 100%.

Totally get it. But, maybe the team shouldn't take such an enormous cut from the 'little guy' trying to sell a few concessions/merch when the team is raking in millions before the first ticket is sold. I know, I sound like some crazy Communist, which I'm as far away from that as one can get, but, dang. The days of 'I'll take the family out for a ballgame and some snacks and not have to get a 2nd (or 3rd) mortgage on the house' are long gone. Most/all of the owners are billionaires, or close enough, and they make 10s of millions of dollars every year just from the TV revenue. Must they pile on (football reference!) the average Joe by boning them on ticket, concession, merch, parking, etc. prices, too? It's the fans that, ultimately, are the driving force behind all the TV revenue so, in effect, the teams are already pulling big bucks out of the average Joe's wallet even before they rape them on ticket prices, etc.