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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

Another point that's worth mentioning comes from me being a fan our our home-town college teams at Troy University. Troy doesn't have the rich boosters or big TV contracts to pay its players even medium-sized NIL stipends. Because of this, just about every good or proven player on Troy's team will be recruited to go play for the rich and "blue blood" programs. As they will be paid large sums of money to do this, most probably will transfer.

Also, because of scheduling changes, programs like Troy won't get as many opportunities to play prominent programs in the regular season. These games - against programs like LSU and Nebraska - not only give Troy's athletic Department a million-dollar payday, they provide an opportunity for Troy to make a splash on the national stage if they upset some of these teams - which Troy has done several times.

I think all these seismic changes in college sports are going to harm these so-called "Mid-Major" programs. Some will probably quit offering D-I sports.

The rich will get richer; the poor programs will probably become poorer.

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Bill Rice, Jr.'s avatar

I've researched this, only about 5 percent of the D-I, football-playing programs make a profit from their sports programs. The rest bleed money, and require massive tax-payer subsidies to fund these programs. All of the I-AA, Division II and Division III programs lose a ton of money.

Now, athletic departments are having to spend millions (?) of dollars on NIL payments to their best football and basketball players (and, probably, the ace pitchers on the girls softball teams).

That money comes from avid boosters, who used to write checks to fund a stadium expansion or a fancy new weight room or athletic complex. One of my questions is where is the facility and scholarship money going to come from now? As noted in this piece, my prediction: The "reformers" will kill the golden goose that made college sports so popular and turn-off many long-time fans.

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