Football walk-on programs potentially eliminated?

[Tuco Salamanca]

Aren't we already there with some schools paying players a salary with regard to money from NIL sources? I do not think that the present system is sustainable. Something has got to give.

Sort of, it isn't the school's money though. Which is why I agree with you that the current system is not sustainable. The uber wealthy schools, with large alumni bases will be able to continue to make the upgrades to their facilites and contribute to NIL collectives. But some schools, even some in the so called power leagues, won't be able to keep up. Nebraska is already having to scale back on the stadium upgrades because there wasn't enough money to do the new locker room and coach's offices AND upgrade the stadium.

So they have to determine where their money is best spent, facilities or players.

 

[king_kong_]

well lookie here

turns out it's not paying players OR upgrading, it's paying players AND upgrading

 

[PeliniTheCrutch]

well lookie here

turns out it's not paying players OR upgrading, it's paying players AND upgrading

View embedded media

That is quite the sh!t-eating grin.

 

[jflores]

I would expect walk on programs to die down over time. With more of a focus on revenue generation and who gets what slices of what pie, walk ons are the obvious dead wood in someone’s prior example of a company.

Walk ons do consume resources whether it’s coaching time or potentially just straight dollars and they don’t play enough to justify their outlay in a corporate structure.

When people played for funsies or a shot at the nfl it didn’t really matter much if you let forty extra kids hang around and see if any of them had the right stuff.

Ostensibly in a minor league type of situation where even more money flows or additional regulation defines team structure, walk ons could be a potentially free or at least cheap form of practice squad players who don’t have a week to week shot of getting playing time but rather show enough they might make the roster next year.

 

[huskerfan1414]

I think people really undervalue how important walk ons are to practicing over an entire season.

Theres also still plenty who will play for nothing.

 

[jflores]

I think people really undervalue how important walk ons are to practicing over an entire season.

Theres also still plenty who will play for nothing.

As this minor league continues to form, walk-ons are increasingly men without a country. No one wants to pay for them, because most of them aren't very good and wouldn't play very much, so they wouldn't be rostered. So now the question is, do they die out altogether, or can they be morphed into some kind of low overhead practice squad within the new minor league framework.

I highly doubt that in 2024 America colleges would let walk-ons play for free on a practice squad when everyone else around them is paid and covered by medical insurance. The optics would be somewhere between slavery and indentured servitude.