The culture of college football is changing rapidly. Are you ready to contribute to it? – Sports News (Trending Perfect)

The most visible sign that college football is entering a bold and uncertain new era isn’t the fact that we now have 12 teams in the playoffs, or West Coast teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference, or players moving like air hockey pucks from school to school. No, the most visible symbol of the 2024 break with college football’s 150-year history is the 1.5-inch-square QR code that will adorn the helmets of Oklahoma State players this year.

We’ve seen players move from one school to another. We’ve seen schools move from one conference to another. We’ve seen playoff games for years (decades, in some divisions). But we’ve never seen anything like this stark shift in attitudes toward paying players. This kind of direct funding for players was the kind of thing that used to cost schools playoff eligibility or even death; now it’s just a cover charge.

Fan bases are changing rapidly across the sports landscape, but nowhere is this more evident than in college football. Between the NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, playoff expansion, legal gambling, and even the new EA Sports College Football video game, we are now in a world where fan bases are very different from what they were just a few years ago.

What does this mean for you? Well, if you’re a Pookie fan, make sure your bank account is linked to your phone and you have an HD TV. And if you’re a fan of one of the other 133 football shows, get ready. Your fans are about to become a source of income.

Gone are the days when players could etch their names into college records and remain loyal forever. Last year, Iron Bowl champion Isaiah Bond, who caught the 31st touchdown, transferred to Texas right after Nick Sabin retired. Dylan Raiola, who could have saved Georgia at quarterback in the future, transferred to Nebraska late last year when the Cornhuskers offered him a better deal.

(Before you blame players for their disloyalty, remember: Coaches have been doing this sort of thing for generations. And players don't usually leave schools burdened with sanctions in their wake.)

Gone are the days when you could count on your school to play the same slate of opponents every year. Thanks to conference expansion, it will take multiple seasons for a school to get through all of its conference rivals. The major rivalries will still exist, but others — like Mississippi State-LSU or Michigan-Minnesota — will become once-in-a-few-year events. They may not have the clout of Ohio State-Michigan or Auburn-Alabama, but they used to have a charm and personality all their own, and that’s now fading.

Then of course there are the rivalries that were cut short or diminished by realignment, like Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State, Oregon vs. Oregon State, or Washington vs. Washington State. You’ve probably accumulated decades of memories of those matchups, but what about the new carpet that was funded for the realignment in the locker room?

Gone are the days when you could be a passive fan, buying the occasional ticket or t-shirt to support your school. Wealthy alumni already know the pain of having to make ever-increasing “donations” in order to get a chance to buy tickets. The zero-dollar micro-donation structure means everyone gets a chance to show their support in strictly financial terms.

Now, every fan has to face the question: How big of a fan are you? Are you willing to skip dinner out — or pay off a mortgage — to support the offensive line? Well, how about tapping into your savings to help lure that five-star prospect? Technically, your college fund doesn’t have to go just to for you Kids, right?

It’s not yet clear how Oklahoma’s new NIL angle will work. You can see the potential problems that could develop from five states away—there’s no “QR” in “team,” after all—but it’s a bold new direction. And it’s a one-way street, too. What do you think the next generation of college players will want? less money?

The next logical step is obvious: both NIL and the portal—and, of course, betting—are distancing fans from the actual players on the field. The gap between students and student-athletes was already huge; now it’s unbridgeable. And this isn’t just the guy you see in geology class scoring a goal; this is a guy who’s making more money this season than you’ll make in your first five years of high school.

It’s pretty clear why these changes are happening—money, college football’s money-obsessed oceans—and where they’re headed. The world of college football is turning inward, increasingly professional, where tradition and atmosphere must align behind victory and profit. Every year, college football approaches the NFL with the music of a marching band, and 2024 represents a giant leap toward that goal.

Enjoy the season, even if it's not what you remember about college football. Change is coming. It's time for our fans to change their behavior.