That NIL money is very very tempting. Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and Louisiana have gobs of it. Tennessee too.

Where football is concerned, most of those big schools with deep NIL pockets are in red states. Ohio, Oklahoma now.

Might be difficult for some black football players, and understandably so.

conference hasn't produced a national championship for a while. The top HS recruits could be going elsewhere if they want the exposure of being on winning teams.

way ahead of the NAACP. I can imagine that coaches from southern schools are really concerned about losing talent over this issue.

Republicans always fail to discover the unintended consequences.

The Golden Rule applies. Those who have the gold make the rules.

"Student athletes" are interested in money and coming to the attention of professional scouts. They will not sacrifice themselves to protest against the return of Jim Crow. It's probably asking to much for a bunch of teen aged athletes to think about the long term public good.

My hubby has been telling me for months that this should happen. Sadly, we do understand that these young men are facing a dilemma--a career, big bucks, possibly professional paychecks and perks--vs. standing up for what's right. Many of them are under 20--it's hard to make a life-altering decision like that when you have a lack of experience to guide.

college education.

To boycott? Why not white students as well? And Hispanic students, etc...

and biggest financial juggernauts for certain college ball sports (notably basketball).

until something impacts them directly. So it becomes a wasted effort to keep begging over and over when shit like the 2024 election keeps happening.

Let Alabama play the MAGA athletes. See how that goes for them.

Why is it up to Black athletes to make this sacrifice?

USC's and Michigan's million dollars are just as green as Alabama's and Florida's. They can go to USC or Michigan. These kids aren't going to starve or have to give up football.

Telling Black athletes that they shouldn't compete for positions on half the country's college teams is very unfair.

Why shouldn't all athletes be asked to do the right thing?

And I do not expect a full boycott. If just a meaningful percentage of the top 1000 players announce they will not play at the SEC schools, it will put pressure on the others. The SEC will still field a team, but they will be overpaying for lesser talent.

I thought that I had already commented on this but I can't find it.

Take a look at the top three rounds of the NFL draft. USC had one player mid-way through the first round and Michigan had two in the second round and they each had one in the third.

The overwhelming majority of those top-100 slots to the NFL are southern schools... and most of the ones that aren't (Notre Dame, Iowa, Northwestern, Ohio State, Indiana, etc) are in similarly gerrymandered bright-red states.

For those players hoping to make a career of this... It's definitely a sacrifice to make their commitment decision based on the politics of the state the school is in. Particularly since few (if any) of the schools had anything at all to do with redistricting.

USC and Michigan will put plenty of kids in the NFL going forward. I am not sure you are serious about red state schools being better for football, so I will not address that. If the kid is good enough to play in the NFL, they will find him. If he isn’t, and college is the only football career he will have, then he should definitely go to a non Jim Crow 2.0 school.

There are many people sacrificing much more to resist Trump, including me. These kids can make a million at USC instead of Alabama.

Some teams are competitive at the collegiate level and other aren't... and it varies from year to year. But the programs that consistently produce pro-ready prospects are overwhelmingly in the south and midwestern red states. Saying "the kid is good enough to play in the NFL" is overwhelmingly misunderstanding how the game works. It matters what kind of system the kid plays in... and which coaches are there... which strength and conditioning programs are basically the "minor leagues" for the NFL.

Once again - take a look at the top 100 draftees from last month. Count how many of them are in blue states and you might need both hands... but probably not more than that (and, of course, Michigan went for Trump).

The SEC schools were handing out bags of cash, which gave them a huge advantage in the old world pre-Alston (NIL). Look at the last year. The SEC got a whole bunch of teams into the CFP, and then lost to every major conference opponent it played in the CFP. How did the SEC do in the NCAA basketball Tournament? It lost just about every game it played against a major conference opponent unless the other team was missing one of their three top players (BYU, Gonzaga, Iowa State, Texas Tech). Look at what has happened to Auburn (football and basketball), Alabama, LSU, and Tennessee in this new era. They were special when they were the only ones handing out cash, now they are just another program. Mississippi State is not competitive anymore.

Other than Kentucky and Tennessee, the SEC fans don't care about basketball. I think you will continue to see a decline of the SEC at the cost of programs in the Big 10, Big 12, ACC (had best season this year it has had in years) and Big East (down year because of several key injuries at better teams, but will be back next season).

The SEC is not that special now that every team can pay its players. Going forward, Michigan, Ohio State, Penn State, Miami, and USC will pay as much or more than any other program in the country. Florida, Texas, Texas A&M, Georgia and maybe Alabama can hang. Maybe Alabama. Oklahoma will have good years and bad years. I know this for a fact because I am friends with several boosters at D1 schools.

Furthermore, the Big 10 actually has a significant revenue advantage over the SEC in the post Alston world, so even the average Big 10 programs can out-pay the average SEC programs. See Indiana this year.

There are plenty of places for these kids to get paid.

Plus the chance to go pro

They don’t have to go to Alabama.

We wont see a SINGLE player turn down the best NIL offer.
And it's not fair ask them; many of them come from poor families. This is their chance to change the lives of their parents & secure their future.
Maybe we should instead put pressure of the Party to NOT repeat the mistakes of 2024 & push programs the voters want.

If maybe 50-100 kids decide they would rather get paid $1+ million to play anywhere but about 15 schools, the SEC will have a huge down year in football, and it will get these states’ attention.

There are hundreds of thousands of people, including me, risking much more in our activism than which school will pay them a million dollars to play 12 games a year. I hope a few kids will pitch in to fight fascism.

I just dont think we will.

But the same people who love to talk down the NFL players for whatever their grievance is ALWAYS give a pass to their favorite COLLEGE teams. I'd LOVE to see their reaction to their teams sucking for a few years even though MY team is one of them.

But, why not ask everybody to boycott watching the games on TV or attending the games of these southern schools. Why not ask other schools not to play against these schools.

Non-conference games are scheduled years in advance & the money games mean a lot to the smaller teams

It would have a snowball effect. Someone would play at these schools, it would just not be the top players. This would drive SEC fans apes***.

Go after the boosters who are paying the players to go to these schools. I bet a portion of these boosters are either black or black owned businesses. Only need 10-20% to pull back to create a snowball.

Whether it's a career in sports or an opportunity to earn a degree debt-frree, they want 18-year olds to pass on life-changing opportunities.

Black folks to stop going to Disney Land/Florida, Nashville, etc. etc.

We need a full blown concerted boycott that makes the Montgomery Bus Boycott look like a 3 day weekend.

It's beyond just elite athletes - it's all of us. Still haven't stepped foot in a Target since November 2024.

Amerikkka doesn't deserve our wealth, talent, voices, experience and discretionary spending. It's a shit hole country.

Like the Bud Light deal; it was easy to just drink a different beer.
But these college fans are rabid. They see THEIR schools suffering because of their State legislators & it might make a difference.

to the athletes, I think this would be like dropping an A bomb in the red states. If you watch college sports at all, the stars (aka the ones bringing in the money) are mostly black. I doubt it would take too long when the profits drop off for those states to wake up to the fact everyone has a right to have their vote counted and gerrymandering their votes away will cost the states.