The year is 2044 and college football is aggrieved

Last year it was 13-0 Florida State. This year it's 9-3 Ole Miss. In twenty years, maybe 6-6 Kent State?

Really excited to see some of you tonight for the first Club Sportico in-person hang—there’s still time to register if you’re reading this Thursday afternoon. We’ll have more to share next week from the festivities. Eben leads off this week…

The year is 2044. After Kent State wins its final football game to finish 6-6 in the Big Ten’s C Division, the Golden Flashes are left out of the 96-team College Football Playoff. Head coach Travis Kelce takes to Bluesky to vent his frustration.

"Why do we even play the games??" he writes on the ubiquitous social media platform, an open jab at the CFP selection 'committee,' an algorithm developed by OpenAI.

Media members are quick to point out that Coach Kelce's team, which has the country's 115th largest payroll, may have been held back by a labor dispute the year before. Kelce's very famous brother weighs in; his even more famous ex-wife does not. The playoff, which is co-streamed live on TikTok and Stake, goes on without Kent State.

Satire? Missive from the future? We'll find out in 20 years. But it's become apparent this week that no matter how big the CFP field is—and who makes the decisions—there will always be controversy. The committee dropped its latest rankings on Tuesday, and everyone outside the 12-team field is racing to broadcast their anger.

ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said this week that he was “incredibly shocked and disappointed” to see Miami (10-2) likely missing out. Ole Miss (9-3) is ranked right below Miami, and Rebels coach Lane Kiffin took to X--seriously this time--to complain.

The aggrieved coach is a tale as old as time, despite Dan Hurley’s best efforts to re-define the genre this season. I assume Princeton’s football coach back in 1869 had some bulletin board material about his team being disrespected by its No. 2 ranking. But the calculus is different now for two very connected reasons—the free flow of talent and money.

Any Ole Miss player with eligibility can play somewhere else next season, an option that didn't exist two years ago. He can also be openly paid, thanks to an NIL economy that’s only three years old. Losing games—or losing out on high profile postseason berths—directly impacts rosters more now than ever.

As a result, retaining and luring talent has become a full-time worry for any program aspiring for a national title. That was also on full display this week on Lane Kiffin’s X account. After his angry missive Wednesday morning, he posted 49 (!) more times that day, and almost all were about recruits committing during national signing day.

Colleges are rushing to hire football and basketball general managers to handle roster construction and, likely soon, salaries. Recruiting costs have also skyrocketed. In 2018, the public FBS schools spent a combined $143 million on recruiting, according to Sportico’s college database. In 2023, that number was $216 million.

(It's also worth mentioning that Kiffin's bank account has a lot at stake too. He'll make $50,000 if Ole Miss plays in the Independence Bowl, but $150,000 for playing a first round playoff game. Should the Rebels win that game, it jumps to $250k for making the quarters, $500k for the semis, $750,000 for a finals berth or $1 million for a title).

The ACC is in its own fight for relevance now. Miami getting into the playoff via an at-large bid would go a long way toward reinforcing the league’s status as a power conference on par with the SEC and Big Ten, which dominate the top slots.

There are other money considerations too, of course. Better teams sell more tickets, more merch and more concessions. They tend to do better with donations as well. In an era where conference swapping is another avenue of upward mobility, better teams also have more opportunities to stay relevant in whatever the future power structure looks like. The CFP’s prior broadcast deal with ESPN pays $470 million per year; the new one pays $1.3 billion.

Mix that all together and you have more playoff slots but significantly higher stakes. The only thing that remains consistent is the frustration of those who aren’t chosen.

As for the plucky Kent State team of 2044, let's be honest, the example was improbably absurd. Travis Kelce will be President of the United States in twenty years.

TL;DR 🦈: Lane Kiffin’s X account is a time capsule for college football’s past, present and future.

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Now turning it over to Jacob for his Pick Six, featuring Caitlin Clark’s earnings, a (surprisingly inexpensive?) Batmobile and more for our favorite people, Club Sportico’s paid members…

The Sportico Story of the Week 🏀: Caitlin Clark generated an estimated $11 million in endorsement earnings this year, our Kurt Badenhausen, reports. For comparison, the average WNBA team’s revenue is roughly $18 million.

The Non-Sportico Story of the Week 📱: What’s up with Woj? Chris Mannix checks in with the guy who’s still being offered scoops—and dealing with a cancer diagnosis.

What Made me Laugh 🤣: 22.4 million views. This has to be Eastern Michigan’s most viewed X post, right? No other comment from me…