The college football season is winding down, and soon the CFP committee will have to decide which teams to select in their inaugural 12 team playoff.
While many of the selections will come from conference winners, the remaining at-large choices surely will leave some fan bases complaining that the process is rigged or set up for the bigger brands to join the party.
The beauty of the new format should help eliminate a lot of the noise as pertains to selections, with no instance bigger in the CFP era (2014-present) than the once-beaten Alabama Crimson Tide, who won the SEC, getting in last season over Florida State, also a Power Five conference champion (ACC) but undefeated.
Travis Hunter Says College Players Should Get $100K For $116M Playoffs
Then there’s also the money aspect of the CFP, and as it draws nearer Heisman Trophy favorite Travis Hunter is speaking out on the payout and how the players won’t receive one penny.
With $116 million up for grabs for the conferences, commissioners all around will be doing their very best to get as many teams from their conference into the dance.
Why is that, do you ask?
The conference receives $4 million for each that qualifies for the CFP. Then another $4 million for each that advances to the quarterfinals. And $6 million for each team that makes the semifinals and finals. For instance, right now the SEC would make $20 million for Texas, Alabama, Georgia, Ole Miss and Tennessee (all making it and ranked in the top 12). The Big Ten would make $16 million for Oregon, Ohio State, Penn State and Indiana, all in the top 5 of the rankings.
If most of those teams advance the SEC and Big Ten stand to clean up, and that’s not sitting well with the aforementioned Hunter, who, speaking on the “Travis Hunter Show,” said he believes players should at least receive $100K apiece for their efforts.
“Well, $116 million and we’re not touching,” Hunter said this week. “The players are not getting none of that. Like, we don’t work this whole time. It’s basically saying we don’t have NIL no more. After we get there. We’re basically just getting robbed. We got them all the way there, and then, we don’t even get the money. We don’t even get to see it.”
Travis Hunter Has $3M In NIL But Says Other Players Getting Robbed
Hunter continued, “Know, that’s what happened when schools signed for these conferences. That’s what happened. They get their money out of you. That’s why we went to the Big 12. They did get us. They thought they were slick. I’m on to y’all. They said, ‘Oh yeah, Colorado might be good. We’re going to gamble with them right now. Get us to that playoff. Thank you. 116 mil, thank you, no, but they probably have to pay the coaches, though you know the coaches might get a little raise.”
Hunter isn’t afraid to speak up, and that’s great that he’s using his platform to try and help others, but he’s also already one of the highest compensated athletes in collegiate sports thanks to the NIL opportunities he’s been afforded. So, in retrospect that $100K doesn’t hurt him at all, it would be more for the guys that don’t have a $3 million NIL valuation like Hunter.
Travis Hunter: Heisman Favorite
As of Monday, Hunter holds the best odds (-500) via BetMGM to take home college football’s top award given annually to the nation’s most outstanding football player. Hunter, the two-way sensation has been that and then some for the surprising (8-2) Colorado Buffaloes. If the Buffs can win out and win the Big 12 championship game they’ll make the new 12-team CFP.
This season Hunter has wowed college football playing an average of 124 snaps per week. He’s become the most dynamic two-way player we’ve ever seen at the college level. With 74 receptions for 911 yards and nine touchdowns on offense, and three interceptions and one forced fumble he’s become the second player in NCAA history with at least 40 receptions and three picks in a season.
He joins former Heisman winner and Pro Football Hall of Famer Charles Woodson as the only two players to do such, Hunter’s done it twice.
