Groups of five schools accept free food

Like Tim Beck isn’t enough to sort this offseason out. Throw something else on his plate.

So I called a Coastal Carolina football coach and talked briefly about hot dogs, popcorn and nachos. Free at Chanticleers Home Games in 2025 through innovative marketing plans.

“Rewarding the fans is a great idea,” Beck says.

It was also to quickly peer into something more important. An opportunity to demonstrate the reality of college football in a group of 5-level bowl plots.

Or, as more commonly known: do not have.

Everyone, please ride. Let’s go now.

Beck’s leading rusher, Braydon Bennett, transferred to Virginia Tech after 13 touchdowns last year.

His best edge rushing, Kleflvin, moved to Louisville in 2024 with 9½ bags. Another talented edge rusher with five bags, Deamontae Diggs, was transferred to Florida.

He transferred to the best interior defence lineman, Wilson, Mississippi. Nearly 30 players from the 2024 roster hit the transfer portal in the era of free player movement.

Beck has a new offensive and defensive coordinator and has a four-way fight for the quarterback starting job. Of course, it’s because his starting quarterback (Ethan Vasco) from last season moved to Liberty.

He does not yet know the framework for the Play System’s payroll pool of payroll, which could be formally approved after Monday’s hearing in court for US District Judge Claudia Wilken. The agreement allows FBS schools to spend up to $20 million to $23 million on all athletes.

Most power conference schools are expected to spend up to 75-80% of their final revenue share figures in soccer. At Coastal Carolina, like almost every other group in the five schools, they are fortunate to spend half the acceptable statue for all athletes.

It is the rules of the roster management and accounting and budget, as well as the new NCAA rules and the new NCAA football committee rules. Every movement has multiple sticky tentacles that cannot be seen until it is stinged.

“It’s a flood of things,” Beck said. “Every time you turn, you bump into something else.”

Exhibition A: Sideline Communication. The Rules Committee decided last season that FBS schools could use helmet communications (such as the NFL) and computer tablets during games.

One problem: Someone has to pay for it.

The NCAA is not giving everyone a helmet communication or iPad despite the multi-billion dollar media rights deal for the insanity of March (among other revenue generations). Do you want that? Find funds within your budget.

Speaking of budgets, the NCAA has recently also allowed unlimited recruiting visits for athletes. What was once five defined official visits earned the most official visitors to those with the most money.

I know this will shock you, like everything else unfolding in a new player-friendly environment.

Earlier this year, Beck had several recruits on campus, but both found out they had multiple offers from Power Conference Schools. Why are people with offers from Michigan, Georgia and Tennessee interested in Coastal Carolina?

“They just admitted it,” Beck said. “They were here for a trip to Myrtle Beach.”

This is a trickle to the fateful decision made by the NCAA in the summer of 2021, with all coaches and managers being warned, but all must be stopped legally.

The creation of a free agency with no pay cap came into being when the NCAA ultimately handed over the name, image and likeness deals and opened the door to free player movements at the same time. So was all unintended consequences.

And almost everyone eventually drips from four meetings to groups of five.

Beck was part of the process as the top assistant coach of three of the heaviest batsmen in Ohio, Texas and Nebraska. But when you kneel in its high value, everyday victory or walk battles, you can’t even recognize the group of five horizons.

There’s no time to see what’s eroding under you.

If a “payment pool” between $20 million and $230,000 is the salary cap to promote competitive balance across FBS, I have a private job of $2 million a year.

You know, private is beyond the “pay pool” and is never regulated. It’s not “fair” market value, it’s “free” market value.

Before someone from the NCAA tries to force “fair” market value into the conversation, they should take the Fresh Student ECON 101 class offered by all universities. And then he loses again in court.

In 2021, the “fair” leapt out the window despite the fact that the NCAA had known for several months that it could become law in the summer of 2021 and that it had done nothing about it.

After that, Congress – Holy dysfunction, complained when Congress didn’t help them.

Meanwhile, we knew that the Pac-12 we knew was dead. The ACC currently has an official closing time for the early 2030s (it’s not far), with the Big 12 being a juice-up group of five meetings.

Yes, Tim Beck doesn’t mind talking about free hot dogs and nachos.

“Our fans are extremely loyal and support all of our programs,” Beck said. “That will never change.”

And amen.

Matt Hayes is a senior national college football writer for the USA Today Sports Network. Follow him with X at @matthayescfb.