Watching college football these days reminds me of that line from the second Lord Of The Rings movie. The king of Rohan is looking out at an army of ten thousand orcs and asks, “How did it come to this?”
For decades the NCAA fought a battle against cheating in recruiting. Many teams still did it but at least the threat of getting caught and facing penalties slowed it down. Did the NCAA occasionally make ridiculous rulings? Of course. Sometimes, us fans felt like the schools indiscretion was minimal at best and the penalty did not match the crime. The NCAA would tell us that if they did not keep it that strict. we would be shocked by what would transpire. They were correct.
So now let’s move forward a little. Over time, a bunch of wannabe do-gooders screamed louder and louder that the players were being exploited. Their argument was that the schools and conferences were making millions. and the players were receiving a fraction of that in scholarships, books and stipends. Also, coaches could change schools at the drop of a hat and players had to sit out a year if they transferred. These do-gooders said it was past time for the players to get their fair share of those millions. So, under pressure and over time, the NCAA conceded and removed the requirement to sit out a year after transferring and eventually removed the rule barring players from receiving benefits for the use of their name, image and likeness (NIL).
Now, let’s look at what was intended with these changes versus what it has morphed into today. The transfer portal was meant to allow players to relocate if the coaches that recruited them left via firing or taking another job. The transfer portal would allow them to do this without restrictions. Or they could leave if their situation at one school was just untenantable.
The NIL was supposed to allow players to make some money signing autographs or selling versions of their jersey in collaboration with some business willing to pay them for the publicity it would bring to their company or product. Or even take part in a commercial for that company. Players could arrange the events and get paid for them. It was never meant to be just open checks from boosters to players. All of this seems to make sense, but to quote the antiquated Lee Corso, not so fast my friend.
Here is what we got instead. Players are entering the transfer portal in hordes. Many sign with a school but transfer before their team has played a down of football. Some players transfer multiple times in a single year and four or more times over their college career. Head coaches no longer have even a clue what their roster will look like the next season, and it is next to impossible to build any quality depth on a team because if a kid feels he has starting talent but is not listed as first string he transfers out. And it gets even worse. If a coach attempts to enforce any discipline on his team, he runs the risk of losing a large number of players who do not want to be forced to behave like civilized adults.
But as bad as the transfer portal has become, NIL has turned out to be even worse. Instead of players getting five thousand dollars to do an autograph signing for a car dealership, players are getting paid millions in some cases just to take the field for a particular team. Schools are luring players into the transfer portal with the promise of more money. They are not supposed to tamper with a player at another school until that player is official in the transfer portal but that isn’t being policed of enforced at all.
To make all of this even more atrocious, this cluster was initiated because the schools and conferences were making millions and sharing almost none of that with the players. So. the players are getting their cut of that money now, right? Wrong! Each school has teamed up with people outside the school’s staff to form what is being referred to as collectives. These coops contact the school’s fans and fleece them for donations to feed the fund that will pay players to play for that school. They tell the fan base they need to “do their part” to support their favorite team.
So here is where this has ended up. The players are NOT getting their cut of the millions the schools and conferences are making. The schools and conferences are still keeping all of that money. Companies with connections with the schools are not paying the majority of the money these players are receiving in return for advertising help from the player. Nope, the fans are being forced to dig into their pockets to buy the players.
So, who has benefited from all of this? The fans? Absolutely not. They are paying heavily to field a team that is often playing sloppy football due to the lack of continuity and depth on these rosters. The players? Well, to some extent yes but this money isn’t getting spread equitably among the players. A backup lineman isn’t getting paid anywhere near what a starting QB gets.
And there is one more adverse result of all of this that virtually nobody is discussing so far. These players a young. They are mostly between the age of 17 and 22. The most prepared of these young people have questionable money skills at this point in their life. But many of these young athletes come from single parent households in poverty-stricken neighborhoods where they were lucky to have enough money to buy a pizza most of their lives. Suddenly, they have hundreds of thousands of dollars at their disposal and nearly zero life experiences to lean on to protect themselves and their money. Some will be exploited by family, friends and people telling them they can help them manage their new wealth. That is not good. But some will take that money to the street where they have spent most of their lives and get into real trouble. Sometimes serious trouble. We often see professional athletes that let their money lure them into deep trouble, prison or even death. This will be even more rampant among 18-year-olds with new access to huge sums of money.
It is my belief that unless someone figures out a way to build some restrictions and parameters around college football it will continue to resemble the wild wild west. A couple more years of rosters most fans cannot even recognize the names on and more and more sloppy play on the field will lead to at least some fans turning away from the sport. It has already started to happen. I do not believe this is going to end well for the majority of people involved. And a lot of fans are now, just like me, asking how it got to this point so fast.
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