Taking The Temperature of the College Sports Landscape
Before you read anything I have to say, watch this.
Major props to Eli Drinkwitz for saying what needed to be said. I should honestly just leave it there, but there is so much more to talk about. The relocations of the conferences are not at all considering the athletes. Since when have we seen this much of a seismic shift? I understood why Oklahoma and Texas made the move to the SEC, and I was happy when UCF, Cincy, Houston, and BYU made the jump to a major conference. But after that, things got out of hand.
What business does USC and UCLA have moving to the BIG 10? Who thought Cal, Stanford, and SMU moving to the ACC made sense? SMU (Southern Methodist) is in Texas. Cal, Stanford, USC, UCLA, Oregon, and Washington are schools who are moving to conferences that are no where near their geographical location. As a result, the PAC 12 has been gutted. Each conference has a home base with employees. What are the PAC 12 workers who rely on the paycheck to feed their families going to do now? Uproot everything? It may be possible for some, but not everyone.
It’s not just major schools and conferences. Le Moyne and Stonehill recently made the jump from division two to division one. Both schools moved from the NE10 to NEC. In year one of the move, the Stonehill women’s volleyball team and the men’s hockey team in particular have struggled to make the transition. Le Moyne made the change because their basketball and lacrosse programs are elite. Those programs should be fine, but what about volleyball and other programs who are in a rough stretch? Some athletes at Stonehill quit sports when the change to DI was made. Big shocker here, but they didn’t care about money and revenue. They just wanted to play the sport they loved for a little longer. That’s the key word there, love.
Now we have NIL (Name Image and Likeliness) in the equation. The Supreme Court ruled that the athletes in the NCAA need to be able to profit. Makes perfect sense. For so long, jersey sales, video game profits, and other avenues were not able to be shared. Now players can make sponsorship deals, partnerships, marketing agreements, the works. The problem here is now it’s becoming a bidding war. Washington State QB Cam Ward is in the transfer portal looking for a new school. He has at least ten offers worth one million dollars. This is getting ridiculous. Schools that don’t believe in NIL are falling out of contention. The athletes are chasing the money and you understand why. But who does this help if the athlete doesn’t make it? What if after the checks come in they check out and lose an opportunity as a result? Four years in college sports and then there is no opportunity after that when the NIL money stops. Maybe they got the degree, but maybe they didn’t. Then what? The schools dust their hands off and say not our problem anymore.
It was bad when the coaches started dipping from the schools they have been at for years to chase a lofty deal elsewhere. Now we have the players doing it? What happened to loyalty? What happened to integrity? What happened to doing things the right way, working hard, and showing grit? Instant gratification is real, and if players and coaches don’t get it right away, they are gone. This makes it harder for the kids who actually want to put in the work and get a degree. North Carolina receiver Tez Walker was initially ruled ineligible to play this season as a two time transfer. Ask yourself this, why did he transfer? The first time we had a little thing called COVID, remember that? His school’s season got canceled so he went from North Carolina Central to Kent State. Then, the entire Kent State coaching staff left. Walker made the move to UNC and was ruled ineligible. He appealed explaining his situation and was still denied by the NCAA. A few weeks later, it was determined Walker was in fact going to be allowed to play due to “new evidence that was not submitted before.” And of course, nobody felt the need to elaborate on that.
UNC then took heat from the NCAA for escalating the situation and not sharing the so called evidence, but here is the kicker. UNC tried to provide it, but they were shut down. We need to give credit to UNC for supporting their player through and through. As a result, Tez Walker is playing the game he loves again and continues to excel in the Tar Heel offense.
Something needs to give here because this is not going to be sustainable for the athletes. This is just more proof that not that many care about the kids anymore. The schools may think they are doing the right thing, but of course they are delusional here too. Sports is a game. A distraction. It’s meant to be fun. If money chasing as non-professionals is going to become the new normal like it seems to be, then those in college sports are no better than mercenaries chasing the big score.