Paying college athletes has garnered a lot of discussions around the sports world. For the longest time, I never had a real opinion on the issue. But then, USC did the unthinkable and it finally got my attention. Jordan Addison was a receiver at Pitt (University of Pittsburgh). He was the best player on the team with the departure of Kenny Pickett, and was named the best receiver in the country by receiving the Biletnikoff award. Everything about this story is 100% true and it absolutely should not be tolerated.
Let’s Review
First, let’s talk about the NIL rule. NIL stands for name, image, and likeness. The supreme court ruled that the NCAA had to start compensating the athletes. This allowed athletes to get sponsorships/endorsements with companies, professional teams, brands, etc. It also allows athletes to come up with their own trademark. To make a long story short, the athletes are now able to promote themselves in ways they were never allowed to before and profit from it. High school football players for example are already millionaires even before stepping on to a college campus.
Most Recent Development
This is where things get crazy. Jordan Addison was offered a deal worth up to $3.5 million and a house to transfer to USC. USC is now being charged with tampering and as you can imagine, Pitt football coach Pat Narduzzi is feeling pretty upset about all of this. Reports say that this deal may have begun to transpire before he entered the transfer portal. By rule, a coach cannot contact a player until he or she officially puts his or her name in the portal. If this is the way college football is going, schools will be able to pay off the best players at other schools to join an already loaded team. This is basically like spending money in free agency without the fear of the salary cap, luxury tax, or consequences. Imagine if Kyler Murray was offered a huge payday to leave Oklahoma to play with a loaded core at Alabama. That would be a college football superteam.
This isn’t the first case of a USC player landing major agreements. New Trojans quarterback Caleb Williams has landed multiple partnerships since transferring to USC, including a $2 million agreement with Hawkins Way Capital, a Beverly Hills based real estate private equity fund. Part of the agreement is for him to learn the real estate process. This radical move is compromising what integrity the college game has left. Is the recruiting process no longer going to matter? Is everything going to come down to who writes the check with the most zeros at the end of it?
USC boosters are pulling out all the illegal stops to get top talent. To put this as polite as possible, the NCAA has “ulterior motives” and likely won’t put a stop to this. At this rate, schools like Pitt going to keep losing star players for bigger and more prominent programs. The burning question remains is somebody going to stand up and say how wrong this is.
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USC hasn't offered anybody $3 million dollars or a house you idiot