College Football Is Beyond Cooked With This Latest NIL Trend
Who saw this one coming? Oh that's right, EVERYONE!
The slow death of college football as it has been constructed for the past century will be studied someday.
The veil of amateurism has been completely lifted with the advent of NIL and the transfer portal where players can just shill themselves out to the highest bidder.
READ: NIL Lawyer Outlines Lasting Effects Of Sherrone Moore Debacle.
The latest trend might be the worst of them all, though, as we are practically treating college athletes like NFL veterans at this point.
I'm referring, of course, to programs and reporters alike announcing players "re-signing" at their current school.
Allow me to insert my obligatory "what happened to the game I love" before I go any further.
Players are out here acting like free agents in the NFL. What are we even doing here?
Let's just go ahead and rip that Band-Aid off and stop treating these players like amateur student-athletes, because this is just the latest "point of no return" for the old days of college football.
If you were to take a time machine back, even ten years ago, and tell a fan that players would be getting social media graphics made to announce they've signed a contract to remain at their current school, they'd probably throw themselves out the window.
The sentiment is virtually identical, as even modern fans see the ridiculousness in all of this.
It's a sad state of affairs for anyone who considers themselves a college football traditionalist, as I'm sure even the staunchest defenders of NIL at its inception didn't have something like this in mind.
Remember when this was just supposed to be so players could make money off the field without having the commies at the NCAA come down on them with an iron fist?
Now, some of these players are making more money than players on their rookie contracts in the NFL.
I'm all for the players getting a slice of the pie, but if this is what we are moving towards, why do we even have academic standards as it is?
As a wise man once said, "We ain't come here to play school."
That was ten years ago, and Cardale Jones sounds like a prophet now.
We are hurtling towards a junior league for the NFL, though I fear we have already gone too far to reverse course now.