For years there were voices calling for the end of NCAA exploiting college athletes. There were arguments made for paying players outright. There were complaints about ginormous sums of money that were being made at the players' expense.
So the game evolved.
You now have the infamous NIL opportunities and the transfer portal. And now that student athletes are actually taking advantage of this, everyone is screaming about how it is ruining college sports.
You can't have it both ways, Cybil.
There is no happy medium here, you either give the players or the institutions control. The latest example that is drawing ire is S Caleb Downs leaving the University of Alabama for Ohio State. So let's recap: a player who went to a university for a specific reason has his coach retire and decides to take his future in his own hands and go some place he feels will better suit him.
THIS IS WHAT YOU WANTED!
For Christ's sake people, this is exactly what we thought it would be. And it's wonderful. Is it not what you're used to? Absolutely. Is it better? Depends on who you're talking to. Are you an alum of a school who can no longer rest on their laurels and actually work to keep standards high? Then you don't like it. Are you a program like Colorado who had a 2nd year head coach and completely turned the roster over? Then you probably like it.
The bottom line is athletes now have more control and opportunity than ever before and I have a hard time being upset about that.
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