Interesting insight into how NIL and free transfers have combined (and only the combination could have done it) to wreak havoc on the G5, and to some extent up and down the chain. Seems the biggest schools are even cobbling together NIL packages for “walk-ons” that mysteriously cover the cost of attendance.
“They’ve got to make up what a scholarship covers. I get it. It’s smart,” Chadwell said. “But the NCAA needs to create a rule requiring players to sit out a year if they are not on full academic scholarship.”
But as always, this is where they lose me. Limiting player movement without compensation is never the answer. Either you’re a student and this an extracurricular and anything you do or anywhere you go between seasons is your own goddamn business (even you Trevor fucking Etienne, even you, traitor), or you deserve material consideration for limiting your own mobility during your prime developmental years and/or your last chance to play a game you love competitively.
Yeah, they’re a farm system. Same as Power 5 is for the NFL
We’re just getting closer to admitting that truth and paying the athletes for their work in the minor leagues, er, I mean college. And maybe someday soon we’ll come to grips with how outrageously oversized the minor leagues are compared to the majors.
I mean, good. I want the college teams to have some essential nexus with the schools, but there are more ways to do that than the current or the prior model. The fiction that they’re just regular ol’ students who work out and practice and play for the love of “good ol’ 'varsity” is ridiculous to the point of being insulting, and now we’re in the worst of all worlds where the schools STILL pretend and therefore also won’t pay the players directly to commit to them for 3-4 years, but the money is there so the players all (reasonably) follow it. Even the guys who have accepted that the NFL isn’t an option (and among upperclassman starters I bet that’s not very many) likely love the experience and lifestyle of playing football and/or getting a no-cost degree+NIL more than they love their specific schools.
But I think this inherently must be true. Talent is gradually sifted through the system. It has too start with a wide net and then get filtered down. From thousands of high schools to hundreds of colleges to tens of pro teams. Plus with both the NFL and whatever the spring league is, I don’t think 130ish D1 teams is that ridiculously oversized. And with 130ish D1 teams, you need a ton of juco/dii+iii/hs options to fill the rosters.