I think your take is not totally fair. Arkansas is significantly closer to his actual blood relatives than Salt Lake City. Aside from that, this isn’t a commitment to God, country, or a spouse. This is a freaking game being played for our entertainment. These kids don’t owe us, as fans, jack. We’re watching for our benefit.
The thought has occurred to me, that maybe a way to clean up the transfer portal part of this current fiasco of a system, is something along the lines of how my tuition reimbursement program worked when I got my MBA while employed at the rocket ranch. As I recall I got about $17k of tuition reimbursement at the time, and if I would have left the company within two years I would have been on the hook to pay that back. Could something similar work with respect to the commitment to a school and receiving a high value scholarship, which room and board certainly is? Could that be combined with a bringing back the one-year sit-out rule and/or limits based on progress to a degree at the time of transfer? Maybe that would require the “players as employees” model first, but it’s something to think about.
I keep thinking to myself OK the following, although it might be somewhat on the simplistic side.
We’re talking about young men between the edges of 17 and 22 (or so). I don’t know about the rest of you, but at that age, I was not well equipped to make major life decisions, especially about money. I don’t think anyone that age is so equipped when you’re talking about millions and millions of dollars, which is more money than most of us have dreamed of having at any time in our lives. The people I blame for this are the adults, the people who control money and access to money. ESPN, for example. The NCAA. College presidents who lacked courage. It was 100% predictable that the transfer portal, combined with NIL, would produce the mess that is now blowing up. Those people were well aware of the inevitable consequences. If they didn’t see it coming, they would be fools, but these people are not fools. They are highly intelligent, purpose–driven men and women. They needed someone to tell them “stop!” But no one did.
Yes sir. I think little of college presidents in that they are no different from corporate executives. The simple, yet misguided aim of satisfying shareholders, in lieu of stakeholders, to me is unfortunate. Greed does not discriminate. My comment is based on the collective, not on generalizing.
We’ve been talking about in the other thread as well, but it’s worth noting that many (most?) of these kids aren’t jumping for $500 and a free cheeseburger. They’re transferring because they’re receiving life-changing amounts of money to do so. In some cases, it could be “pull families out of generational poverty” type of money. For a bunch of middle-aged armchair QBs to tell these kids that they’re horrible people if they jump at that chance solely because we feel they’re not being sufficiently loyal to our school is absurd.
It sucks we’re losing them, but if someone like JJ has the chance to make themselves sh*tloads of money at Arkansas and set themselves up financially for the next several decades, then absolutely hope they take that opportunity.
I don’t think the players deserve much criticism at all. Question is this: Are we going to end college football as we know it–destroy it, perhaps–for the benefit of the 5% of players who will actually play in the NFL someday? That percentage goes down, probably to 1%, when we are talking about those who will actually become stars in the NFL.
[quote=“LAUte, post:87, topic:9034”]
I don’t think the players deserve much criticism at all. [/quote]
I agree, but others here obviously feel differently.
It’s also important to note that none of this destroys challenge football as a whole. The Bama’s, the Michigan’s, the Ohio States, the Notre Dames…all the ones who already have all the money will continue to be perfectly fine. It will ruin it for any school outside the couple dozen “blue bloods”, but they all seem to view that as acceptable collateral damage to hoard ALL the money so…
Are people at UTEP upset with him for taking more $ to come to Utah?
I know Ute fans aren’t.
There is no easy or probably any way out of this situation/mess.
The pros have salary caps—but they first divide up the players by a draft where the worst go first—not possible for colleges.
But even then NIL for the pros—commercial endorsements etc. are more common & profitable in LA & NYC than in SLC. So free agency means that the Jazz etc of the world most always are in middle to lower levels.
Same thing will happen in colleges. Rich get top picks, And Utah & next level have to get lucky. The middle etc all like the big money too much to agree to different classifications like in High Schools with different championships.
But then again we all are excited to watch Michigan vs. Washington rather than division 2 (is that what it is called) championship game.
About six months ago, Caleb Williams bobbleheads were for sale in Dodger Stadium, alongside Dodgers players bobbleheads. I couldn’t see any other non-Dodgers personnel featured at all. Honestly, I was astonished. But that’s what’s available in big market town.
We Ute fans have a lot to feel salty about right now. For me the conference realignment is a real downer though at least Utah found its way into a second-tier conference. We appear to be a bubble program in terms of getting an invite to the top leagues- we deserve but don’t move the needle quite enough.
As for NLI- I still feel that this is a move in the right direction. The players are putting in the most work and taking the most risk. They signed commitments as children still in high school but play into their 20’s. They deserve the ability to receive payment for their likeness just like anyone else.
JJ got a raise. Ok. Which of you hypocrites would turn down a 300% raise to take a different job doing the same thing? Which of you are risking life and limb every time you show up to work? Good for him. NLI win, though I wish he were still on our team.
Cam may or may not be good enough to make a living in the NFL but he has been one of the best ever to play QB for Utah. He was able to get paid during his rehab from getting hurt while playing for Utah, and he will get paid again next year. Good for him. I can’t muster the smallest modicum of resentment.
How about the rest of the athletic department? Well the girls are all still playing with title IX benefits equivalent to being professional athletes for games that no one really cares about. Hulu broadcasts just about everything now days and you can plainly see that attendance is essentially the same as when your 12-yo is playing for the local club- parents and grandparents only.
The football program is still paying for all of these other sports and the football players themselves are able to get paid if they are good. One can be tempted to say the football players are getting paid for the first time but we all know that is not true. They are getting paid without breaking rules for the first time. This is a huge improvement. Yes it is different but the courts clearly ruled that the previous rules were not legal and allowed the universities to take advantage of these young athletes.
The transfer policies are going to take some getting used to and conference realignment risks alienating fans from the smaller fan bases (like ours). Such is life. But I, for one, am happy that the players are able to receive NLI funding. If these changes “destroy” college football as we know it then consider it destroyed. The 12-team playoff next year is going to deliver huge interest and ratings. The players will be getting paid. It is going to be good stuff.
Who knows, if Cam makes a solid recovery, the team stays healthy, and we get some lucky bounces, perhaps Utah can make a playoff run next year. That would be fun.
(even though the announcement does keep Broughton)
