ATHENS — The NIL and transfer portal has brought a whole new meaning to “The Season of Giving” this December.
Read the full story here
Well said!
What a mess. NCAA is worthless
Finally! Thanks Mike
The amazing point here is players now have 10x less restrictions to their "freedom of playing choices" in CFB vs the contractual obligations of players entering the NFL. In pro football, contracts limit pay, where and how the player lives and when they play. Players can & are fired for non or poor performance. Today CFB elite players have almost absolute freedom and almost no external obligations. This will destroy CFB. It makes us value and respect players like Milton and Bowers. but it weakens the system, the authority of coaches and makes the whole point of a college education a joke. I am very afraid this will get much worse before, if ever, order is restored to a broken system.
Great article Mike. We need more people publicly refuting this "bowl games are meaningless" nonsense.
Go back and watch the Dawgs celebrate their win over Cincinnati and tell me how meaningless that game was.
I am a Braves fan. I cheer for a brand and could care less who is in the uniform as long as the team plays well. Freddie leaves and Matt takes over first base. Who cares? That’s professional sports including the “new and screwed up” professional college football model. There’s no “kinda” to it, Mike!
When universities are able to pay players directly, as with the players’ coaches, and that’s coming soon, I assume player contracts will fall under the Freedom of Information Act for everyone to see. Base salary, incentives such as a NC, playoffs, NY6B, conference championship, one of the ESPN sponsored programming bowls, etc.
Turn it on and cheer for your favorite uniform. Who’s in the uniform won’t matter one iota! That’s professional sports where loyalty is based on what’s written in a contract.
Guess it's a matter of choice and/or perspective... your reasons are why I've largely abandoned pro sports in terms of a "favorite team," starting with other sports a long time ago and the NFL itself more recently. I grew up a Cowboys fan and then became a Falcons fan after I moved to Georgia. Since loyalty dropped (in both directions, players/administrations), I found myself decreasingly loyal as well (oddly, not even because I openly thought about it). That accelerated as the Falcons seemed almost willfully dismissive of UGA players and their local market.
Now, I increasingly follow the NFL teams with more players from the colleges I have a connection to, especially our beloved Dawgs. If you'd have told me 20 or more years ago I'd be an Eagles fan, I'd have laughed you out of the room... the times they are indeed a changin' !!!
The recent past where you cheer for professional teams like Philadelphia because they draft UGA players is about to become the old model. Once the universities begin paying players and agents begin negotiating contracts, as with all professional sports, there will be so much player movement from year to year, the only way to cheer for a favorite player is to become a fan of a rival.
