Mike Farrell Sports

College Football Recruiting, Opinion, and Analysis

Mercenaries Are Not “Kids” – Time For Contracts Instead of the Transfer Portal

The transfer portal makes college football players less sympathetic figures

Pin
Inside NCAA Headquarters located in Indianapolis on Friday
Inside NCAA Headquarters located in Indianapolis on Friday

By Rock Westfall

The word “kids” should forever be banned from college football’s vernacular.

In today’s game, many of the so-called “kids” are mercenaries out for the best deal. They are out for number one, everything else be damned. The days of fighting for Dear Old State U are over. And in many ways that’s understandable but in other ways it ruins our beloved sport. 

The Players Rights Pajama Boys have their victory. Many of them gush with praise for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a man they would no doubt otherwise hate, for his scathing opinion on the 2021 SCOTUS case that turned kids into de facto men.

I never want to hear any of their ilk ever whine about what college football has become. Never. Today is the culmination of their misguided vision.

As the transfer portal floodgates burst wide open this week, we are being treated to lengthy X-posts from college football players saying how much they loved their coaches, teammates, and fans but that God told them to enter the transfer portal to get the bag and more playing time somewhere else.

Yuck. 

More Sports News

First things first, can we get just one solitary succinct black-and-white transfer X-post statement without the fancy artwork from a player who instead truthfully states that  he hates his coaches and cheap program and is taking his ball in a huff and going elsewhere? Please? Can we, as the “kids” like to say, “Keep it Real?”

As X.com is flooded with phony farewell posts by the mercenaries known as “kids,” millions of fans have increased feelings of resentment, disgust, and, yes, even hatred. It’s useless to try and pretend otherwise. If there is anything more obnoxious to these fans than sanctimonious, entitled teenagers, I can’t think of it. 

But that is what college football is now. The pupils terrorize the teachers and run the schools. But on the flip side, the NCAA has filled its pockets for decades on the backs of college athletes and never once thought to share a piece of the pie. What happens when free labor suddenly realizes it can seek payment? You’re see it right now. 

There is only one solution to the problem.

It’s time to replace the portal with player contracts. 

No Complaints Without a Solution 

The best way to counter the endless phony tweets and roster instability of the transfer portal is simple. It is time for multi-year contracts, complete with mutually agreed to buyouts (just like the coaches), that lock in players to a school for a set number of years.

The terrified NCAA won’t dare budge on the current portal crisis out of fears of a lawsuit. But player compensation is said to be soon moving to the schools based on the House case settlement. Within that framework, by whatever legal means necessary, there must be a framework in place to keep players at their current locales for as long as the signed contract stipulates.

Charlie Baker has served as NCAA President since 2023 and has had plenty of time to learn the ropes. He is the former two-term Republican governor of a deeply Democrat state, Massachusetts, where he was immensely popular for finding bipartisan solutions. The time has come for Baker to use that experience to find a permanent blueprint to end college football’s revolving door.

The Fabric Of College Football is Being Ripped to Shreds 

We have just concluded a thoroughly entertaining college football regular season. But many fans understandably checked out, in large part because of out-of-control player movement and the pendulum swinging too far in favor of player rights.

Throughout the season, more X-posts by fans flooded the social media sites with claims of being finished with a sport that has been ruined by selfishness, greed, and mercenaries.

Two other sports offer a warning of what can go wrong if college football continues on its current course. 

Once upon a time, Major League Baseball was a thing. The rosters, lineups and rotations were stable and there was parity. But by the 1990s, millions of fans left the game for good, tired of tracking player movement and the big markets being allowed to destroy competitive balance. The once “National Pastime” is now a niche regional sport.

Former college basketball fans will warn you of how revolving door rosters destroyed the ability of fans to relate to teams and the fabric of the game. College basketball suffered from a flood of departing fans and devolved into a two-week bracket betting binge each March.  A generation ago it was easy to connect player names to teams. Now it is impossible. Now, the only identity of a college hoops program is the head coach.  

For millions of fans, college football is all that remains in life’s toy department. If sanity doesn’t soon arrive, they’ll be out the door for good.

Category: Tag: , ,
Pin

You’ll Also Like