By: Jake Villarreal
College Football has been one of the most exciting past times for the average football fan in America. Waking up bright and early to watch your favorite schools from across the country battle it out on the gridiron on Saturday before NFL Sunday hits.
Behind every one of these teams and young adults who are still in school, are NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) and the Transfer Portal.
NIL allows athletes in these schools to earn money from products using their name and likeness. The Transfer Portal name speaks for itself, but it’s been taking College Football from where players play for integrity and loyalty to for the glitz and glamour.
Photo Jordan Kelly/Getty Images
The Transfer Portal has created some serious commitment issues among athletes, and they even arise between schools.
An example is the feud between player Xavier Lucas and the University of Wisconsin and the Big Ten Conference, where Lucas was said to have entered his name in the transfer portal without letting the university know, as well as putting in his name 2 days after the deadline for players wanting to transfer.
This dispute sparked an entire lawsuit over NIL agreements, player movement rights and even tampering allegations made against the University of Miami , where Lucas intended and has since, transferred to.
This has been a very eye-opening case of the rising NIL and Transfer Portal ideas that the NCAA has been blind to recognize in real time.
The sport of college football is based on loyalty to your school that you committed to play for. I totally understand these players leaving for what’s better for themselves, but it can seriously get to a point where they are only playing to improve stock and get their own NIL money, such cases can be former UNLV Quarterback, Matt Sluka.
Sluka was reportedly owed $100,00 by UNLV (UNiversity of Nevada, Las Vegas) that the school failed to give him, and he redshirted and transferred in the middle of the UNLV football season. I feel like we’ve officially scrambled the lines of “professional” and “college” football with this.
Photo NCAA/Chad Wilson
NIL represents “Name, Image, Likeness” and a problem with this is massive schools in conferences like the SEC (Southeastern Conference) and Big 10 poaching talent from smaller schools in smaller conferences. Money talks in this new era of sports.
I would also like to mention the fact that the fans have even had to contribute to the NIL money these schools owe to the athletes, such as the University of Tennessee raising ticket prices and even Arkansas State University representatives calling for every citizen of the state to pay an NIL monthly tax.
This money isn’t being used to even better the athletic program, it’s just to pay these players to play for their school, and if you are “committed” to that program, that shouldn’t be a thing you are owed.
It has gotten out of control, and the NCAA needs something to tame it, or the even more ugly truths of college football will begin to rear their heads.
Jake Villarreal
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