(ThyBlackMan.com) The landscape of college sports continues to change in a major way. It seems that every week several colleges and universities are leaving long-time conferences they have been part of for decades to join “mega” conferences. All of those big moves and decisions are motivated by money as most things are. Things are very different in college sports than even five years ago and particularly in college football, arguably the biggest “non-professional” sport in North America. The 2021 Supreme Court ruling that opened up collegiate athlete compensation and cleared them to be compensated for the use of their name, image, and likeness, or NIL, was historic and the same year the NCAA’s “one-time transfer rule“ took effect and allowed college athletes in major sports like football and basketball to transfer to a different school one time during their career and play immediately without getting permission from their coach or school. Previously, athletes had to get permission from their current school and then sit out a year as a penalty for transferring. It was restricting for college athletes and often times contentious between the player and his or her former head coach blocking their ability to play at a different school.
Both NIL and the transfer portal today offer significantly more advantages and opportunities to college athletes and major college football players than the generations before them but it seems that a lot of current college football head coaches have issues with both NIL and the transfer portal. University of Mississippi head football coach Lane Kiffin had a lot to say about NIL and transfer portal during 2023 SEC Media Days. Kiffin stated, “You know, some topics here that are out there, and so I’m going to address the portal, NIL, what I kind of call disaster that we’re in. I know that question is going to come. And the reason why I break that down usually is because I do afterwards get a lot of feedback from you guys in the media or the fans that they are appreciative of coaches that really addresses where it’s at and what are the challenges with it.
First off, I’ve always said that I think it’s phenomenal that players get a chance to get paid, which is great. I do think, which I’ve stood up here and said before when it first happened, that there’s going to be some major issues and we’re creating free agency with the portal. And with NIL, you’ve got a lot of pay-for-play going on and that is what it is. Those two things combining, there’s not a system in place. I don’t think there’s any other sports at any level that are like this, that really, you every year, can opt into free agency.”
It is interesting that Lane Kiffin was outspoken about “pay-for-play” and “free agency” among college football players when he had strong consideration to leave for Auburn University’s head football coach opening months earlier even though Kiffin himself wasn’t a “free agent” and had time left on his contract as Ole Miss head coach. He is entitled to look at Auburn while even under contract with another school but college football players, who don’t get a salary from a college football program or have long-term college scholarships with their schools should be limited in their ability to move to a different situation for financial or other reasons? Longtime Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney has also been openly critical of the transfer portal in the past but he also has shown a major lack of real world understanding as well.
Deion Sanders made an early splash when he was first hired as Colorado Buffaloes head football coach when he “suggested” to the Colorado Buffalo players on the team he inherited to leave the program as he is bringing on college players he preferred. Sanders asked the players to leave with more pizazz but that doesn’t change the fact that several of those players that joined Colorado prior to Sanders’s arrival signed with the school because they fell in love with the school and the academics along with their football opportunity while the new head coach is telling them to leave because they aren’t good enough as football players. If actions like Kiffin’s and Sanders’s are part of the business in the NIL, transfer portal era, then the college football players should be able to look out for their interests as well.
Staff Writer; Mark Hines