It should be noted that many of those coaches were and are paid large sums of money for their trouble, all while the athletes were formerly stuck with relative peanuts, but … not so much, not anymore.Īthletes now are being recruited by coaches, offered scholarships and, in some instances, sums of NIL money that can reach into the millions of dollars and those cash totals scale on down from there, depending on the athlete, the program and the program’s attendant money-brokers or collectives that are organized to help those programs land and pay talented players. There’s a new sheriff in town now, much to the benefit of those who formerly were restricted, and all of that movement is causing headaches among coaches trying to keep their programs intact. In the old days, many scholarships were awarded annually, at the whim of coaches, all while players options were curtailed. What’s happening now is that athletes have options and opportunities to chart their own course, to transfer without penalty and to chase and to receive NIL money wherever those options and opportunities best suit them. That advantage, that amateurism was heralded by those - institutions - that were favored by it, all as those schools wanted to limit their responsibility and liability for their “employees” in numerous ways. To the glorification of amateurism, which was always something of a joke, many college athletes were restricted - in movement and in compensation - giving the aforementioned power to the schools. And if a player transferred at the top level of college football, often that athlete was forced to sit out a year, in some cases two years. Any process along those lines, either under the table or atop it, used to be a major no-no.

For college football, those transfer portals, with some exceptions, come in the back half of December and the back half of April, time periods in which players inform their current programs that they want out and those programs are required to list the athletes’ names in the portal, opening them up for recruitment for whatever school can land them. The ability to adapt is made much easier by way of a third key word: collectives.Īs they should, athletes are taking advantage of newfound NCAA rules allowing for transfers, in most cases during windows that give them the freedom they’ve wanted. The balance in college football, and other sports, too, is tipping from heavily favoring institutional power to making accommodation for power to individual athletes, and while some coaches have bemoaned that tipping, others have been busy adapting to it. This is remedial for some readers, but let’s break it down and go on from there because it will have and is having a significant impact on the Utes, Cougars and Aggies.

Roderick gordon