Welcome to college football's new 'wild, wild West': The era of tampering
Tampering officially arrived in college football this offseason, leaving coaches to both lament the current state of the game -- and try to keep up.
Thank god for the NCAA
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What a total mess. Again, all for players having more power is this paradigm, but this is a disaster. How about some integrity, is there any integrity in this country anymore. I mean, people that generally want to do the right thing? Coaches and boardmembers that act ethically? Sure, the ncaa sucks as an enforcement arm and clearly has no integrity, but how about the coaches and administrators.
And in the end, the players (who were the ones that wanted this) will suffer. It’s a definite case of be careful what you wish for. And unfortunately the ones that will be hurt the most will be the 95% that actually play college sports to get an education and will never play professionally.
It kind of sucks when you're the loser in the deal, but this is basically how capitalism works. Players are able to seek out the best deal for themselves and coaches will have to deal with the fallout.
I have always loved college football and been ho hum on NFL. I have started to feel like I might as well watch the NFL for football. At least there is no false pretenses like college football still is trying to officially do.
Don't feel bad for the coaches. Some make a career of job hopping and leaving the players to deal with the fallout.
Yeah, I suppose. You have autonomy to seek the most value for your goods and services. Certainly its the construct the coaches play by. Although I'm pro capitalism generally, I dont think it portends good things with amateur sports. Then again, I also don't think coaches should be paid 6 million dollars at a state funded university.
This is one of the unintended consequences of the xfer portal. I totally expected this and am not surprised in the least. You have to recruit your entire team every year from now on. That means trying to retain kids that have become disgruntled and also recruiting kids that are on other teams. And if the coach doesn't do it directly, kids will do it via proxy. This is uncontrollable...no way for the NCAA to reign this in with today's technology. It is just part of the college football landscape.Welcome to college football's new 'wild, wild West': The era of tampering
Tampering officially arrived in college football this offseason, leaving coaches to both lament the current state of the game -- and try to keep up.www.espn.com
What is the old like, with great power comes great responsibility? Kids have more power, parents have more power, colleges have more power...its a free for all.
Don't want to hijack this thread but... I was reading the article below the one linked and it was about the cool position names they give defensive players and of course, they mentioned the Hero at Penn St...do we even have the Hero anymore on defense?! I haven't heard that term used for a long time it seems.
I don't really feel bad for the coaches. They are mostly paid plenty. But I do think this will probably push some coaches who would otherwise have stayed in the college ranks to the NFL or retirement.
No we don't use the term Hero, which was the strong safety any more. Also, we used Fritz for the Will linebacker at one time too.
IIRC, they named the Fritz position after the pizza delivery guy. Maybe Hero was named after a sandwich. Maybe Will has a food connection too? 🤷♂️ If so, the coaches had a serious food fixation.
Here’s the hilarity and the hypocrisy of both the act and the comments from coaches in the article. If the author had made the article another five pages long he could have quoted every coach in America. Each one virulently lamenting and opposed to poaching. Which makes me think that the actual poaching is being done by aliens from Mars,
Coaches helped this genie escape from the bottle, because they thought it would benefit them. Now their complaining like a guy who left his keys in his car with the engine running, and is shocked that it was stolen.
I don’t believe anyone can say with certainty that this will destroy college football. It will however destroy what many believe their nostalgic perception of college football to be. And for most part, other than how Joe ran his program that ethics and honesty ship sailed away decades ago.
Coaches helped this genie escape from the bottle, because they thought it would benefit them. Now their complaining like a guy who left his keys in his car with the engine running, and is shocked that it was stolen.
I don’t believe anyone can say with certainty that this will destroy college football. It will however destroy what many believe their nostalgic perception of college football to be. And for most part, other than how Joe ran his program that ethics and honesty ship sailed away decades ago.
Frank or Fritz DeFluri did have a popular pizza place in town that was frequented by football players and that is how the will linebacker came to be named the Fritz linebacker. His pizza place is still around and run by family, Home Delivery Pizza. The hero name was because is was two positions in one. A DB and a linebacker. Remember Penn State played a 4-4 defense back then and the hero was a linebacker in the 4-4 and a safety in a 4-3. Thus a hero playing two positions. Will, stands for weak side as Sam stands for strong side. They called the mike linebacker just backer in that defense.
The good news is that there is no way Jim Harbaugh or Ryan Day would cheat/ interfere. Not those guys, not those skools (spelling specifically for da o$u fanboy ngerbuck)
Nobody wants to sit the bench and I don’t blame them. Programs in the past wanted to have their starters and a cadre of quality backups standing on the sidelines being good quiet patient little boys waiting their turn. Not sustainable. I find this progressive.
Progressive is an interesting way of terming it. Look, it's a problem anyway you slice it. Our society, and young people in particular, like the notion of instant gratification and entitlement(I too am young). As Franklin says and I agree, there are many paths to ultimate success, not everyone is saquon as a freshman where their talent is so obvious. Some guys need to develop, mature, commit to earning a spot in their Junior and Senior years, and then maybe, they explode and get their big shot at the league(like a carl nassib), maybe they don't ever get their shot, but they have learned about team and role and fortitude which will make them successful in life. I am all for players being able to transfer(once) unconditionally, but this idea that if you don't like your playing time as a freshman, so you're gone, is nuts. Then you go to another program, and you can't get on a the field as a 3rd year, so you're gone again. It's just not a healthy way to participate in college life.
You think this is bad now, wait until players start receiving compensation. Top schools are going to be lining up endorsement deals, social media account managers, etc. There will literally be 0% chance that an all-MAC player doesn't transfer to a larger school for financial reasons.
No way whatsoever. I can't imagine the possibility of Day contacting Fields or Harbaugh contacting his almost annual QB transfer. No doubt the players called them first and it was a complete surprise to the coaches.
Maybe, but you have players who come back to Power 5 schools when they are sure Top 10 picks, so you'll probably have some exceptions. I wonder if Ben Roethlisberger would have made such a move. He was missed by most big schools initially after not playing QB until his senior year but started to attract attention among P5 schools later. He supposedly crossed Ohio State off his list when John Cooper ran into him not that long after his campus visit and clearly had no idea who he was. I would not have a problem with somebody in that situation transferring up to a bigger name program.
The nostalgic perception of college football is what keeps it as successful as it is but we are reaching the point where we can no longer fake it. People like it because it is different than pro sports or at least they want to see it that way. When it become nothing more than a minor league for the NFL it will enjoy the popularity of a minor league. People pay to watch the best. Minor leagues not so much. Look at the attendance and price for game tickets of a minor league baseball game or NBA G league game compared to the big leagues. That's the direction of college football. There are some teams in the SEC or Texas or even Penn State which have a long tradition keeping fans who long for the 'good old days' paying attention but long term it will be a struggle.
If I did my best to play at Penn State but wasn’t able to get playing time, and Kent State wants me...to me it’s a no brainer. I did my best but wasn’t successful. I don’t see how that equates to a life sentence. Go play for the Golden Flash. It beats playing on the scout team.
Yeah, I understand and think your point is well reasoned. I advocated for a guy like Levis or even Stevens to leave, if you are not going to even get your shot at the program you play for, go somewhere else, who can blame them. I think like a lot of evolving rules and concepts there needs to be individual considerations. Sure, you are a damn good QB and you simply don't think you are getting a fair shake, transfer. What is interesting about Stevens and Levis is both graduated from Penn State and formed wonderful friendships and experiences. Now, the 5 star QB that goes to Georgia and decides he doesn't like having to wait around to play for his original school, even considering he "committed" to that school knowing their was a high level starter entrenched so he packs his bags and leaves is a problem for me. Or the hundreds of kids burning bridges that are in the portal, unproven, that have nowhere to go now. Philosophically, I agree with players having mobility and optionality, certainly the AD's and the Coaches do, but I think its a very slippery slope and each case should be looked at individually.
Some of the best baseball games I’ve attended involved the Single A Durham Bulls of the Carolina League in the late 80s/early 90s (think Bull Durham). The quality of ball might not have been great, but the games were fun and entertaining, and every once in a while you’d see a guy you knew was going to make it to the show. In my case, that would include Chipper Jones, Andruw Jones, and nutty John Rocker.
