The circus came to town,
and I guess it must have stayed.
It’s like an endless parade… Warren Haynes
College athletics are in the toilet these daze and swiftly swirling down, down, down, soon to reside on the bottom, near the filthy and completely-prostituted pile of professional sports. Hard to believe they screwed up the last sacred piece of it all, but boy have they ever (and I honestly can’t see any way out).
For instance, the portal situation was created, due to the pandemic, and is basically the same thing as free agency – but worser. Players transfer with the wind now, and some play for four or five, different colleges before hanging up their jerseys – not exactly what the powers-to-be had in mind.
Also, in an attempt to wipe out the historically-forbidden (but always-practiced) good ol’ boy process of “pay for play” – the NCAA stepped in and threw a buncha money at the problem, effectively opening the doors of the Big Top wider than ever, and the clowns have been running amok ever since.
All aboard the ship of fools, yo. Next stop–- the land of NIL.
NIL, or Name, Image, Likeness, kicked off a few years ago and is already a complete dumpster fire. It was supposed to clean the slime outta NCAA athletics but has only managed to create more problems and make thangs even sleazier. There is hardly any regulation of the program, and schools seem to be in charge of policing themselves, so what could possibly go wrong?
Exactly!
The knuckleheads running the show really thought they’d done something righteous this time, but as usual, the only entity the NCAA serves is itself, so it really comes as no surprise that NIL is failing and doing so miserably.
Take an elite athlete out of an impoverished home situation and place him/her in the middle of the University of Arkansas, or any other large, wealthy campus, without any means, and you’re playing with fire, Scarecrow. Now, they are placing them in the same pricey settings with a bank fulla unregulated loot and a smile.
Oh boy!
One thing for sure about college campuses – you need money to negotiate them. Incidentals cost cash, and in college, incidentals are crucial – nice clothes, dates, laundry, cold beer, petrol, Little Debbies, whatever…
The fact that scholarship athletes are forbidden by the NCAA from having a job while in school, places them in unfair positions, since they have no way to “legally” earn any money.
NIL finally addressed this fact, but it is far from a fixed, fair or just situation. They flipped the script, alright. Flipped it upside down, and now the playing field is ripe for corruption.
The saddest fact of all may be this – NIL money is collected strictly from private businesses and/or donors, and not a dime comes from the school or the NCAA. No, no of course they both get to keep all their billion$ in revenue, while the kids whose backs they dug their spurs into must seek their funding elsewhere.
I guess it’s like Harry Caray told me on the streets of Chicago years ago, when I asked for his autograph with pen and pad extended – “Can’t you see I’m tryin’ to catcha cab, pal?”
Sorry to bother you, brotherman.
All the NIL money comes from donations, which are counted and distributed by an agency that is, get this – not actually a part of the particular institution of higher learning it is associated with. The group that solicits, distributes and manages the NIL funds is not under the University of Arkansas financial umbrella but will go on to play enormous roles in the lives of Razorback student athletes and Razorback teams, forever.
Once again, the NCAA has taken one step forward and two steps back in addressing the needs of student athletes and may have finally tainted their games forever – only time will tell for sure.
Until then gohogsgo!