Nah, schools doing it to themselves. One is always willing to pay more than a kid is currently making to get them to transfer. Then turn around and complain about players leaving schools and having no real commitment / loyalty.
The sport is literally eating itself.
I would imagine that we’ll start seeing some player contracts sooner rather than later. I have no issue with kids making money off of their NIL. The problem has been that these NIL sources have not officially been tied to a specific school in recent years. Now that players will be eligible to receive financial compensation from the schools directly, there should be contractual obligations for the players, similar to the obligations coaches have currently. Buyouts should be modeled similarly as well.
Regarding this unlimited transfer mess, this needs to be cleaned up very soon. Players should only get a “free” transfer in one of three instances:
1. Immediately following the players’ true freshman year. If things were misrepresented in the recruiting process, the player should be able to transfer. But they should know this after their first year on campus an all financial obligations in the contract should be followed.
2. If the head coach is fired, resigns, or is hired by another school.
3. Graduate transfers.
Note: there should be no restrictions on which schools a player can transfer to (conference members, rivals, etc.).
The biggest problem the NCAA has now is trying to put the genie back in the bottle. I was happy to see our Vols take a stance with some of these players who only play the game for money (Nico, Boo), and essentially tell them your perceived value to this team is nowhere near what your actual value is, so go be someone else’s problem now.
In the flip side, there are so many kids on this team (and new recruits) that seem to be great teammates, great athletes, great kids, and great human beings that are very deserving of the compensation and opportunities they are receiving.
