I'm not going to publish it as a front page story. It's exclusively for you guys.
Champaign - Break out the Wild, Wild, West memes. It’s Portal season again, the annual chaos in college football when the “NIL” money flows and the depth charts go up in flames.
In a barrage of semi-comical posts to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), athletes thank everyone in sight and announce that while they are a ____ for life (plug in your team’s nickname), they plan to enter their name into the Portal and are excited for what the future holds.
Illinois took its first hit on Thursday when starting running back Reggie Love announced that he intends to transfer after four season in Champaign. A former four-star recruit from St. Louis, Love led Illinois in rushing this season.
By all accounts, Love was a model citizen here. He was a tremendous representative of the university, and a leader and mentor of younger players. But now he’s gone, and it leaves you wondering why. If a level-headed athlete like Love gets caught up in transfer madness, then something is out of whack.
“I could see after my first year here that this time of year is kind of insanity,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “It’s a crazy world.”
Indeed it is, but you can’t blame athletes for participating in a system that they didn’t create to try to better their situation, both on and off the field. It’s their career and their life. Wish Reggie well and move on. He was one of my favorite players to cover.
No, this monster belongs to the power brokers who didn’t bother to ask if their creation was good for the long-term health of college sports. Nor did they regulate it to ensure that NIL actually means name, image, and likeness rather than pay to play. NIL + the Transfer Portal, in its current form, is a disaster.
If you want to pay college athletes to play, then pay them. Give them a share of the television revenue which is in great abundance. But let’s end the charade. The ambiguity surrounding NIL nurtures widespread rule-breaking. You can call it "tampering season" as much as Portal season.
Bielema told a story on Thursday of a player who he previously recruited who was looking to transfer. While waiting for the player to formally announce his intention to transfer and enter the Portal, the staff was informed that he already had 32 offers. Oops.
“It’s something we won’t do as coaches,” Bielema said. “It’s insanity. We do things by the book, but unfortunately a lot of the world doesn’t.”
And why would they? Cheaters prosper in college sports. Just ask Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who got a slap on the wrist from the Big Ten for a sign stealing scandal that would likely have ended the career of a coach at a lesser program.
But it’s Michigan. Rules are for the little people. And now all that stands in the way of the Wolverines and a trip to the College Football Playoffs is a date with heavy underdog Iowa on Saturday.
Many fans don’t seem to mind cheating as long as their team wins. Many of the faithful in Ann Arbor, including the fanboy media, actually portray Harbaugh as a victim of Big Ten commissioner Toni Petitti. Go Blue, and off with his head.
Champaign - Break out the Wild, Wild, West memes. It’s Portal season again, the annual chaos in college football when the “NIL” money flows and the depth charts go up in flames.
In a barrage of semi-comical posts to X (the platform formerly known as Twitter), athletes thank everyone in sight and announce that while they are a ____ for life (plug in your team’s nickname), they plan to enter their name into the Portal and are excited for what the future holds.
Illinois took its first hit on Thursday when starting running back Reggie Love announced that he intends to transfer after four season in Champaign. A former four-star recruit from St. Louis, Love led Illinois in rushing this season.
By all accounts, Love was a model citizen here. He was a tremendous representative of the university, and a leader and mentor of younger players. But now he’s gone, and it leaves you wondering why. If a level-headed athlete like Love gets caught up in transfer madness, then something is out of whack.
“I could see after my first year here that this time of year is kind of insanity,” head coach Bret Bielema said. “It’s a crazy world.”
Indeed it is, but you can’t blame athletes for participating in a system that they didn’t create to try to better their situation, both on and off the field. It’s their career and their life. Wish Reggie well and move on. He was one of my favorite players to cover.
No, this monster belongs to the power brokers who didn’t bother to ask if their creation was good for the long-term health of college sports. Nor did they regulate it to ensure that NIL actually means name, image, and likeness rather than pay to play. NIL + the Transfer Portal, in its current form, is a disaster.
If you want to pay college athletes to play, then pay them. Give them a share of the television revenue which is in great abundance. But let’s end the charade. The ambiguity surrounding NIL nurtures widespread rule-breaking. You can call it "tampering season" as much as Portal season.
Bielema told a story on Thursday of a player who he previously recruited who was looking to transfer. While waiting for the player to formally announce his intention to transfer and enter the Portal, the staff was informed that he already had 32 offers. Oops.
“It’s something we won’t do as coaches,” Bielema said. “It’s insanity. We do things by the book, but unfortunately a lot of the world doesn’t.”
And why would they? Cheaters prosper in college sports. Just ask Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh, who got a slap on the wrist from the Big Ten for a sign stealing scandal that would likely have ended the career of a coach at a lesser program.
But it’s Michigan. Rules are for the little people. And now all that stands in the way of the Wolverines and a trip to the College Football Playoffs is a date with heavy underdog Iowa on Saturday.
Many fans don’t seem to mind cheating as long as their team wins. Many of the faithful in Ann Arbor, including the fanboy media, actually portray Harbaugh as a victim of Big Ten commissioner Toni Petitti. Go Blue, and off with his head.
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