PITTSBURGH — Why the outrage directed at Jordan Addison?
That thought popped immediately into mind when news broke Friday night that Addison, Pitt's best wide receiver since Larry Fitzgerald, is expected to transfer to USC because of a lucrative name, image and likeness deal. What would you do if you were in his cleats? Say no?
Please.
A unanimous Supreme Court ruling in June 2021 opened the door for college athletes to benefit financially from a billion-dollar industry. Universities and coaches have benefitted for years, thanks to the work and talents of the players. It is only right the players get their cut. They are the game.
As for the portal, which allows a one-time transfer without penalty of sitting out a year, why shouldn't athletes be able to do what is best for them at the school of their choice? College coaches in the major sports proved long ago there is no loyalty to a program. Now, all of a sudden, it's a crime if a player wants to leave?
Can you say hypocritical?
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Is there a seedy side to the Addison transfer?
Of course, there is. We're talking about college athletics. Nothing is more of a cesspool.
It starts at the top with the university presidents. There is nothing ethical about them when it comes to athletics. Unlike the NFL, where buyouts aren't offered and a coach's contract is honored, the colleges have no hesitation to swoop in and take another school's coach. USC is just one of many examples. It poached Lincoln Riley from Oklahoma.
Pitt believes USC violated transfer portal rules by reaching out to Addison prematurely. Do you really think USC has any moral concerns about stealing Addison from Pitt?
If you do, that makes one of us.
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What about the argument the rich are going to get a lot richer because of NIL and the transfer portal?
Is that possible? Does anyone but Alabama and Georgia have a consistent chance to win the SEC? Ohio State and maybe Michigan the Big Ten? Oklahoma the Big 12? Clemson the ACC unless there's that rare, special season when another conference member has a Heisman Trophy-worthy quarterback?
You can count the number of teams that can win the national championship on one hand. Since the four-team College Football Playoff began in 2014, Alabama has won three times and Clemson twice. Those two schools and Oklahoma and Ohio State have combined for 21 of the 32 spots in the tournament.
Just look at the weekend's NFL draft. Georgia had a record 15 players selected, including five defensive players in the first round. Alabama had six players drafted in the first three rounds and has had 40 taken in the first two rounds since 2016.
If the rich do get richer, how will we be able to tell?
That's why it's almost comical that Alabama's Nick Saban and Clemson's Dabo Swinney are among the most critical of NIL and the transfer portal. Saban said they create "a situation where you can basically buy players. You can do it in recruiting. I mean, if that's what we want college football to be, I don't know. And you can also get players to get in the transfer portal to see if they can get more someplace else than they can get at your place." Swinney, for his part, called the transfer portal "total chaos."
Shocking that Saban and Swinney want to continue with college football the way it was, right?
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Is buying players going to destroy college athletics?
It hasn't yet, has it?
Buying players in one form or another has been going on for decades. You don't think there were some, let's just say, improper benefits given to Pitt's players on its 1976 national championship team? At Penn State during its heyday? At every other major college?
Of course not.
Right.
Look at the UCLA basketball dynasty under John Wooden, maybe the most respected college coach of all time. His program was hardly pure. A 1981 Los Angeles Times investigative series established that Sam Gilbert, a prominent UCLA booster, was "a one-man clearing house who has enabled players and their families to receive goods and services usually at big discounts and sometimes at no cost. The Times reported Gilbert helped players get cars, clothes, airline tickets and scalpers' prices for UCLA season tickets and even arranged abortions for players' girlfriends. Wooden knew about the NCAA rules violations, according to the report, but chose to ignore them.
Cheating always has been a part of college athletics.
Now, thanks to the Supreme Court ruling, players can be paid openly.
College sports will survive.
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Is the Pitt football program cursed?
Imagine being Pat Narduzzi. One minute, you are feeling on top of the world. You just led Pitt to the ACC championship, its best season in 40 years, thanks to that Heisman Trophy-worthy quarterback Kenny Pickett. You were rewarded with a rich contract extension. On Thursday night, you are sitting with Pickett when he is drafted No. 1 by the Steelers. You couldn't be happier or prouder. Your smile lights up the room. Then, the next minute, the Addison news breaks and it looks as if you are losing your best returning player. You call Riley at USC and scream and yell, but it won't do any good. You will have to move ahead without your Biletnikoff Award-winning receiver.
Cursed might be too strong.
Jinxed?
