MGN Weekender: 12.13.24
It's Been We Weird Two Weeks
MGN has only had time for some brief interactions with the greater North Texas news this week. A bowl announcement: good. The transfer portal announcements: not good.
While we had a feeling the roster would change a bit, it still is not fun to be reminded of the new nature of college football. While we are all adults and can recognize that the “old way” was not fair to the average player. Coaches and programs held all the power and the system incentivized some half-truths and outright lying during the recruiting period. Players were stuck. While the coaches called the circumstance “learning how to deal with adversity” and “developing character” we all know that it wasn’t always that. What we have now is a complete flip. If the former was forced marriages, this is now serial one-night (season) stands.
It remains true that football is a gladiator sport and the fans’ love is fleeting and fickle, but it also remains true that the greatest players can resonate deeper. In this era, a Patrick Cobbs doesn’t stay for four years at North Texas. He probably doesn’t develop the love for the university, and our love for him would only be so deep.
Is that better? I don’t know. There were 100+ guys on the roster each year Cobbs played. I don’t know that it would have been better or worse for them in the current era. I also know coaches wanted to push players off the team, and still do. The transfer portal doesn’t fill up with guys only because they want to leave. There are plenty of coaches doing a Deion: “Go on and jump in that portal.”
Beyond that, I think we are long past the time where we call this anything other than a professional sport. I never thought it was a bad thing. I see nothing wrong with the university sponsoring a professional team, and giving education as a part of the compensation package. It opens up the whole thing to some internship and learning opportunities as well. Then you can do a salary cap per league. Then you can do a cross-team compensation package to allow for solidarity payments.
Let’s say you are a Jacksonville State and start signing some guys who are otherwise under-recruited the league and suddenly the whole roster is raided by big time programs offering NIL, and a bigger stage. What did you gain? A little more notoriety? A little more attention from the local fanbase? You can maybe ask for a couple more dollars when scouring for donations and sponsorships but — again — your roster was raided and your coach is gone. You can’t keep asking people to pay for hopes and dreams.
Now, let’s say you accept your position as a feeder team. You find talent and the big programs take them when they are more finished products. Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops once said that he couldn’t risk taking a Mason Fine because the pressure not to miss was too great at OU, but North Texas could take a chance on him. It was true. So let’s say an Oklahoma takes Jacksonville State’s QB. They agree to a transfer fee. Jacksonville State can use that money to find the next going-to-be-good player.
It happens all the time in soccer overseas and even in MLS. You sign some dude from Argentina for $1.2 million. The Argentina club gets some money to continue operating. Your mid-level club in Spain gets a few years of a burgeoning wonderkid and can make the Champions League. You get a nice windfall from the effort. But Man City want that dude. They pay 90 million euros. You invest that in the next wonderkid from Brazil. The cycle continues.
Now if you are at all familiar with soccer, you know that this model has its own problems. From state-owned clubs, to multi-club ownership, to some of the older clubs wanting a Super League to the exploitation of some kids who are getting signed too young and discarded when they don’t pan out to be that great. It’s all still a little better than it is now when like, Tulsa’s players aren’t getting paid what they say they were promised. A team is being reconstructed yearly, and fans are being asked to fund everything from the stadium renovations to the coach’s buyout to the offensive lineman who is happy to take the check and bounce.
The whole endeavor is built on some irrational love for the game, but even that irrationality has its financial limits.
MGN has had to work a ton this week. There were OT hours, but since MGN is on salary, it was all just effort with no recompense. So it goes. I will now raid the home bar and get ready for the rec league championship game tonight. Go to go out a winner, y’all.
GMG