Here’s hoping UCF extensive receiver Ryan O’Keefe finds what he’s on the lookout for within the switch portal, will get an enormous free-agent provide from some made-of-money NIL collective at a storied program, turns into a star yet again and will get drafted into the NFL.
Here’s hoping he doesn’t find yourself like his former teammate Jaylon Robinson, one other former UCF star extensive receiver who entered the switch portal final offseason, presumably obtained a modest NIL deal from Ole Miss, spent many of the season as an injury-plagued benchwarmer and ended his senior yr with 5 catches for 29 yards.
Moral of the story: Sometimes the grass appears to be like greener on the opposite aspect of the fence solely as a result of it’s rising over the septic tank.
And everyone knows what’s contained in the septic tank.
With O’Keefe and greater than a thousand different faculty soccer gamers getting into the switch portal when it opened on Monday, allow us to first acknowledge that these gamers are doing nothing incorrect if they’re using the pine on their present group and are merely on the lookout for a contemporary begin and a chance to play elsewhere. And if they’re stars on their present groups, they’re actually doing nothing incorrect if they’ve been provided six- or seven-figure NIL offers to play elsewhere.
After all, who wouldn’t need to go away faculty with a pleasant $500,000 or $1 million nest egg within the financial institution? Even if these gamers by no means play a down within the NFL, that’s more cash than most of us will ever have within the financial institution at one time throughout our lifetimes.
I simply hope these established star gamers at up-and-coming packages like UCF aren’t leaving as a result of some NIL booster collective at a much bigger, richer faculty is providing them $30,000 or another comparatively small signing bonus. By the time you pay taxes and provides your agent a fee, what do you actually find yourself with?
I don’t know what kind of NIL provide Jaylon Robinson obtained from Ole Miss, however I’m guessing it wasn’t price it. At UCF, he was an absolute star with “NFL” written throughout him, however after one terrible season at Ole Miss he now has no shot on the NFL Draft. There’s no different method of placing it besides to say Robinson was a powerful switch portal bust.
As you’ll be able to inform, I’m struggling a bit with unrestricted free company in faculty sports activities. I acknowledge student-athletes ought to be capable of enter the portal and switch wherever they need for as a lot cash as they’ll make. But it doesn’t imply it’s good for the long-term well being of the game or the long-term well-being of the athletes themselves.
Think about this: More than half of the gamers who enter the switch portal will not be provided a scholarship by one other faculty. Last yr, in accordance with Sports Illustrated author Richard Johnson, 3,085 faculty soccer gamers entered the portal and solely 866 (28%) discovered a touchdown spot. Moreover, not even 1% of faculty soccer and basketball gamers will ever get a sniff of the NFL or the NBA.
And, so, doesn’t it stand to motive that the overwhelming majority of faculty athletes can be higher off sticking it out, maintaining the assured scholarship at their present faculty, re-dedicating themselves athletically and – don’t snigger – specializing in teachers and getting a school diploma?
I hate to sound like an outdated fart, however wasn’t the true mission of faculty athletics alleged to be to provide youngsters — lots of whom wouldn’t in any other case have the sources — a chance to get an training, a school diploma and find yourself with an honest job?
I am going again to a dialog I had just a few months in the past with UCF athletics director Terry Mohajir, who has publicly assured a job or graduate-school placement for each student-athlete who will get his diploma from UCF. Mohajir was passionately perturbed that the worth of an training has been misplaced within the NIL world we stay in right now.
“We have to continue to keep our student-athletes and their education at the top of mind,” Mohajir informed me. “But after I say one thing like that, all people says that’s a bunch of athletic-director B.S. Well, it’s not B.S.; it’s why many people obtained into this enterprise. Somehow, we’ve allowed training to be devalued in faculty sports activities. We’ve allowed the media to devalue it. We’ve allowed the trial attorneys to devalue it. We’ve allowed our nationwide leaders to NOT speak almost sufficient about it.
“Besides the G.I. Bill, there has never been a scholarship program to help the youth of America change their family’s circumstances more than intercollegiate athletics. We don’t talk enough about how much good comes from college sports.”
Forget the media, the trial attorneys and the politicians, aren’t the athletes themselves (and their households) devaluing training once they bounce from faculty to highschool to highschool for just a few thousand {dollars}? Do you notice that just about one-third of faculty basketball gamers are on their third faculty? And what about West Virginia quarterback JT Daniels, who simply entered the switch portal and is on the lookout for his fourth faculty? Hell, it’s arduous sufficient to graduate from one faculty, not to mention attempting to switch credit and begin a brand new curriculum two, three and even 4 occasions.
Once once more, I need to want good luck to Ryan O’Keefe and the a whole bunch and a whole bunch of different faculty soccer gamers who entered the switch portal this week.
Just bear in mind, there’s a motive the grass all the time appears greener on the opposite aspect of the fence.
Many occasions, it’s as a result of that grass has been fertilized with a bunch of horse manure.
Email me at [email protected]. Hit me up on Twitter @BianchiWrites and hearken to my Open Mike radio present each weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2
()
Source: www.bostonherald.com