I guess this is the newest trend now. First, we got the transfer portal, which is totally unregulated free agency. Then came NIL, which took the free agency dealio to super steroid level. Next, the courts ruled that Universities/Athletic Departments had to set money aside to pay the athletes. I’ve seen some earmarking as much as $22 million. Folks, this is all in the span of a 3-4 year period.
I’m hearing now about the starting QB at UNLV, Matt Sluka, “opting out” of the rest of the year. He transferred in from Holy Cross and has led the Rebels to a 3-0 record. But now, he says he was verbally promised $100K to transfer, but the UNLV collective hasn’t delivered. All UNLV parties deny it. But Sluka is done. Today, I read about Bear Alexander, who was a 5* D-lineman that signed with FUGA, but transferred to USC. He starts twatting things like “Free90”, and the guy purported to be his father, is also twatting that Bear is opting out because, the plan was for him to be a full time starter, but Bear has only played about a third of the snaps on defense. So, Bear is shutting it down, and done for the season.
The key here is quitting before they play in another game, so they can “redshirt” and not lose a year of eligibility. You can put the Chicken Little title on me, but I’ll repeat my stance, that college football is on it’s way out. Maybe it survives because of the untold billions that flow through the sport. That’s why the NFL, despite losing record amounts of revenue and fans after the whole kneeling issue, looked at it as a blip on the screen. Too big to really put a dent in that monster. What we are about to see in college football are collective bargaining agreements, players unions, lockouts, protests, walkouts etc. It’s coming, much sooner than later, and any perceived remaining purity of such a tradition rich sport, will be gone forever.
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