Today's Tidbit... Amateurism and College Football

(Walter Camp, Wiki Commons)

NIL and the transfer portal are transforming college football, and it sucks. I prefer cheering for players who develop, become starters, and star at the same college they enrolled in coming out of high school. However, while I may not like some aspects of where college football is going, it has never been fair for schools, coaches, administrators, bowl officials, and the media to make money from college football while denying players the same. Players should have the right to make money in a free market and change "jobs" whenever it suits them, just like non-athletes. Just like you.

Others have made money from college athletes since the game began. Walter Camp, the father of football, was an ardent proponent of amateurism through a career in which he profited from his "children." Camp made his money running a family business but enjoyed and profited from many football-related side gigs as a writer, coach, advisor, and supervisor of the Yale athletic association.