Between The Eers: The NCAA Strikes Again
Between The Eers: The NCAA Strikes Again
Transcript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:10 All right, y'all, I hate to do it to you, but it's rant Friday here again on
00:14 Between the Ears.
00:15 I'm Skylar Callahan with Mountaineers Now on SI Fan Nation.
00:19 And look, I typically try to keep these West Virginia centric as much as I can.
00:26 But sometimes I just can't help myself.
00:28 I get ticked off about something and maybe I shouldn't say ticked off today.
00:34 I don't think that's really the right wording.
00:36 It's probably more so just bother.
00:38 And that is the NCAA once again just finding new ways to be idiotic.
00:46 Yesterday, which we kind of already knew this back in the fall, but
00:50 there was an added on piece to this.
00:52 So yesterday, Andrew Ivins of 247 Sports, he tweeted out the following.
00:59 Photo shoots not the only thing gone from recruiting visits.
01:03 NCAA blasted out an email this morning saying schools can no longer decorate
01:08 prospects hotel rooms on official visits.
01:12 All cookie cakes and snacks must be handed to recruits in the lobby,
01:17 inching closer to top 30 visits, which is what the NFL does prior to the draft.
01:22 [COUGH] Just let that soak in for a minute, okay?
01:29 Just let it soak.
01:30 [BLANK_AUDIO]
01:35 No more cookie cakes.
01:36 No more pictures with jerseys and uniforms.
01:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]
01:44 No more decorated hotel rooms.
01:47 I mean, what the hell are we doing?
01:51 This is what we're worried about?
01:53 Come on, there's a lot of other issues at stake here that are a little bit
02:00 more important than worrying about whether or not a kid gets convinced
02:05 to go to a school because he received a beautiful decorated cookie cake.
02:09 Come on.
02:12 I mean, gosh almighty, we've got tampering, we've got transfer portal issues,
02:18 we've got NIL issues, we've got eligibility issues.
02:23 You want me to keep going?
02:24 Or do we wanna worry about what the hell a kid gets to eat while he's at his visit?
02:29 I mean, this is mind blowing.
02:33 I mean, you think you've seen it all from the NCAA.
02:38 And then they just say, just wait a second, we'll top that.
02:43 I don't get it, man.
02:45 I just, the NCAA is almost like they're trying to force themselves
02:52 into a situation where, and I don't know why.
02:56 It's like self-sabotage for some reason where they don't wanna be affiliated
02:59 with all of these schools and they just want something different.
03:05 Because at the end of the day, here in two or three years, I would be shocked
03:13 if all 134 FBS programs plus those at the FCS level,
03:18 if they're gonna stay with the NCAA.
03:21 We've already heard the rumblings in years past about kind of there being
03:25 a little bit of divide and then we get the conference realignment going on,
03:30 the TV situation the way it is.
03:32 It just doesn't feel like staying in a marriage with the NCAA makes much sense.
03:39 Never really did in the first place.
03:43 But there has to be a governing body to fill its place.
03:48 Obviously, you can't just go this thing and do it willy nilly.
03:51 You gotta have some sort of rules set in place.
03:54 But it's gotta be some people that know what the hell they're talking about and
03:59 actually know what matters.
04:02 I mean, seriously, we're getting down to this, right?
04:07 We're getting down to cookie cakes and photo shoots.
04:11 What the hell does that have to do with the kids decision?
04:14 Seriously.
04:18 But there's kids out there that go to these visits,
04:22 they get offered legit hard cold cash.
04:25 And that gets just thrown under the rug.
04:30 But we're talking about freaking desserts and pictures.
04:34 This is the issue with the NCAA.
04:39 They don't care about the things they should care about.
04:43 There's so many things wrong with this sport and with all of college athletics.
04:51 And really, it's throughout every sport when you're talking the transfer portal,
04:55 the NIL, eligibility concerns, all that stuff.
04:59 It's football, basketball, baseball, everything.
05:01 It's not just football.
05:03 It's where most of the conversation is because it's the biggest revenue driver,
05:07 but it's every sport.
05:09 But we're worried about the dumb stuff.
05:14 This is why the NCAA should not be governing college athletics.
05:22 Get some people in here that know what the hell they're doing,
05:26 know what the hell they're talking about.
05:29 Know what actually matters, what the real legit problems are.
05:35 And fix that, take care of that.
05:37 Not worry about what a kid gets at his recruiting visit unless it's a cash offer.
05:44 If that happens, yeah, that's an issue.
05:49 We can't be having that, okay?
05:52 But I'm pretty sure when a kid goes on an unofficial visit or
05:56 official visit or whatever, they're getting photo shoots everywhere.
06:00 They're getting cookie cakes everywhere.
06:02 They're getting desserts everywhere.
06:04 It's nothing different than anywhere else.
06:08 West Virginia is not doing anything different than Cincinnati or Pitt.
06:12 Virginia Tech, Texas, Alabama, they're all doing the same thing.
06:17 So how is one cookie cake, how is one dessert, how is one photo shoot going to
06:23 differentiate itself from another to say, you know what?
06:26 That was a really good dessert.
06:29 That was an awesome photo shoot.
06:30 I really liked how I looked in those pictures, and
06:32 I think that's where I'm gonna go.
06:34 No, not at all.
06:39 What matters is the NIL, the transfer portal.
06:46 Figure it out, because right now this is the wild, wild west.
06:50 Coaches are up and leaving college jobs, left and right.
06:54 They're going to the NFL, cuz they don't wanna deal with this crap.
06:57 And frankly, I don't blame them.
06:59 Why do you wanna deal with all this stuff?
07:02 You're dealing in an era with kids now that they just don't care about anything
07:08 about the game, for the most part.
07:12 There's some kids out there that do.
07:13 But there's a lot of kids that just,
07:15 that's all they're focused about is the damn money.
07:19 And guess what?
07:22 That money's gonna run out at the end of the year.
07:25 Most of these NIL deals are one year things,
07:27 especially because of the transfer portal.
07:30 You can't give a kid a four year NIL deal, you'll get burned.
07:33 So that money's gonna run out in a year.
07:37 If you stay there and you have four NIL deals over four years,
07:42 it's gonna run out.
07:43 It's not a lifetime thing.
07:46 It's not the NFL where you're making $30 million over four years.
07:51 It's about being in the right position to get yourself enough tape for
07:59 the NFL scouts, so that way you can make that kind of money long term.
08:05 They fail to realize that.
08:09 I don't know, I mean, you would think at some point they'd look at all these
08:12 transfer numbers and see how many of them don't play at the next spot.
08:16 Or think they're gonna start somewhere else and they end up not doing it.
08:20 You see all these numbers and all these percentages,
08:22 you would think at some point, maybe they'd get a hang of it.
08:26 But they probably won't.
08:29 They're kids.
08:30 When they're making these decisions, they're 16, 17,
08:34 18 years old for the most part.
08:36 They don't understand.
08:38 That's why that's the stuff that matters.
08:43 You've gotta figure out how to construct
08:48 a scenario where NIL and transfer portal is not
08:56 as much of an issue as it is right now.
08:59 You've gotta find a way to put some parameters around this thing,
09:03 whether it's a salary cap of some sorts, which is what the NFL doesn't look.
09:09 If you're wanting to go to an NFL model,
09:11 which is seemingly what we're trending towards, you gotta have a salary cap.
09:15 You can't just have one school being out there able to throw as much money as
09:20 possible while somebody else in the conference,
09:24 within that conference, is scrounging for change.
09:28 Look at in the couch for pennies.
09:30 You can't have it.
09:32 There's gonna be no parity in college football.
09:37 And you could say that that's been the case for years.
09:40 And honestly, it's probably been like that.
09:43 And it's gonna probably be like what we've seen, where there's the schools,
09:48 like the Ohio States and Michigans and
09:49 Alabamas that just consistently stay at the top because of who they are and
09:53 their brand.
09:55 But it's gonna make that more concentrated.
09:58 Or it's gonna give the schools that maybe didn't have that opportunity before but
10:02 have deep pockets, they're gonna throw themselves in that mix.
10:06 And everybody else that may have had really good success long term,
10:10 they're gonna struggle now if they don't have that type of money.
10:13 That's the issue.
10:16 Again, we're worried about the wrong things.
10:24 But it's not surprising that the NCAA is worried about,
10:28 [BLANK_AUDIO]
10:31 I can't even believe I'm saying this.
10:33 Worried about whether or not one of the recruiting coordinators at
10:39 West Virginia is running down to Kroger to pick up a cookie cake.
10:44 And put it in the hotel room along with a couple of pictures and
10:48 posters and key chains at the hotel room.
10:53 That's what they're worried about, folks.
10:57 So, I mean, let's just be honest here.
11:00 If you think they're gonna start taking this stuff seriously and
11:04 get the actual legitimate issues corrected, it wouldn't hold your breath.
11:09 And until the NCAA removes itself from the picture or
11:14 the schools remove themselves from the NCAA, it's just gonna continue.
11:19 More dumb stuff is gonna keep happening.
11:21 Nothing is gonna get solved.
11:23 And it's just gonna be a constant circle where nothing gets fixed.
11:30 [MUSIC]
11:32 That'll do it for me here today.
11:34 On between the ears, you can hit that subscribe button on YouTube at
11:37 Mountain Ears now.
11:39 Give us a like and a follow on X at the same handle.
11:43 And speaking of cookie cakes, now I'm kinda hungry.
11:46 I might go get myself one.
11:48 So we'll see you back here tomorrow for the post game show.
11:51 West Virginia, Iowa State, tip it off at 2 o'clock.
11:54 And we'll have that one for you here on Mountain Ears now.
11:58 We'll see you guys then.
11:59 [MUSIC]