In Reply to: Link posted by Dr.Bruin on April 23, 2025 at 13:34:15
floating around in the NIL war chest. They just keep going after these big money transfers as if they have no bottom to their budget. Illinois seems to also have huge funds available. No one seems to know how much money is out there. No one seems to know where the money is coming from in some cases.
Universities don't seem to be too interested in disclosing information, transparency of any sort, or how any of this may impact on their academic mission, mandate, purpose, or obligation. Donors seem to be focused solely on athletic glory for old "BIG TECH U" with little or no regard for the basis of these teams. Perhaps it's old fashion of me or quaintly anachronistic to think that a university's teams should reflect in some way the institute of higher learning they represent.
Right now to me college D1 football and basketball looks more like Wall Street rather than a collection of institutions of higher learning where profit is the sole measure of purpose and where often things like ethics, morals, and purity of purpose take a distant back seat. More and more to me college D1 football and basketball is taking on the increasing appearance of a Faustian deal that I fear will drive football and basketball into unrecognizable territory and become just another financial venture where the big money wins and everyone is left to dig for the scraps until all the "also-rans" die off and go somewhere else.
Perhaps all of this is doing us a favor. Big time college sports has always had an aspect of the "have nots" trying to compete against the "haves." At least every now and then one of the "Davids" rose up and contested the "Goliaths" and sometimes even won. Or someone doing things the right way challenged the powers that be for the elusive crown. Maybe that's going to still be possible in this new world order, but to me it seems less likely. But right now, with what's going on with transfers and NIL money, the lid of hypocrisy has been blown away and the veneer has been removed and we see exactly, as we have always known, what really has been going on. I fear this path we are now taking. I don't think we are going to end up in comforting place - at least for me.