So star wide receiver Jordan Addison is most likely going to leave Pitt.
You know this by now. He’s apparently on his way to the highest bidder.
There are rumors of millions.
There is gossip about a plush place to live.
There is blather and chatter about USC.
Or is it Alabama?
Or is Texas going to place the highest bid on the Biletnikoff winner?
Or maybe there is a darkhorse we don’t know about?
Who in the hell knows when it comes to all of this stuff. All we really know is he’s in the transfer portal and it appears to be the longest of longshots that he will play any more snaps of football for Pitt.
Who didn’t know all this Name, Image Likeness legislation (and I use “legislation” loosely) would come to this? It was so simple to see when it was implemented that it would propagate into a big star commanding big money and hitting the open market.
Then it all turns into college football free agency without a salary cap.
Here we are with Addison.
And it was all so easy to predict. It was always going to come to this with someone because the rules and regulations couldn’t be written faster than the players stayed ahead of them.
Now let me get something straight: I don’t blame Addison. Go get yours. In this country, if someone is willing to pay you for a perfectly legal good or service, I’m all for maximizing profits in almost all cases. And this is a case where Addison’s NIL is the good and the service rolled into one. We also know, for sure, suitors are willing to pay for it.
That said --- go get yours.
Getting paid as much as you can as a college football player has my full stamp of approval.
Especially in a college football world that for too long has been rife with coaches making millions on the backs of kids who never saw an adequate trickle down.
For too long, they provided the labor and never were compensated commensurate with the coaches.
But there is the dirty little secret in all of this --- and I get a chuckle when people start to scream about tampering. You know, the assertion that other schools contacted Addison before he was properly released into the transfer portal.
That very well might have happened. Heck, I would bet it did.
Here’s your dirty little secret I’ve been told by many on the inside: No one wants to tell on anyone else. More so, no one will tell on anyone else when it comes to tellin’ on people time.
Yep. It is that simple. People might bellow and holler publicly, but no one will file the paperwork to bring the NCAA charges of true tampering when the time comes.
Know why? Because so many schools are doing it the same.
Just about every school is contacting, or using an intermediary to contact, players before they officially hit the portal.
It goes like this: School A hears that a player at School B is unhappy so School A --- before there is any movement into the portal --- uses an intermediary to gauge interest on if the player in question would like to come to their school.
Sometimes the go-between contacts the kid directly, sometimes the parents of the player, sometimes an old high school coach or family acquaintance.
But the blueprint is all the same. And so many schools are involved in this race to have things lined up before the portal filing becomes official.
So that’s why everyone needs to be careful with all the finger-pointing. That’s why every Power 5 football playing school, while they can raise an eyebrow, is really apprehensive about hammering another school.
They don’t want to shout too loud (and in this case file the paperwork) because the last thing they want is the NCAA knocking on their door and finding out how they got transfers to come into their program.
It is a secret society. It is an incredible example of an old boys’ network. Oh, it is happened.
It is the Wild West in the world of college football transfers right now. And I’m not seeing how it will change much anytime soon.