PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – It’s as if we were listening to the future Saturday afternoon at Acrisure Stadium. ESPN host and former Pitt player Louis Riddick was laying out before the Blue Gold Spring Game what we are seeing come to life, not just for Pitt, but for many schools in the last couple of days.
Riddick said NIL and the transfer portal have completely changed the game. That’s not ground breaking, but he said you will see when the window opens again, which it has, players bolting that you never even knew were looking.
“You could go into the summer thinking I got a squad,” Riddick said. “We are set. The next thing you know seven-eight starters are gone. You didn’t even know those kids were talking to anybody. They could be on their phone, behind your back, being recruited by another program.”
“Is that really how we want it? The NFL isn’t even like that.”
The problem is it’s only getting worse. There is no solution and no laws, no conscience for anyone but yourself, not matter how it hurts the game.
“It truly is the wild, wild west out there,” Riddick said. “It’s going to be about as crazy as you could possibly imagine, plus some. There are going to be some teams that feel like they are set coming into the Fall and they are going to get blown out of the water, because their team is going to change.”
Estimates from 247 Sports that over 250 college football players have entered the transfer portal so far this month and the number grows hourly. Pitt lost a potential all-conference defensive lineman, a potential impact linebacker and a quarterback who started five games.
It’s noticeable here, but it’s happening everywhere.
Local teams and national powers, players lost to portal this offseason
Pitt-14 players
Penn State-8 players
West Virginia-20 players
Alabama-29 players
Georgia-23 players
USC-25 players
Colorado-26 players
Riddick said in order to compete with the super-teams that are being formulated, and he estimates it’s between 10-15 teams, you have to match their huge resources. If you can’t match these monster NIL budgets, while also having facilities to prepare and pamper players, there is going to be a division in terms of reasonable expectations. Riddick isn’t just hearing about it, he’s seen it.
“I’ve been around the country,” Riddick said. “I’ve seen how some of these programs are operated. It’s amazing.
It’s amazing what some of these schools have at their disposal. It puts many NFL teams to shame. Some of these teams have multiple donors and people who could own NFL teams themselves.
They are heavily involved in the recruitment and procurement of players.”
“I don’t know how that is good for college football. I don’t know how that is sustainable.”
“I hope there will be some really smart people that will be able to get together and make some sense of this situation. There is no limit and not everybody is operating with the same about of resources. I don’t know how that is good for anyone.”
It’s not.