College Sports are Cooked

Greed ruined a sports that I used to love

If you have any knowledge about college football, you were probably aware of the Nico Iamaleava situation.

A few days ago, there were rumors going on about how Nico Iamaleava and Tennessee were having issue on agreeing to an NIL deal. Iamaleava and his team were demanding $4 MILLION DOLLARS IN NIL FROM TENNESSEE!!! This was despite having average stats last year(63.8% completion percentage, 2616 yards, 19 touchdowns, 5 interceptions).

Then came the actual drama. When Tennessee coach Josh Heupel was trying to run his practice, he was trying to find Iamaleava. However, like a ghost, he magically disappeared. POOF! He was NOWHERE to be seen!!!

Heupel was FURIOUS. To the media, he said, “THAT FRAUD LOSER CAN GET OFF MY TEAM RIGHT NOW!!!”"

Just like that, Iamaleava lost his starting job. GREED was his downfall. He now needed to find a different school to step in.

Luckily, home was calling. The California native had a place to go.

NICO IAMALEAVA, YOU ARE A BRUIN.

WOW. In a span of a few days, Nico Iamaleava went from the starting QB of a SEC contender to the starting QB of a mediocre at best Big 10 team!!! He also only got $650K from UCLA. CONGRATULATIONS!!! WHAT AN UPGRADE!!!

What’s even more HILARIOUS are the explanations his camp made for this move. Like the tEnNeSeE oFfEnSe nOt bEiNg pRo rEaDy. We all laughed at that. We knew why he left. It was DUE TO THE MONEY, DOOFUS.

I’ve felt this way since January 12, 2024. That was the day when Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer(aka DeSnake) left for Alabama. During UW’s magical 2023 season, he constantly talked about loyalty and respect. However, when he saw the green dollar bills and media prominence that Alabama would give him, he BOLTED OUT at the first opportunity!!! WHAT A COWARD!!!

As a huge college sports enjoyer, this sucks to see. Over my 4 years at UW, I have gone to hundreds of sports games that involve many different sports!!! I would definitely say that my last year of watching college football wasn’t as fun as it used to be. It felt like I didn’t know half of the roster. And I knew what was going to happen after the year: lots of transfers and departures. I honestly just went for the social memories.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the Pac-12 got DESTROYED in August 2023. I hated the move from the beginning. The Pac-12 was my childhood. I love the rivalries. I loved HATING on Wazzu. And the local feel. I had 3 loyalties: UCLA, Stanford, and UW. It made games so fun to go to. THEY TOOK THAT AWAY FROM US.

Now, the Huskies are in the CRAPPY Big 10. It is a gigantic conglomeration of teams from across the country that aren’t good enough to be in the SEC. There are some cool moments, like the new UW-Michigan rivalry. However, it mostly SUCKS. NOBODY, and I mean NOBODY cares about UW playing Rutgers. For the athletes(especially in small sports), the travel is HORRIBLE.

So, how can we solve this problem? Idk. It will be tough. It will DEFINITELY get worse before it gets better.

All we know is that we can’t go back to the good old days. That caused the NCAA to get TONS of lawsuits for exploiting players due to lack of freedom. Every time they try to get any regulation, they get sued.

And I’m ALL FOR players getting paid. They put in a ton of hard work both on and off the field. I have talked to a ton of student athletes in many different sports. They are great people and deserve some of the pot that the university gets.

However, the current method DOES NOT WORK. There is ZERO, and I mean ZERO regulation.There is tons of tampering that goes on between players and teams. Fans have no idea on exact NIL amounts. Players will transfer, then transfer again, then transfer again!!! I ask, HOW DOES THIS BENEFIT ANYONE?

It does not. Coaches can’t recruit to let players develop. Players have people with bad advice getting in their ear. Fans are tired of the constant roster turnover. The only people who really win are the ones at the top.

Honestly, my last-ditch attempt to save this sport from utter CALAMITY are contracts for players. This should work for both sides, hopefully. Players get paid for a set amount, and teams will ACTUALLY know how long a player will commit to them. It won’t be perfect for fans, but definitely better than the current free for all.

I don’t even know if that works. I don’t even know if I like that system. It feels like college football, like everything in life is moving to a soulless, money sucking corporation. You can see this with how things are moving to AI. There is no reward for loyalty and sticking through hardship. It’s all about dollar bills. I hate it here.

As much as I love college sports, I don’t think I’m gonna be following that intensely after college. At least with the big ones like college football and basketball. Everything I loved about them is gone.

At least, I got to see the last of the good times. And like always, thank you to everyone who read this article.