Is the Portal out of control?

[peanuts104]

2 hours ago, meaniegreenie said:

And I'm putting their families in the group as well.

Last year was the final straw when I responded to tweets by several family members during the BB season (after doing the same thing the previous year for a certain player who will remain nameless here).

They'd be cheering on the MG team (via accounts related to their specific player) and many of us would give positive responses of support, appreciate, and encouragement.  Then at the end of the season, so many of these same players left after the team had a decent season with a first year coach and many players available to return.

I don't know if I felt betrayed or simply realized that all of their posting was simply temporary (fake) support for whatever school their kid was playing for.  The name on the front of the uniform really didn't matter and they had NO pride in obtaining a UNT diploma.  Of course some amount of relocation should be expected, but nowadays, it seems like it's become the norm and not the rare occurrence. 

This whole thing kinda reminds me of something I saw growing up as a coach's kid in a small town.  I was the typical gym rat and on Monday's the Jr High games would be played and I'd hang out and watch the games after our practice was done. 

Inevitably, EVERY year I'd see the same funny thing.  Some family (that I knew) and that likely went to the HS games would now attend Jr Hi games as well because their kid was playing. Every year, they'd comment on how nobody was there.  I'd simply think to myself, it's the same size crowd as every year, but it's now your turn to be the only ones here.  Sure enough, after 2 years, they'd be back to only HS games (unless they had another kid coming along in JH).  Again, it's a different situation, but it does remind me of the same temporary support.

F*ck em. If they won't support us then f*ck em. Simple as that.

[NT80]

1 hour ago, DentonStang said:

Come on man, it was no different before. A player at school X usually could not care less about X until they signed to play there.  A lot of students didn't care about X until they enrolled, too.  And when they didn't like the classes/social scene/town/it was too hard/etc they cared about school Y they moved to not school X anymore. 

 

No.  players before the Big Buy were more likely to stay with a program as long as they saw rewards of playing time eventually. 

The past transfer penalty to sit-out a year kept players at a school and on the team longer....long enough to bond with the school, other players, get girlfriends....it then became more like a home to them.  They stayed.   

Now?  it's all about "how much"?  Not even about playing time or academics or part of the country.  

[TheColonyEagle]

So it got me thinkin'......

 

Will we ever have another Mean Green Hall of Famer football player from this era? Will we have one post...I don't know, the Littrell era?

 

[meaniegreenie]

17 hours ago, DentonStang said:

Come on man, it was no different before. A player at school X usually could not care less about X until they signed to play there.  A lot of students didn't care about X until they enrolled, too.  And when they didn't like the classes/social scene/town/it was too hard/etc they cared about school Y they moved to not school X anymore. 

 

That's why as much as I hate NIL, I hate TP even more.  The powerless NCAA had already started letting the big schools skirt the rules by letting certain players get waivers, etc.  Once the portal opened, it got worse.

There's a simple concept that's been destroyed in all of this: commitment, something that's supposed to be a part of obtaining a college degree.

And it's not fully on the players.  The schools are equally to blame.  Once they were no longer forced to maintain a 4 year commitment to someone that was supposed to be recruited to become a student at the UNIVERSITY, not just a player on the football team, they became part of the problem.

[NT93]

3 hours ago, TheColonyEagle said:

So it got me thinkin'......

 

Will we ever have another Mean Green Hall of Famer football player from this era? Will we have one post...I don't know, the Littrell era?

 

I don’t think we’ll ever see another deserving player.  They may lower the standards to get in just to fill a class, but I don’t think there will be anyone that we, as fans, agree should be in.

I think this is pretty much true for all college and professional sports.  There will be exceptions, but generally I don’t think most players will stick around long enough to be considered HOF worthy.