Column: College administrators, in the wake of the Iamaleava debacle; show courage and act before it’s too late

Let’s hope the Iamaleava-Tennessee situation is a wake up call/turning point for the colleges. Get your act together and find some leaders.

It’s your own fault. Your greed and desire to win led you down this path.

Here’s a simple approach. A high school athlete’s worth to any college program should be a scholarship and all that comes with that. That should be all the school is responsible for. No collectives. No negotiators. Just cut and dry.

That also makes it an even playing field when it comes to recruiting. Athletes can do their NIL thing on their own with absolutely no assistance from schools who would face harsh punishment if the rule is broken. That covers the legal angle.

College athletics is not the place for negotiating mega-million dollar deals with the athletes. That’s for the next level, and if a high school player wants to skip college and go pro, they should have that opportunity.

And don’t come back at me with, “Well, what about the coaches, they make millions.” Successful coaches have paid the price over years to reach the point to where they make millions. They just didn’t walk out of high school and cash in on the system like the athletes are trying to do.

Are coaches overpaid in some cases? Sure, but that’s an argument for another day.

Right now, university presidents, ADs, conference commissioners and NCAA leadership need to bow up and take their sports back from agents and NIL attorneys.

If not, Saturday’s developments at Tennessee will be the new model for college athletics, and who wants that?

One more thought on this topic as it pertains to the argument that coaches get paid big money so the players should as well….using Clemson coach Dabo Swinney as an example,

It took Swinney eight seasons as head coach to reach $4M in salary, and the Iamaleava crowd believes the QB is worth that after one season as a starter?

At least these coaches worked their way up through the system and proved themselves. Throwing around millions of dollars to unproven high school players, or a college QB with one average season under his belt, is just plain stupid.

I write this while understanding the House Settlement will force schools to pay players directly from the $20.5M budgeted for that. It’s the competition with the outside NIL influences I’m referring to that needs to be addressed by leadership.