DALLAS — Remember when college athletes couldn’t wait to turn pro so they could buy their mama a house and feed their babies and stop faking that they were going to class?
These days football players are staying in school until the money runs out, just like your kids do.
Only joking, of course. Not every football player will take advantage of a loophole and a lawsuit that affords them another year of eligibility even after they’ve turned pro.
Meanwhile, you’re on the hook for your kids in perpetuity.
Maybe you heard that at least three rookies waived by NFL teams are on their way to Baton Rouge, La. These players and others are allowed to relive at least one year of their youth because of yet another NCAA screw-up, which pretty much goes without saying these days.
People are also reading…
The shorthand version goes like this: The NCAA was trying to fix the problem of the proverbial athlete hanging on too long, thus, as Arkansas' John Calipari described him, “using NIL for his first wife’s alimony.” The NCAA figured it had solved it with a regulation that gives athletes five years to play five years, and that’s it. No more petitions gumming up mailboxes.
Only they didn’t grandfather in the Class of 2022 as it was going out the door. Naturally, someone sued.
Next thing you know, as ESPN’s Dan Wetzel put it, cut day is the new national signing day.
The Big Ten and SEC announced league rules Tuesday that would prevent pros from turning college, so to speak. ACC officials have reportedly discussed it. Good luck with that. Sonny Dykes of TCU applauded the leadership but also called his profession a “rudderless ship.” Ohio State’s Ryan Day is on record that he’s not for pros coming back to campus, but he doesn’t want to be left at a competitive disadvantage, either.
A coaching culture primer: Coaches want to do the right thing as much as anyone else, just as long as the right thing is spelled out in words even Lane Kiffin can understand.
In an appearance on The Pat McAfee show Tuesday, the LSU coach accused his peers of hypocrisy over the signing of Dae’Quan Wright, a second-team All-SEC tight end who played for him at Ole Miss.
“Whoever the first player committed to was going to be the poster child,” Kiffin told McAfee. “There’s all kind of schools that recruited him. Ask Drew Rosenhaus, his agent. There were schools that offered him a lot to come there, including in this conference, and including his previous school. But he chose us.
“I said, 'Get ready, guys. This is going to be Lane Kiffin and LSU are doing something nobody else is doing.'"
Look, I’ve got nothing personal against Kiffin. Once wrote a column that Texas A&M should have hired him instead of trying to find the “right fit,” whatever that is. Hard enough just hiring a good coach without unnecessarily winnowing the field. Mike Elko seems like a perfectly good hire, but the Aggies will never find another R.C. Slocum, if that’s their ideal.
Speaking of which: Love the statue that’ll be dedicated next month to one of A&M’s all-time greats, even if it looks like he’s reading the menu at Whataburger.
Anyway, nothing is quite as disingenuous as Kiffin, the Hannibal Lecter of college football, playing the martyr. After all these years wandering the football wilderness, he’s finally found a home in a state where even the governor calls out the state’s flagship program if it’s not up to snuff.
Having said all that, Kiffin’s right. Many of his peers only wish they had the same audacity. In fact, if it were me, and I was taking this abuse, I wouldn’t stop at a former NFL tight end and a couple of its washed-out defensive tackles.
Fernando Mendoza is also from the Class of '22, as it turns out. Redshirted his first year at Cal, played three years, then transferred to Indiana, where he won the Heisman and a national title.
Las Vegas made him the first pick of the draft and signed him to a $57 million deal, then put him up against Kirk Cousins for the starting job. Last I checked, no starter had been named, and that’s Kiffin’s in.
What if he shows up at a Raiders practice this week and says he’s just looking? Granted, he might have a little trouble getting in. Todd Monken, the Browns' coach, claims he didn’t return his calls a couple weeks ago when Kiffin apparently checked up on Wright. Kiffin denies making any calls. I would, too. He’s probably on some kind of “Ten Most Wanted” list as it is.
Even if you gotta try, you figure Mendoza wouldn’t be interested. He’d have to pay back all that money, for one thing. Curt Cignetti would never forgive him, either.
Unless the Hoosiers ...
Nah, he’s got Josh Hoover now. Cignetti’s happy with him, right? Until they lose at home to Ohio State, that is.
Chances are none of the pros who go back for another college try will be difference-makers on Mendoza’s level, and that’s probably for the best. Let’s hope the returnees make the most of it. At least get it out of their systems. As it is, a half-century after the fact, I still have dreams that I’m back in college taking a test for which I have no answers. In extreme cases, no clothes, either.
____
