The optics are admittedly bad. They’re really bad.
Last week we all watched a player participate in warmups for an actual NFL preseason game on Saturday. Less than 24 hours later that same player committed to play for LSU with the season opener less than two weeks away.
That’s silly. It’s all silly. That’s kind of the best word to describe what college football has become though. That, and stupid. Sadly though, it’s where we are in the current landscape of the sport. None of this is what fans want. None of this is what college coaches want. Regardless of the feelings involved in either of those things though, allowing these players to play under the current rules is still the right choice.
Remove the onslaught of angry outbursts and trojan horse triggers that accompany this argument. Some have said that if any other coach besides Lane Kiffin was involved it wouldn’t be as big of a deal. Wrong. It would be a big deal if it were any coach because the optics are universally stupid and not specifically egregious because LSU is involved. There have also been plenty of people who think Greg Sankey got shoved in a locker by not standing strong in his decision. That’s also dumb. This legal game of chicken between all parties involved isn’t over yet, and the end result will go beyond the SEC’s decision to obey the court order.
There’s still one argument that seems to be lost on almost everyone though. And, it requires a really big “hear me out.” So, hear me out.
This issue didn’t start this week, and it’s not worth the time or argument of reminding people that several players in this very conference have gained eligibility through similar avenues in the courtroom over the last few seasons. This mess was created the moment the NCAA said that everyone from the 2022 class had another year of eligibility. Everyone. Not some. Everyone. Not just the players that weren’t good enough to fight for a roster spot in an NFL camp resulting in them signing a contract for pennies in comparison to the NIL contracts available to players still in school. It was a broad stroke, blanket statement that covered everyone.
That doesn’t make the optics any less gross. But, it also doesn’t make the decision to allow all of those players to play the wrong one.
None of these players left because they elected to forego remaining years of eligibility. They were told they were out of it. This also isn’t some circumstance where college coaches are pillaging NFL rosters. No one making a 53 man roster in the league is running back to play one more season of college football. Almost all of these circumstances make sense when you think about it objectively and without emotion. It just so happens that in an offseason full of chaos and change, it’s really hard to do that.
This sport has had a Kardashian amount of cosmetic changes to its former self making it almost impossible to remove emotion from the equation. But, if you’re going to be in the camp of doing what’s best for the players, then excluding a handful of them just because of optics isn’t right.
No matter which team or what coach they are signing with.
