NIL, Portal and multi-stop transfers and so on

Contracts would help, but it has to be common across the board. It won't help if you are making contracts with all your players and Ohio State and Notre Dame come at the player and say, we'll still pay you a ton and won't tie you down with a contract.

That fact that you have the different conferences and no governing body over the whole thing that has real power makes these problems exceedingly difficult to fix.

If I recall it right, in the early days of college football, players where hired much as they are now. I think it is worse now looking at the history.

Seems like dejavu all over again. Grok says:

quote:

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Yes. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, college football commonly involved paid or subsidized players (often called “tramp athletes,” “ringers,” or “hired men”) who frequently moved between schools for better financial deals.

nytimes.com

College football emerged in the 1870s–1890s and quickly grew competitive and commercialized. Schools and alumni offered inducements such as cash, tuition coverage, room and board, campus jobs, or other benefits to attract talent. Players sometimes enrolled only for the season (or part of it), used assumed names, or had little real academic connection to the school.

nytimes.com

Contemporary accounts and later historical analyses document this clearly:In 1889, football pioneer Walter Camp accused Princeton and Harvard of fielding paid players and bringing back graduates. The next year, Yale leveled similar charges against Princeton.

nytimes.com

Michigan was accused of using multiple ringers in an 1892 game. Western and Eastern schools traded accusations of hiring professionals.

nytimes.com

Sportswriter Casper Whitney wrote in 1895 that “tramp athletes offered their services to the highest bidder … men are bought and sold like cattle to play this autumn on ‘strictly amateur’ elevens.”

link.gale.com

Offers could include full tuition, room, and board for playing football (and sometimes other sports). Some players moved mid-career or played for multiple schools seeking the best deal.

nytimes.com

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