NIL and rivalry games

Something you hear on the broadcast watching any game now, a player's pedigree is included along with his name after making a play, what school(s) he played for the previous year(s). It is not unusual for one player to have played on four different FBS teams.

Last Saturday early in the OU-TX game it seemed every UT player mentioned other than Arch Manning was at a different school the year before.

OU-TX is a rivalry game. I am used to hearing players from both sides say how much they "hate" the other and cannot stand to lose that particular game.

These players tend to have formed their opinions long before reaching college, saying how they grew up watching a team play and wanting to be a Sooner/Longhorn all their lives.

For such players a rivalry game is a personal thing and when they come out of the tunnel and hear the crowd roar they practically start foaming at the mouth wanting to take the field and do some damage.

This kind of emotion is what made OU-TX the game that it was and to some extent still is today. It isn't called the Red River Shootout for nothing.

With the advent of the portal and NIL the equation has changed. Players come in with no previous tie to the team they are on nor any reason to regard the opponent as anything more or less than the team they played the week before or will the week after. There is no emotion, certainly no "hate", they are there to do a job, play football, that is all.

I read how UT fans were upset with Cam Coleman, for all he can do getting open and catching a deep ball he is lousy at blocking during rushing plays. He does nothing to help his team when he isn't the focus of the play.

That does not make for much of a rivalry.

After OU won there was a clip of the Sooner kicker, Tate Sandell, who is easily the smallest player in an Oklahoma uniform going to the sideline and yelling "Give me my hat, bitch!" That was a kicker displaying the kind of emotion you'd expect from a middle linebacker.

The players who grew up wanting to be Sooners/Longhorns want to go out there a hurt someone no matter what position they play, they want to win and make sure the other side knows it.

I hope the colleges or NCAA figure out how to reign in the unregulated beast the NIL has become and restore some kind of order to things.

Football is the best when it is played by kids who are invested.