The one word you hear most often from anyone associated with collegiate athletics on the football and basketball sides is -- sustainable. As in, the current situation is not.
On Wednesday, Jeff Hafley took the defensive coordinator job with the Green Bay Packers. If you were not aware, he was the Boston College Eagles head football coach and they'd gone to bowl games three times in four years, including last season.
So, a Power 5 head coach -- who has had success -- decided he'd rather be a coordinator in the NFL. I can't speak to the WHY for him, specifically, but the state of revenue sports is a lawless mess. On X, formerly known as Twitter, or message boards, the notion of name, image and likeness and the portal has nearly universal approval. I agree -- in principle. Players should participate in the money train that they power and they shouldn't have their movement restricted.
That said, what currently exists is unlimited, unregulated free agency. No professional athletes have this. So, the current state of college coaching could best be described as never-ending fundraising to have the money to sign recruits. And that's followed by never-ending re-recruiting of the players on your team in the hopes they don't head to the portal for more money. But they probably are going to.
As UConn Huskies head coach Geno Auriemma said: "How do you coach in an environment where the players feel like they owe you nothing and you owe them everything?"
The biggest issue I don't hear anyone talking about is this: Who is going to fund this? I don't care WHO you are ... even the programs with the deepest pockets are running into this reality.
When you hit your biggest boosters up for six figures then tell them, yeah that was cool last year, but we need double it this year and then it doubles the next, even if the guy your money went to last year wasn't any good, sorry, we need to get the guy for next year. Eventually, they're going to tell you look, man, I'm done. Ask the next guy.
You're asking them to fund your professional enterprise. If you don't have those type of boosters -- forget it -- you have zero chance. But it's not sustainable even at the highest levels as constructed. This will eventually, inevitably, crumble. But who is going to fix it? And how? I don't know.
NIL supposedly isn't pay for play, but that's exactly what it is because there is nobody to enforce it. Although I guess the Tennessee Volunteers would argue that. The whole thing, as everyone involved says over and over and over, is not sustainable. I don't blame coaches who just decide they've had enough. Or if they compare the pros and cons and decide to go to the pros to take a step back in title for an upgrade in life.