College Football: A Multi-Billion Dollar Industry Driven By Decisions of Teenagers
College football is thriving financially like never before. The total intake of revenue each year by major universities is in the billions. It's all based on the performances of the players. Before said players ever get to step on the field, they have to make life-changing decisions at 17 and 18 years old.
College football is a sports environment unlike any other. The passion and pageantry of gameday spill over into paranoia and hopeful expectation of fanbases everywhere when it comes to year-round recruiting cycles.
In the age of social media, monetized insider information and instant gratification, the recruitments of star high school football players are more public and more scrutinized than ever before.
Would you want your lowest moment at that point in your life, your dumbest-hastiest decision debated and analyzed? Many of these prospects are physically full-grown men but are definitely still maturing emotionally and developing mentally.
Social media outlets and paywall message boards have turned into spaces where "adults" can go to cast aspersions on these young men and give their opinion on how good they are and if they are worthy of a scholarship on "their" squad.
All of this is not to discount the life-changing opportunity that these student-athletes are being afforded by the game of college football. Also, it is not unreasonable for the universities involved and the coaches recruiting these young men to expect them to possess a certain amount of accountability and responsibility.
However, at the end of the day, these are teenagers that are being asked to behave in such a way that is difficult for many professional adults to do. They are being asked to think through and make decisions that directly impact the salaries of the men recruiting them. Those salaries are a result of investments that boosters, aka superfans with big-time money, make to the programs that employ those coaches.
Finally, those decisions impact the on-field performances that in-turn either make the program's bottom line skyrocket with success or plummet with failure.
Weighing in all of those factors, do you think that everything is being done above board? Is it unreasonable to imagine that certain, especially high profile, recruits have a tremendous amount of pressure on them? Recruiting - at its core - is about relationships. Many of these coaches and players begin to talk as soon as a seventh and eighth grade!
Coaches can leave for other, bigger jobs at the drop of a hat or can be fired whenever the administration feels they need a shot of life in the program or a splash, high-profile hire. But the 17 and 18-year-olds... They are supposed to make a decision and stick with it.?
It is fine to be a fan and have a ton a passion. It is fine to follow recruiting closely and trust me, I hope that everybody does. It is even fine to celebrate getting or lament losing a big-time player that will or would have fit a need at your school you root for or attended.
Just remember that these programs are targeting high school students who sometimes do not have the greatest guidance or even a clue how to handle the success they're living through, much less the adversity that gets thrown in the mix. So no need to get personal with coaches or the prospects about decisions that are made.
Ask parents all around the country, it is hard to know what is going through the mind of a 17 or 18-year-old. It's even harder when what is on their mind is a decision that will change their lives and potentially the lives of their entire family, current and future, forever.
