Reams of paper (both actual and virtual) have been used and drums of ink (both virtual and actual) have been spilled in recent years bemoaning the current fractured state of college football.
From the never-ending size of Playoff argument, to just how valuable Notre Dame may be to the ecosphere, to the impending demise of the bowl system… no one can seem to agree that any portion of college football beyond the actual inside-the-lines game is heading in the right direction.
Nowhere is the argument more intense, more heated, and without a concrete right or wrong than the twin monsters that are Name, Image and Likeness and the transfer portal.
Ladies and gentlemen, start your outrage.
Sure, we all have pretty much come around to the concept that paying labor for their efforts within a billion-dollar enterprise is wise business. Sure, we all have pretty much come around to the concept that said labor should be able to choose where it plies its trade.
But the how much and how often and, well, just how… that’s way stickier.
Those twin monsters reared their head yet again in any ugly, unseemly, public way in recent days at Clemson. You might have caught wind of Tigers coach Dabo Swinney’s nearly 28-minute tick-tock with the media on how transfer linebacker Luke Ferretti found his way from Cal to Clemson and then to Ole Miss.
To sum up Dabo’s screed, Ferretti was locked in to play at Clemson at 2026 – to the point he leased an apartment, secured a car, began taking classes and even attended Tigers position meetings at the beginning of the spring semester.
Not that any of those tiny details kept Ole Miss coach Pete Golding from continuing to pursue Ferretti, as the Rebels coach went so far as to text Ferretti a photo of a million-dollar contract to flip to Ole Miss while Ferretti was in class on campus at Clemson.
If it looks like tampering, and smells like tampering, and feels like tampering… well, then, let’s call it what it is: Tampering.
“This is just a really sad state of affairs, and to me – we have a broken system,” Swinney said. “If there are no consequences for tampering, we have no rules and we have no governance. Let me be very clear: this is not about a linebacker at Clemson. I feel sorry for the young man, to be honest with you. I blame the adults.”
Swinney pointed out that Golding and the Rebels were simultaneously trying to hold together their own roster from outside influences while trying to pick off Ferretti after he already told them “no thanks” in Oxford. And Swinney was also dead-on accurate that said hypocrisy is rampant not just at Ole Miss but probably at a lot of big-time programs that are forced to recruit the heck out of their own roster in addition to ponying up for the next batch of portal stars.
This is hardly the first instance of tampering, of course, as the new world of unlimited transfer portal moves for players – combined with the millions now being offered via NIL and revenue sharing by programs – has agents for players and players themselves with their hands out at a disturbing rate. Programs like Ole Miss are simply trying to keep up, whether Swinney likes it or not, and will simply wait to get their hands slapped by the NCAA.
Ah yes, the NCAA. Back not too long ago, Swinney’s “we will turn you in” rhetoric would have been met with chills down the spine. These days, however, the folks in Indianapolis are about as toothless as it gets.
Oh sure, NCAA vice president of enforcement Jon Duncan issued a statement that the association “will investigate any credible allegations of tampering and expect full cooperation from all involved as required by NCAA rules.” But does anyone actually think Ole Miss will get more than a stern talking-to or perhaps a strongly worded memo for the file?
The one productive thing that Swinney’s diatribe might have served was to further talk of transfer portal reform. Right now, the portal is open for just 2 weeks between the fall and spring semester – with those 14 days becoming prone to extortion because players and programs are making major decisions during “such a short period of time, right in the middle of when people are trying to play bowl games, Playoff games, etc.”
“We’re going to have some screwed-up 30-year-olds … that have no degrees, that have spent their money, that can’t play football anymore and aren’t connected to anything,” Swinney added.
College football is profoundly broken, and the curious case of Clemson vs. Ole Miss for the services of Luke Ferretti is just the latest evidence. Who knows where Ferretti ends up in 2026 – at Clemson, at Ole Miss or somewhere else entirely? Who knows when the next blatant flip of a coveted athlete from one flush program to another is coming?
College football is profoundly broken, oh yes, Dabo Swinney is 100% correct about that. But how it gets fixed, well, no one really knows and no one really has the power to make it happen.
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