It’s the big elephant in the room. A real concern for college football fans is the strictly transactional state of the game.
A prime example — pun intended — were comments from Colorado Buffaloes legend Travis Hunter, who's now with the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. In the locker room after the Denver Broncos rallied to beat the Jags at Empower Field a few weeks back.
A key moment was a fourth quarter pass interference call against the second-year pro and 2024 Heisman winner. Hunter handled those questions like a pro. The day before, Hunter’s former team was blown out 41-7 at Northwestern. His response to that was interesting. “Nah, I ain’t got nothing to say about CU. I just hope they win.”
I don’t think the wonderful young man has ill will about his two-year adventure to Boulder. The Florida native followed his childhood idol who became Colorado’s 28th coach, achieved college football’s highest honor and was the highest-drafted cornerback in NFL history. Mission accomplished.
Joking aside, who knows if Hunter ever stepped on the Boulder campus. I pray that he did except to enter and exit the CU football facilities? Again, that’s not a knock on the gifted two-way player now bouncing back from an injury-plagued rookie NFL campaign.
It’s just the way it is, which is now transactional. My mind wanders to the great CU football teams of the late 80s-early 2000s. Many league championships won and one national title. Most of those players spent four or five years together. Life-long bonds were forged.
One of the huge challenges for coaches in today’s game is creating a sustaining culture within their programs when the roster is turning over more than almost 50 percent annually. Lots of newcomers. This has been a reality for Coach Prime every year since he's been in Boulder.
Many respected sports executives are trying to help college athletics save themselves from an enormous internal threat of, former CU athletic director Rick George’s words, “The Wild Wild West.” Players are constantly transferring one thing, the “Protect College Sports Act”, before Congress is trying to regulate.
A 68-year-old dude, around college athletics a long time, agrees with those who say, “Doesn’t our government have more pressing needs than rescuing the NCAA and the dumpster fire it’s become?
Travis Hunter is a tremendous athlete and young man. However, the affable chap’s quick and decisive comment after the Broncos snatched victory from the jaws of defeat was telling.
College football athletes are transactional. Don’t ask them to sing the fight song or direct you to the university library. Most probably don’t know. Hunter’s great. The college game he dominated is not.