College football must address its issues

Georgia’s 63-3 beat down of Florida State hadn’t even finished when a friend called to say he was right about the selection process for the College Football Playoff.

“I told you Georgia should’ve been in,” said my friend, who likes to participate in the guessing game called sports betting. “Florida State ain’t any good. That was easy money.”

Perhaps Georgia should’ve been included in the College Football Playoff. It’s a moot point now with the decision to expand the playoffs to 12 teams beginning next season. The real story here is the number of opt-outs and transfers that rendered many of the bowl games meaningless, especially the Orange Bowl, where Florida State was severely limited with 23 players, including 14 starters, missing.

Even Georgia Coach Kirby Smart admitted it wasn’t a fair fight with the Seminoles. And what about Ohio State, which couldn’t even score a touchdown in a 14-3 defeat to Missouri in the Cotton Bowl after starting quarterback Kyle McCord fled to Syracuse.

“People need to see what happened, and they need to fix this,” Smart said about players deciding to opt out or transfer before the season is over. “It needs to be fixed. It’s very unfortunate. They have a good football team and a good football program and they’re in the position they’re in.”

We’ve all become accustomed by now with players announcing their intentions to enter the transfer portal on social media. I’ve added my own twist in parenthesis, but it goes something like this:

First, I want to thank my coaches (who spent much time and effort recruiting and developing me) for their guidance in my journey as a college athlete. For my teammates, especially (even the ones who got more NIL money than me), I’ll always cherish our brotherhood. With that being said, I’ve decided to enter the transfer portal and find a program that will

aid in my continued growth (more NIL money) as a player. Thanks for the memories (now leave me alone.)

Guys who write about recruiting are much busier these days with athletes moving about at a dizzying pace. That’s to be expected in the pay-for-play era where players can jump from team to team without penalty. But something I should’ve anticipated, but really didn’t, happened last week when three high school football players in Little Rock announced on social media they were transferring from one school to another.

Is this going to be a thing now? Apparently so, and it’s not like these guys were buried on the depth chart at their former schools. These are good players from good programs transferring to another really good program.

Is NIL (name, image and likeness) far behind for high school athletes in Arkansas? I hope not, but it’s apparently already being implemented in several states.

I can find the word “loyalty” in the 865-page dictionary that sits at my desk. But I guess the word doesn’t exist online from whatever platform people use today to access information.

Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing for young people, whether they’re athletes or not, to be out in the public working at a part-time job to further their education. So, if you’re going to pay a 17-year-old in high school to play for his team, you’d better be ready to pay the band members, spirit squads and cheerleaders at the same game.

The whole idea is disgusting to me, especially at the high school level where young people have traditionally played for pride in themselves, their teammates, their school and community. Take that away and you remove the very essence of what high school athletics are about.

Football is still my favorite sport, and I enjoyed immensely the two semifinal games in the College Football Playoff on New Year’s Day, both of which weren’t decided until the final play. But college football has some serious issues that must be addressed before the start of the next season.

If not, the game will lose its appeal to those of us who love sports and are able to put down their phones and pay attention for more than 3 minutes.