FORT COLLINS, Colo. — Ahead of his annual Ram Roundup alumni event, Colorado State University head football coach Jay Norvell sent a message to a small contingent of local media.
“I’m gonna coach. I’m not just gonna be a fundraiser," he said.
Now in his third year at CSU, Norvell is not happy about the current direction of college football.
“I think there’s a real frustration for coaches who have always taken a pride in following the rules," Norvell said. "There’s just such a lag of NCAA rule enforcement that people wonder why you follow rules.”
His rage is understandable, especially when you consider his top 12 players have all had offers to go play at other universities — a practice that isn't supposed to be allowed until the player has officially entered the transfer portal signaling his or her intent to leave their current university.
"We had a booster from a Big 12 school call (starting quarterback Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi)," Norvell said. "(They said) 'We're losing our quarterback. If you get in the portal, we’ll pay you $600,000.'"
Fowler-Nicolosi chose to stay at CSU, but Norvell said he believes the underlying rot remains.
“A lot of these kids think that everybody’s just a money machine. It just doesn’t work that way," Norvell said. "We have to be careful."
He isn't necessarily saying the "old way" of college football — exploiting teenagers as free labor to create billions of dollars of revenue for adults in power — was better. Players having a seat at the table is a good thing, but Norvell takes great offense to money being at the heart of a sport he has given his life to.
“We have a sport that’s built on sacrifice. We have a sport that’s built on selflessness," Norvell said. "This NIL period just promotes the complete opposite. I really do care about college football. I love this game. I’ve invested my whole life into it and I don’t want to see it go down the wrong path.”
Admittedly, Norvell has a vested interest in seeing the needle move back towards the middle of this power struggle; however, he also believes the collateral damage from this war over dollars will negatively impact college football fans.
"I think college football fans are in for a lot of changes in the next year or two," Norvell said. “I just think in the next 24 months we’re going to have a different kind of college football.”
Different, undoubtedly.
Better? Worse? The answer to that question remains to be seen.
