Subscriber Services
Our Journalists
Sports Desk
Our Columnists
Our Writers
Our Writers
Our Photojournalists
Data
More Gazette
Other Links
FOLLOW US
Share this article:
Subscriber Services
Our Journalists
Sports Desk
Our Columnists
Our Writers
Our Writers
Our Photojournalists
Data
More Gazette
Other Links
FOLLOW US
Home / Sports
“Teams” are loose affiliations of players who are here today, gone tomorrow. Or even before tomorrow gets here.
Apr. 28, 2024 9:54 am
The higher the level, the looser the concept of “team” in sports.
Rosters are as fluid as the Wapsipinicon River. They change as often as a child’s shoe size.
The notion of loyalty to a team or school has always been overinflated. Loyalty is determined by options, and now there are actual options for college athletes. They can go from one school to the next without penalty and finally can get paid for bringing valued services to their schools.
If you can’t accept that, drive your Pontiac to the nearest pay phone, and call your local drive-in theater to get the start time for “Beach Blanket Bingo.”
There are many who hate that athletes have NIL and can switch schools without punishment. They liked things the way they had always been, no matter that it flew in the face of a free market system.
Liking things the way they had used to be never seems to be done by the people who got the short end of the stick. Can you now imagine Caitlin Clark doing all she did for the University of Iowa and women’s college basketball, yet being unable to make a dime off her own name and image?
All this, of course, has been a radical change for a system that had the talent under its thumb for a century. It’s led to some pretty wild stuff. Wildly entertaining, in my opinion.
Ohio State fired men’s basketball coach Chris Holtmann in mid-February. Under interim coach Jake Diebler, the Buckeyes had a strong finish to their season.
“I think the togetherness we have right now is something really special,” Diebler said on Feb. 25.
Diebler got the full-time head coaching job on March 17. Since then, four of his rotation players entered the NCAA transfer portal and have gone off to four different schools. Togetherness is a fleeting thing.
Wisconsin recently saw starting guards AJ Storr and Chucky Hepburn go from Madison to the portal to Kansas and Louisville, respectively.
“I’m not mad at anybody,” said Badgers Coach Greg Gard. “or specifically Chucky and AJ. If anybody in your right mind told any of you guys or gals that you could go triple your income by doing a different job, you would do it in a heartbeat. No questions asked.
“I would tell my kid to do the same thing in that position.”
Hey, Wisconsin plucked Storr from St. John’s last year.
Tony Perkins played for four years at Iowa. The league’s coaches voted him second-team All-Big Ten this year. Now he’s at Missouri, where he’ll get more money. C’est la vie.
The college football situation, because of much-larger rosters, is even zanier. From April 16 to April 24, about 750 FBS players entered the portal. There will have been about 1,800 Division I basketball players in it this offseason. The deadline to enter is Wednesday.
Great transfer stories abound, but it’s hard to top the tale of Kadyn Proctor.
The offensive lineman from Southeast Polk verbally committed to Iowa as a recruit, decommitted and signed with Alabama, transferred to Iowa after playing one season in Tuscaloosa, and transferred back to ‘Bama two months later after the Crimson Tide changed coaches.
All those round-trips should prepare Proctor well should he want to become a long-haul trucker or flight attendant after football.
Oklahoma quarterback Casey Thompson is on his fourth different team after time at Texas, Nebraska and Florida Atlantic. Is he a simply a hired gun? If so, someone keeps doing the hiring.
You can claim to have the right “culture” in your football program. If you’re going to win, though, you need someone’s checkbook to be as instrumental as your playbook.
There’s no going back to the days when every one of a school’s 300-plus athletics department employees made more money than a National Player of the Year. Nor should there. No one ever bought a ticket or turned on a TV to watch a manager of data analytics or a social media coordinator.
One day, athletes in revenue sports will be paid directly by the universities. Then it will be up to the schools and their supporters to decide if they want to compete in the big leagues or not.
Which won’t be much different from the way it’s been all along.
Comments: (319) 398-8440; mike.hlas@thegazette.com
Columnist, The Gazette
I am the sports columnist and Iowa men’s basketball beat writer for The Gazette. Join our Hawkeye Text Update.
Rob Gray
Jeff Linder
John Steppe
Iowa Hawkeyes Sports 3h ago3h ago
Iowa Football Apr. 28, 2024 3:51 pm8h ago
High School Track and Field Apr. 28, 2024 11:21 am12h ago
Photos and Videos Apr. 27, 2024 10:02 pm1d ago
Iowa Football 4h ago4h ago
Iowa Football Apr. 27, 2024 6:13 pm1d ago
Local Government Apr. 28, 2024 6:52 pm5h ago
News Apr. 28, 2024 9:05 am15h ago
State Government Apr. 28, 2024 6:00 am18h ago
Staff Columnists Apr. 28, 2024 5:00 am19h ago
Staff Columnists Apr. 28, 2024 5:00 am19h ago
Guest Columnists Apr. 28, 2024 5:00 am19h ago
FOLLOW US
The Gazette has been informing Iowans with in-depth local news coverage and insightful analysis for over 140 years. Support our award-winning, independent journalism with a subscription today.
© 2024 The Gazette | All Rights Reserved.
