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Carver Willis is another example
DerekJohnson
Administrator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 65,918 
Setting aside the fact that I'm glad Willis is a Husky… He's another example of what has turned sour with college football. Kansas State recruited and developed him… and then when they're set to reap the best benefits of his senior season, he portals out for a bigger bag and ends up at Washington. There's something so wrong about this whole thing.
The only way college football can possibly be saved at all is to have a collective bargaining agreement where when you sign your LOI, it is automatically for three years. You can portal once, but if you transfer early or a second time, you MUST sit out a year.
This is the only way I can see to preserve school spirit, continuity and tradition. It might be too late as it is.
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The problem is you gotta play the game now to play the game. It's cool though there's an OG from Bellevue who was at the combine and will get drafted who played for Sacramento State. Supposedly he was going to play his last year at Washington, but decided he should play at that school that actually recruited him.
There has to be contracts. Which means, Derek is right we need collective bargaining. The penalties for coaches violating contracts should be stiff as well.
Fuck that kid then. Also, fuck Kansas State. The Mountain 12 exists for this very reason.
I was just talking with a friend about this a bit, specifically the portal is a two way street. Sometimes we only focus on what's coming in and forget you're also losing guys. Was trying to think of the toughest UW portal losses thus far. Anyone beyond:
Puka Nacua - seemed like he hated it in Seattle though and may have been a guy who would have sat out a year to go back home in the old format
Laiatu Latu - not sure he counts because he was an injury thing?
Haener - We ended up winning this one because of Penix, but that was a lucky break
All the JonDon offensive guys seemed to hate it.
That is true. It's frustrating both ways.
I find it increasingly hard to care at all about the team. The coaches preach a message of, "Buy in to what we're doing here! The more you buy in, the better we'll be!" But everyone knows that unless you are 1 of 5 jobs in the nation, you'll gladly ditch your current team in a heartbeat. The players play but not for the school, the colors or the fans, but for the money. There are two things that make college football meaningfully different than the NFL: 1. We pretend that they are students. 2. There are no "contracts." so the entire roster is full free agency 2-3 times a year.
One of those things makes the game much worse than the NFL. As a fan, I don't trust the coaches, I don't trust the players, I'm annoyed about the constant demand for more money from the fans, and now the road games are much harder to get too. WHY should I keep supporting this system? Aside from my irrational loyalty to a program that doesn't love me back, the list of reasons to quit CFB is much more compelling than the list of reasons to keep watching.
I read that programs are now stipulating that players pay back some or all of their NIL money if they portal. That makes the most sense as it happens in many other agreements.
Yeah, now that it's going to be the school's money being fucked with they're taking that seriously.
I at least try to have some level headedness with this and I think there are layers and don't think Willis is the worst layer. I try to put myself in the shoes of some of these guys. Willis could remind me of the veteran guys who bolted after 2023 a bit. You've lived in the same place and the same school for 4-6 years. Your pro potential is limited. This might be your only chance to get paid to live somewhere else and experience something else before you have to live real life. It sounds like Willis is interested in living in Seattle for example.
I think it's better than the layer of guys who just follow their coaches, see Bernard/Brailsford/Coleman/our Arizona guys and then guys who essentially hold auctions or transfer just for money or guys coming out of high school asking for money.
It's all murky but I think a guy like Willis or like a Buelow/Kalepo are far from the worst of what is going on.
I agree that Willis doesn't appear to be on the worst end of the spectrum hear. Just chiming in because the post made me get all into my anger feelings about the whole situation.
That’s a great way of looking at it. I really can’t blame guys with almost no chance of making the NFL for jumping at a bag. It could very well be the largest sum of money they ever see. It’s free market capitalism in college football form. Until something drastic happens legally or legislatively, we’re stuck with it.
It's not just the bag either too I get wanting to experience something new at some point. You tele if you're Mishael Powell and you're at the point he was at and someone says hey do you want to get paid $200k or some shit to go live in Miami for a year you don't listen?
I don't think it's a good thing overall for the sport, just saying I don't always shame the individual players and part of the problem has been that UW last year specifically wasn't able to just replace portal losses with equivalent portal players when they should be able to as a program.