College Football’s Second Class Citizens

The great Thomas Sowell always says there's no solutions, only trade offs. And every decision has unintended consequences. One of the unintended consequences of College Football and the NFL's focus on preventing concussions and hits to the head is incentivizing defenders to hit tight ends low  at their knees and tearing their ACLs. Tight ends are particularly vulnerable.

We saw it with Tyler Higbee most recently and many other tight ends have to deal with this when they go over the middle. The NFL is trying to save the head, but the knees are now vulnerable because of this policy. They've created a new problem that I don't think was foreseen.

Another unintended consequence happens in college football every February.

The NCAA wanted to save its poor collegiate athletes with the NIL and transfer portal. Get 'em paid! Let em transfer unabated! Awesome. They're saved. They're living high on the hog. But the unintended consequence of the portal is now high school prospects who used to be top priority, are now second class citizens in the recruiting process. Big college programs start in the portal first and only come to get high school 3-star or below kids after the portal has been picked clean.

The NCAA has freed the college players, but they've doomed a lot of high school kids who are right on the edge of being scholarship worthy. Who five years ago would have been scholarship players but now have to wait and wait. There's always a trade off...

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