So now we’re supposed to feel sorry for the players. The mean adults, everyone, are taking advantage of the poor, misunderstood kids.
Or is it the other way around?
We’re so deep into this nonsensical college sports power struggle, it’s getting harder by the day to decipher who’s winning and who’s whining.
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The latest dust-up of the unsustainable that will lead to the unrecognizable (daily propaganda from coaches, not me): Will Wade left NC State for LSU after all of one season as coach in Raleigh.
And the college sports ecosystem lost its collective mind.
It’s just another example of coaches living under the “do as I say, not as I do” umbrella of unreasonable protection and deflection. Rules for thee, not for me.
And you know what? They’re right.
Because decades of coaches leaving after one season are distinctly different than the still wet paint of players and their annual free movement. No matter what a talking bobblehead screams on television, or your buddy posts on social media.
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The day all players begin paying buyouts to contracts — or in their current financial setup, NIL deals — is the day this thing is equal.
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Before we go further, let’s not ignore the Hurricane in the room: Darian Mensah had to buy out his NIL deal at Duke this offseason to move, and Miami not only paid it, but gave Mensah a mega one-year mercenary deal before he leaves for the NFL.
Wade paid $4 million to leave NC State, which means LSU transferred those funds to NC State to bring a convicted NCAA cheater — at LSU! — back to Baton Rouge. And that, if you can believe it, isn’t the focus of this story.
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If North Carolina wants to hire Todd Golden from Florida, the Tar Heels will have to cover his $16 million buyout. Or $11 million to poach Tommy Lloyd from Arizona.
If you’re bleeding cash in a second-tier Power conference, that’s a significant lift. Unless you’re desperate.
It’s here where we reintroduce Mensah and the Miami marriage.
Miami paid Mensah’s buyout because Mensah played it perfectly. Waited until the last day possible to enter the transfer portal, knowing full well that one specific team was desperate for a quarterback.
Knowing full well Miami had played the past two successful (but not championship) seasons with transfer quarterbacks — the most high-profile, high-priced transfer quarterbacks (Cam Ward, Carson Beck) — and the current quarterback room in Coral Gables was, shall we say, lacking.
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So Mensah’s representatives made it clear he was one year into a two-year NIL deal, and owed millions. Miami then sucked it up and paid the buyout, and then signed Mensah to a deal.
Three different Power conference coaches, speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect the unique NIL process, told USA TODAY Sports that Miami paid in excess of $10 million total to complete the deal.
If Brendan Sorsby’s buyout from Cincinnati was $10 million instead of $1 million, maybe Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell would’ve double-clutched when pursuing him. If Sam Leavitt had any buyout in his Arizona State deal, maybe LSU and Tennessee would’ve thought twice about bidding against each other to see who could give Leavitt more foundational money.
OK, maybe not those two deep-pocket programs. But you get the point.
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Until all players have buyouts in their NIL deals, until all players have to see that buyout as at least a pregnant pause to leaving, it’s not the same thing as coaches and their free movement.
If Golden didn’t have a $15 million buyout, how much easier would it be for North Carolina to throw a Belichickian deal at him? And not give Florida, already flush with cash as a big fish in the money-printing SEC machine, a $15 million gift?
Look, if a university or program wants a coach or player badly enough, no realistic buyout money is going to stop them. That’s the nature of the current college sports business model.
Until the only guardrails that work are instituted, this is the deal. Until players are made employees (like coaches), and until players then collectively bargain for 48% of the media rights billions, the only answer to limiting player movement is fat buyouts.
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Then players must decide between more money up front with a large buyout, or less money in their pocket with no buyout. And if they’re at the elite of their profession (it’s a professional game now, everyone, don’t kid yourselves), they can name their price and deal.
Like Kalen DeBoer did two years ago when he left Washington. He was happy with the Huskies, had just led the program to the national championship game.
But Alabama came along and had no problem giving him an $87 million contract, and covering his $12 million buyout from Washington. It is believed to be the largest buyout in college football history.
For a 20-8 record, and a 35-point loss in the Rose Bowl. To a basketball school.
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Now who’s winning and who’s whining?
Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Will Wade leaving NC State is different than players leaving programs
