Ohio State Football: College sports is at a crossroads

The Ohio State football and men’s basketball program make the most money for the athletic department. They are both teams that a lot of people across the country care about. They are also the programs in danger of changing the most as college sports at large start to change.

College sports as we know them are at a crossroads. It seems that we are very close to a tipping point when it comes to non-professionalizing college athletes. The more athletes choose schools based on where they can get the most NIL money, the closer they become to professionals.

Gene Smith thinks he has a solution to the problem, but I’m not so sure. It almost seems like we are at a point where college football and basketball athletes are going to be able to sign contracts to play sports. There might not even be an academic component to it anymore.

Things have changed so rapidly in the past 5-10 years that those in charge of these programs don’t know how to manage them. No one really thought of ways to keep this from happening. Now, it seems like college sports will essentially be a minor league system in the next 5-10 years.

What this means for the future of the Ohio State football and basketball programs remains to be seen. I’m not smart enough to fix the problem, nor do I get paid to. That job is up to the athletic directors and the presidents of these universities. They are the ones who created this mess and the ones who need to fix it.

If college football turned into a scenario where recruits just came to Ohio State to solely play football and not even attend classes, is that something you would watch. Would you watch Ohio State be a minor league feeder into the NFL?