Maybe sit this one out
We’re not just in a new era of college athletics — we’re in another dimension thanks to the transfer portal, NIL, conference realignment, a 12 team college football playoff, and so much more. One could make the argument that with college football, we’ve seen more change over the last 25 years than any other 25 year interval in CFB history.
It has a lot of Notre Dame fans feeling a little — well they’re feeling a lot of their feelings. They’re all up in their feelings.
The change that has fans going batshit crazy the most is, of course, the transfer portal. Without fail, when a player announces his decision to enter the transfer portal, many of the comments from fans on social media are pretty bitter.
Don’t believe me? Here are just a few examples after cornerback Micah Bell announced his decision to transfer out of Notre Dame:
“Learn to be good..not hard” — Ed
“Players just don’t want to Compete & wait their turn!” — Mike
“Can’t take the heat” — David
“Dumb they shouldn’t be allowed to do this by the spring game” — Britt
“Wah! I may not be able to play here cause others are better than me, NOW! So I’ll take my ball elsewhere! How about a degree from Notre Dame?” — Rod
“All these players afraid to keep competing” — Ed
There is no nuance or understanding involved with the thoughts here from these die-hard fans. If you turn your back on Notre Dame, they’re going to treat you like their Amish son that fell in love with a stripper and moved to Cincinnati to be a bartender. YOU’RE SHUNNED SON.
It’s all so unnecessary. Still, there is something you can do to help with all of this.
You can sit it out and shut the hell up.
To be fair, it’s a simple solution which helps in a wide number of situations — so give it a shot the next time some 19 year old from Tacoma, Washington, decides to leave South Bend, Indiana, to play football for the Washington State Cougars (or whatever).
You have no idea how a person comes to the decision to transfer, and honestly, we aren’t entitled to that information either.
Sometimes a player is “processed” out by the coaching staff. I put that in quotations because it’s not as simple as just telling a guy he has to go to make room on the scholarship chart. There are brutally honest conversations and generally there’s a picture that’s painted.
The whole notion of HE’S AFRAID TO COMPETE is just some made up bullshit. When you make the real life comparison of a guy that’s working his ass off but gets passed over for a promotion by new people coming into the company, so he takes a different job elsewhere — is that guy afraid to compete?
Of course not. Players are only allowed 4 years of eligibility, so if they feel like they need to leave Notre Dame for UConn or Utah or UTEP or UCF or UMass or wherever to find a better path to playing time — then good luck to them.
You can fairly have a negative opinion about the state of college athletics, but taking any time at all to trash an athlete online for making the tough decision to switch schools — again — maybe you should sit this out and shut the hell up.