You Can’t Be Found If You Don’t Play
I loved this tweet by The Reese’s Senior Bowl Director, Jim Nagy:
Aside from believing this tweet should be done over by Banksy and then hung in the Louvre for centuries to come, this tweet perfectly embodies one of the most frustrating misconceptions that recruits and college transfer players believe about trying to play at the next level: that they need to play at the biggest school possible.
Following up with his previous tweet, Jim Nagy goes on…
And, while he uses QB as an example, it really is true of all positions.
For every one transfer player who makes it big by leveling up to a higher division after transferring there are 100’s of other transfers that do not work out.
If your goal is to try to play at the next level (NFL, CFL, XFL, TSL) you need one thing: game tape.
Scouts can’t evaluate a player who never plays.
Is it not better to get some game tape at a supposedly “smaller” or “lower division” of college football than none at all after leaping without you know where you are landing in the transfer portal?
The transfer portal, for lack of a better term, is a mess with over 5,000 transfers in football alone.
And, it is an extraordinarily risky proposition for players: outside of your marquee transfers from Power 5 schools who were previous starters, transfers assume nearly all the risk. The transfer rules require you to jump before you know where you are landing. And, we’re not just talking football wise, we are talking financially as well. Transfers are not just gambling with football, they are gambling financially in the sum of 1,000s if not 10,000s of tuition dollars to pursue their football fantasies.
Fundamentally, it all comes down to answering the question: What is football for? More specifically, what is college football for?
Were we all rational human beings, college football is, at best, a great way to increase your marketability to get into a school of your choice and then an even better way to continue to not only have fun, but make friends while using the sport’s life lessons to become an even better human being, parent, professional or future spouse.
But, we are not rational.
“College is the god of the American childhood,” according to writer David Perrel and college is all about fulfilling one’s potential. And, the fulfillment of one’s potential is the quintessential ingredient to achieving the American Dream. America, on paper has no state religion, but a close runner up might be the worship of potential.
To further complicate matters, and being a teacher with a decade of K-12 experience, American schools gear kids up for the fulfillment of their potential: best the best, never settle, grit, work hard, grind.
And, while there is nothing wrong with these values, your potential might not be the type of potential that a marquee FBS football program wants or cares about.
There is a delusional haze shrouding the very real gap between most players’ dreams and statistical realities.
The net sum impact of all this is that, at least recently, the college football recruiting process for players seems to be much more about eagerly typing “Blessed to receive an offer from…,” or retweeting the latest graphic or camp invite (for $500 please) that they received than about getting an education, and more importantly, simply getting on the field.
No field, no getting found.
Mentioned in article:
→ Reese’s Senior Bowl Director Jim Nagy
→ Writer, David Perrel