I love how free room + board, monthly stipulation checks, free books, free tutoring, free healthcare, and free tuition turned into, "oh my God these players were exploited and forced to play for free." Add that all up and get back to me how much they were really earning a year to play; especially out of state recruits. On top of that, many of these kids had the opportunity to get a degree from a school they'd never sniff without football opening the door for them.
I hate the new landscape of college football. Yes, pay-to-win was happening before, but it's going to get a LOT worse now. We aren't going to come out on top of this brave new world. Miami has rich boosters who are all-in on buying recruits, hell overpaying for recruits if the $400k for a crappy 3-star rumor is true.
Billy Napier is making a valiant effort to attract top talent here, even dragging our administration to bring us into the current century as far as facilities and support staff goes. Too little too late, unfortunately. "Show me the money" is the name of the game now, and I just don't see our alumni coughing up enough money to compete with the big dogs. Just wait until the big dogs get their new non-affiliated recruiters set up *wink wink*. Whenever we do manage to find a diamond in the rough who turns out to be a generational talent, one day soon these new recruiters will be showing up to mom and dad's house with multi-million dollar offers to play for their school, provided their son simply uses that convenient transfer portal. We haven't even seen the worst of what's to come IMO.
If I wanted to watch football played by mercenaries, I'd watch the NFL. There used to be something special about playing for your school as a student, and cheering for your school as a student/fan. Those days are numbered, if not already gone. "Go Paidors! C'mon Paidors, get up and go!" just doesn't have the same ring to me.