[Cactus Jack]

You are wanting to go back to the days of Givens, Lee, Turpin, Dirk Minnefield, Larry Johnson. The college basketball landscape has changed. It is "one and done, " transfer portal, "  NIL.  I'm not crazy about it, either. But it is what it is. It's not just Cal. It's EVERYBODY! That's college sports now. We are never going back to Dirk Minnefield.

We can love it or hate it, but there's a lot of validity to this. College sports have changed.

Smaller schools or non-traditional powers would do the same thing Kentucky is doing if they were able. They'd love to flaunt available NIL money (even if it had to go unspoken) and their history of putting players in the pros.

The sentimental value of having been a great player in the mind of someone from Kentucky that he's never met is obviously great for someone like an Aaron Harrison or Jeff Brassow, but that's not something that they can use to buy groceries or diapers for their kid if they move back home to Houston once they've finished playing; meanwhile their school, the NCAA, media networks, apparel companies, and other merchants have profited nicely from their talents.

Before you give me the "but they get a free education" line, I want you to consider whether a high level athlete at Kentucky gets to choose their schedule (or if they are told what they'll be taking by an advisor) and how it would go for them if they tried enrolling for "pre-med" courses while they were actively playing.

No, I'm not saying that the players are or were ever starving, nor that they didn't see benefits, just that what we're seeing now is more equitable for them.

I don't know that there's a conflict in feeling this way while also saying that, since 2015, Cal should have done more with the resources available to him either.