I've wondered for many years why the veneer of "student athlete" wasn't just dispensed with and move to basically a semi-pro or minor league type arrangement of some kind. "Student athlete" has been a fiction at the D1 level for decades.
"Veneer" is a great word choice here. But even though it's almost a mirage these days, it's still important to me. I love Mississippi State football because I love Mississippi State University. It matters to me that at least a few of the players are having something like the college experience I had. It matters to me that at least some of them, as little boys, grew up pretending to be Anthony Dixon or Dak Prescott. Yes, that's pretty much gone in these days of unlimited transfers and NILs. But the more mercenary college football becomes, the less I care about it.
I watch the NFL, but I don't spend thousands of dollars a year on it and don't schedule my life around my team's home games the way I do MSU. I'll probably always watch MSU football, but as the college game becomes more NFL-like, I'll invest less money, time and emotional energy in it.
P.S. Not to re-start this argument again, but I think this is why it bothers me when Fletcher Cox and other NFL stars don't claim MSU in their intro videos. I'd like to think these guys love Mississippi State as much as I do, but this is a frequent reminder that college is simply a business decision for a lot of these guys.
