Eli Drinkwitz comes to the defense of student athletes after latest wave of realignment
With conference realignment taking college sports by storm this past week, Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz believes one important factor isn’t getting enough attention: the athletes themselves. Asked for this thoughts on the current state of college football following several departures from the Pac-12, Drinkwitz hesitated.
“I was really hoping nobody would ask me that question,” Drinkwitz said before letting out a big sigh.
But after a brief pause to collect himself, the coach didn’t hold back as he delivered a passionate speech about the ways he sees realignment negatively impacting student athletes. He cited longer travel times and asserted that this recent string of changes has put great emphasis on football while failing to consider the sports that don’t generate as much revenue.
“All right, I’m gonna say it,” he continued. “I thought the portal was closed. Oh, that’s just for the student athletes. The adults in the room get to do whatever they want, apparently. My question is: did we count the cost? I’m not talking about a financial cost, I’m talking about did we count the cost for the student athletes involved in this decision? What cost is it to those student athletes?
“We’re talking about a football decision they based off football, but what about softball and baseball who have to travel cross country? Do we ask about the cost of them? Do we know what the No. 1 indicator or symptom or cause of mental health is? It’s lack of rest and sleep. Traveling in those baseball, softball games, those people, they travel commercial. They get done playing at 4, they gotta go to the airport, they come back. It’s 3 or 4 in the morning (and) they gotta go to class? I mean, did we ask any of them?”
Drinkwitz again reiterated that he isn’t concerned about where football is going, but to further hammer home his point brought up NIL. With conferences standing to make large sums of money from TV deals, none of that will go to the athletes.
“I don’t worry at all about the game,” Drinkwitz said. “The game is gonna be strong. Football’s gonna be fine. We’ll all figure it out. But did we consider the people that we are entrusted with? Did we consider the student athlete? Because then we’re asking them to go out on their own to get NIL. We didn’t say we’re gonna revenue share. We’re not saying they’re getting a piece of it. So that’s the thing that’s bothering me right now in this whole situation. We keep trying to limit what the student athlete can do, but then we act on our own. Everybody’s got their own reasons and I’m not questioning any of those. I’m saying as a collective group, what’s it gonna cost the student athletes?”
Balancing a class schedule while traveling isn’t the only challenge athletes will face due to long distances, though. Some will also have to face the reality that their families will no longer be able to attend all of their games.
Drinkwitz compared that to his own experience, saying how important it is to him personally to have his family in the stands. That in mind, he feels for the athletes who will no longer have the same.
“I saw on Twitter several student athletes talking about one of the reasons they chose their school was so that their parents didn’t have to travel,” he said. “They chose a local school so that they could be regionally associated so their parents could watch them play and not have to travel. Did we ask them if they wanted to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast? I love the game, but every game that I coach, I look up in the stands and I find my family. I make sure they can be there because that’s what I’m doing this for.
“You’re talking about volleyball, baseball, softball, track. All those other sports. They’re not fortunate to travel the way that we do. Football will be fine. It’s did we count the cost of the collateral damage of everybody else? I don’t know. Only time will tell. But that is my biggest thing looking at it after 24 hours saying, ‘did we really think about that?’ I don’t think we did.”