Not going to donate to a fund where college kids make more than me. This is out of hand and I am not going to participate.
This is a really tough one.
On one hand we have been paying coaches hand over fist , while the players were not getting monetary compensation for their efforts. The schools and NCAA made a good amount of money off of the players. So the system changed due to lawsuits.
I don't fault the players for wanting to get theirs. Times are different and we are never walking this back to the days of under the table deals (SMU/Boz/Cam/Bush/Etc). If I were a player and I had the opportunity to set the next decade of my life up financially, I would be foolish to pass up that opportunity.
It is easy for us on the outside to be upset that things have developed the way they have. The system is terrible. NIL is operating like it is the wild wild west and the structures of the transfer portal are absolutely ridiculous as Rhett Lashlee alluded to earlier this week. When you put it all together you have a system that is completely out of whack. Players would be naive to not take advantage of the system. It isn't their fault it is the way it is.
On the other hand, you can ask, "What happened to loyalty to the school and program?" That is a valid question. But the reality is that most of these programs have not been loyal to the players. They are only loyal as long as the players benefit the program. As a player I would be loyal to my school so long as it did not come at the expense of my future (both on and off the field).
In the end, something has to give structurally in college sports. The structures of the system were never meant for what this has evolved into. So I get your frustration and you have every right to not participate in this system. But I do feel that the frustration should be aimed less at the players and more at the landscape that currently exists.