The former NFL JJ Watt star called NCAA on Monday to refer to university athletes as first students.
Watt, in an X publication, pointed out the money that the organization earns, the advent of the name, image and likeness (NIL), the transfer portal and travel equipment through the country have to do.
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The defensive wing of the Cardinals of the Arizona, JJ Watt, #99, reacts after a defeat against the Patriots in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on December 12, 2022. (Patrick Breen / The Republic / USA Today Network)
“At some point, the NCAA needs to drop the ‘student first, the second athlete’ Charada ‘, wrote former Wisconsin Badgers star.” Billions of dollars, void, transfer portal (free agency), trips through the country for mid -week games …
“Education is not the main focus. Admite it and call it as it is. A business. Tell it as such.”
When an X user noticed that Watt’s point seemed to refer only to the best players in the best programs, Watt agreed.
“That is exactly my point,” Watt added. “We have children who are not ‘earning money’ and they will never be professionals, but they are traveling through the country in the middle of the week for ‘Conference games’, transferring schools, sacrificing studies for sports, etc. It is not about what is best for the student.”
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The Defensive Lin of the Cardinals of the Arizona, JJ Watt, #99, enters the field before a game against the Patriots in State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on December 12, 2022. (Patrick Breen / The Republic / USA Today Network)
Many university coaches in the ranks of the NCAA have echoed Watt’s Point.
Former Alabama Crimson Tide soccer coach Nick Saban, scraped Nil’s treatment in university sports in February 2024.
“What we have now is not university football, not university football as we know it. You listen to someone to use the word ‘student’. That does not exist,” Saban said in an interview with ESPN.
He added that groups in university sports had “nothing to do with the name, image and likeness.”
ESPN Nick Saban analyst before the game between Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Penn State Nittany Lions in Orange Bowl at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on January 9, 2025. (Images of Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn)
“Like an NFL player, he has a contract or a coach has a contract, something in his place, so you don’t have all this lists and mass movement incursion,” he said. “I wonder what fans are going to say when they don’t even know the team from year to year because there is no team development, it only brings new players every year.”
