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Today has been a day of reading and reaching out. Soaking in reader comments, fan comments, journalist comments, texting and digesting. The feeling at the end of all of it is the same as the impetus that started the journey. Detroit feels broken. Not “the team is in a rebuild” broken. What happens on the ice shift to shift seems to change drastically. There are players that look broken down, and then you see Raymond break out. The team seems to get ahold of a good shift but can’t string together a solid period let alone a game.
There are bad signings, absolutely. It feels like Kane may be looking at the last mile. The power play is ironically good with a penalty kill that stays at the bottom. There aren’t the “moments” where a coach calls a timeout and resets or settles the group down. Period by period, it feels like you’re going to get something completely different.
So the comments fill with frustrations, which is where they should be. Fans have to be able to have a voice whether things are good or bad. There are faithful viewers who are genuinely frustrated and no answers seem to be coming. Of course, minutes after the post something could change. The “easy” message is to move a coach. At this point, it seems the message is being lost. The post game scrums are almost unwatchable. Without being in the room, no one has a sense of what’s being said or done. Game by game, frustrations mount for many of you and it feels like there should be an answer. At some point, something will change simply with the passage of time. There is a laundry list some of you have made, but push one button. Pick one piece that could have the most impact. It will be interesting to see where everyone ends up.
As for the future of the sport itself: Name, Image, Likeness is bringing possibilities of a completely altered NCAA landscape. For about 10 years I lived outside of Belleville, MI.
The University of Michigan successfully pulled a top recruit who had committed to LSU and it was accomplished with an “NIL deal”. Directly from the article at footballscoop.com, “. The Wolverine reported Michigan offered Underwood an NIL package worth "around" $10.5 million over four years. “
Soak that in for a second. Just over 2.5 million to go along with a full ride and U of M feels they may have purchased a key cog for a championship. As a Red Wings fan, it would feel utterly hypocritical to bash a team “buying” a championship when I love the 2002 team. 14 names from that team (players and staff) are in the hall of fame. Players deferred money. Bret Hull and Datsyuk were on the 3rd line! So, why does it feel so troublesome in the NCAA? First, it’s a split. My own issues with collegiate pay don’t match those of about half of the people I interact with. The movie “Blue Chip” talked about the under the table payments players received. Ron Simmons did an interview and mentioned a Trans Am he was given at Florida State.
The NIL took off like a rocket with whole companies dedicated to making these deals for agents, schools and players. When I spoke to coach Daniels, another newer wrinkle came into play. If a player transfers schools, there had been a rule in the NCAA that kept them from competing for one year. That’s been changed. Then, players were limited to one transfer in their collegiate career. That has also been changed. Now you have as much money as your alumni can come up with combined with the ability to pull a student from one school to another without limit. Technically a player could play for 4 schools (or 5 if they go for that last year of eligibility) and get 4 or 5 different compensation packages.
I transferred once(non sports), and a chunk of my credits didn’t go with me. Maybe that’s the irritant. We know there are athletes who are just waiting to be drafted. There are also athletes who work incredibly hard for their degree. I really want to hear from you on this. In the hockey world, the University of Michigan has some money, Michigan State, schools in Minnesota, Notre Dame etc. it won’t be on the same level as football but it’s there. Now you have the CHL transfer agreement and a potential European transfer agreement.
Let me know your thoughts. Will this drastically alter the landscape? Is a 10.5m over 4 year deal in football excessive? It’s a new world for the NCAA.
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