Former NFL star JJ Watt called NCAA on Monday to refer to collegial athletes as students first.
Watt, in a post of X, pointed to the money the organization earns, the emergence of name, image and equality (zero), the transfer portal and the cross -country teams must earn.
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Arizona Cardinals defensive than JJ Watt, #99, responds after a loss on Patriots at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, on December 12, 2022. (Patrick Breen / The Republic / USA Today Network)
“At one point, NCAA has to drop ‘Student First, Athlete Second’ Charade,” wrote the former Wisconsin Badgers star. “Billions of dollars, zero, transfer portal (free agency), traveling cross-country to mid-week games …
“Education is not the main focus. Admit it and call it what it is. A business. Run 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’s exactly my point,” Watt added. “We have had children who do not ‘make money’ and will never go pro, but still they travel across the country mid -week to ‘conference games’, transfer of schools, sacrifice of studies for sports, etc. None of this is about what does best for the student.”
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Arizona Cardinals Defensive Lineman JJ Watt, #99, gets on the field before a game against Patriots at the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, December 12, 2022. (Patrick Breen / The Republic / USA Today Network)
Many college trainers in the NCAA rows have repeated Watt’s points.
Former Alabama Crimson Tide Football Coach Nick Saban Rev treatment of zero in university sports in February 2024.
“What we have now is not college-football-not college football as we know it. You hear someone use the word ‘student athlete.’ It doesn’t exist, ”Saban said in an interview with ESPN.
He added that collectives in college sports had “nothing to do with name, image and equality.”
ESPN analyst Nick Saban before the game between Notre Dame who fought for Irish and Penn State Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on January 9, 2025. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Preferred Pictures)
“Like an NFL player has a contract, or a coach has a contract, something in place so you don’t have all this attack on guards and mass movement,” he said. “I wonder what fans will say when they don’t even know the team from year to year because there is no development of teams that just bring new players every year.”
