Is the transfer portal exploiting the current generation of athletes?

I’ll be upfront and honest and say it’s difficult for me to invest much in these players today because they’re here for such a short amount of time and can be gone tomorrow if the notion strikes them or the NIL money is better elsewhere.

That being said, I see the portal as exploiting this generation of athletes for much of what ails society today in instant gratification or I quit, how much money can I make over commitment to the program because it’s where you want to be. The real downside for the player, although few if any of them realize it yet because they’re young and inexperienced in life at this point, is how adversity and working hard to be better makes you achieve what you were not capable of previously, and how overcoming adversity instills confidence and character in you that will affect the rest of your life as an adult.

Today they’re Tigers, but tomorrow they can quickly become Aggies, or Volunteers, or Gators, etc, and whilst this may benefit them or not, it certainly does not motivate me investing much interest in them as a Tiger as I once did players in following their paths to being better players, and pulling for them as if they were fully invested themselves.

Whether it’s the NIL, the transfer portal, or playoffs and what it’s done to CFB in general, I don’t see how any of this is healthy for CFB long term, and unless we get a handle on this, the CFB you know in the future will not look anything like the CFB that was so unique and special in the past, and all we’ll rally be left with is regret for what it became. I’m already experiencing much of that TBH.