Stop talking already. It’s time to sign on the dotted line.
As the façade of amateurism has crumbled in college sports, the tradition of unfulfilled promises made during recruiting needs to go by the wayside, too.
It’s becoming a trend in college sports for players to claim they haven’t been paid what they’re owed. Louisville punter Brady Hodges is the latest to add his name onto that scroll.
The easiest way to avoid this in the future is to have a contract which spells out what the player needs to deliver and how much he or she is going to get for it.
No handshakes.
No taking anyone at their word.
No implication that you’ll be “taken care of.”
A contract eliminates any confusion.
it’s really not much different then back in the day when players sign, National Letters of Intent, which was binding and assured, schools and coaches that their recruit could not change their mind and choose to attend another school without consequences.
It’s not that big of a step from athletes signing their scholarship either.
It’s really a natural progression to contracts.
There’s potentially way too much money involved nowadays with million dollar name, image and likeness (NIL) deals common place in football and men’s basketball. And the House v. NCAA settlement introducing payments from the universities directly to players instead of third-party collectives will only add more money to the pot.
Hodges appeared to be a last-minute scratch in Louisville’s 35-34 win over Washington in the Sun Bowl on Tuesday. In actuality, according to a post he made on social media, he hasn’t been with the Cardinals since December 10.
Hodges posted that he has not been paid what was promised by Louisville’s collective, 502 Circle. His decision not to play was a direct result of it.
This comes after Yahoo! Sports reported on Monday that Florida State men’s basketball coach Leonard Hamilton was named in a lawsuit brought by six former players, including Louisville transfer Josh Nickelberry, accusing Hamilton and a Seminoles collective of not living up to its deal reportedly shorting the players $250,000.
Yahoo! Sports reported the lawsuit cites texts exchanges and the Seminoles walked out of a practice and nearly organized a boycott before playing Duke because of it.
Those kinds of threats don’t happen when contracts are involved.
This column will be updated.
Reach sports columnist C.L. Brown at clbrown1@gannett.com, follow him on X at @CLBrownHoops and subscribe to his newsletter at profile.courier-journal.com/newsletters/cl-browns-latest to make sure you never miss one of his columns.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville football: Players, program need to start signing contracts
