I, like every other college football adjacent fan, will be blasting headfirst into the new player negotiation simulator when it comes out. As the head coach of the University of Houston, I guarantee a ruthless NIL strategy backed by offshore poker sites and various oil companies who will be the backbone of my award winning program. And, as someone who used to play the games (Jorden Tech lives forever), I genuinely think it’s cool that there will be named players in the game. Not only do those players get to see themselves win a natty in college (sorry Missouri, you don’t have a chance), they’re getting paid in stimulus check money. With the news Arch Manning will not be securing his bag, here’s my question: what does he think opting-in entails?
I think I’ve been pretty clear that I have a hard time really focusing on decisions made by college players. Even though he’s a multimillionaire thanks to NIL, Arch Manning is still 18 years old and prone to losing things. But unlike going to the University of Texas (enjoy Vanderbilt away you cowards), I feel like this a decision worth criticizing.
Because if had said the real reason of “I don’t want my name brand rights being sold this quickly,” this wouldn’t be a blog I felt compelled to write. The excuse his team has crafted, just makes me think Arch Manning is under the impression he’s going to have to Ready Player One himself at the whims of 30 year olds who need to blow off steam after UT crumbles to A&M.
Again, I’m working within the framework of the reasoning provided by the Manning camp. But, in what way is giving your name and likeness over to the NCAA going to affect football play? Is Arch picturing a world where he’s awoken at 1 am before a game, forced to dress in pads, and call a game against Montana Tech during the quarterfinal of the 2027 College Football playoffs? There is just no reasonable explanation for how Arch Manning came to this decision using his desired semantical reasoning. Because, almost every other scholarshipped player in the country disagrees with his reasoning.
Realistically, the only people truly affected by the decision are sub-12-year-old Texas fans who only know the Manning name as a whisper, and Arch himself. I don’t mean to criticize Arch, but the only reason this is a story is because of the name on the back of his jersey. And he’s yet to do anything with that. Just the wording is so ridiculous for, what I imagine, is putting is UT PNG into one of those programs and autogenerating features.
To be fair, the reporter is kind of a scumbag for even releasing that information. It’s just going to lead to people, like me, dogging on the poor kid for listening to his parents.
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