In the past, it was taboo to boo student athletes. But is that acceptable now in the NIL era?
It seems that college football fans are increasingly booing home teams and players. This goes hand in hand with the fact that college football players are openly paid and college athletic departments are asking for more money early on so that they can share the court-ordered revenue with the players, along with their name, image and likeness.
First of all, boo until your voice is gone. When you pay hard-earned money for a ticket to an American football game, you should be allowed to make any non-offensive remarks at the highest possible volume. And yes, that includes booing individual players.
This was most evident in 2024 at Florida State, where quarterback DJ Uiagalelei struggled and has been heard a lot about it. The exact amount he was paid by Oregon State was not disclosed, but as one of several high-profile quarterbacks to enter the sport’s annual free agency, it’s fair to say it was more than enough. The AthleticsBruce Feldman reported that the Seminoles’ team budget this year is zero, at around $12 million. With a few exceptions, the quarterback salary is at the top of every team’s list.
In a sport that has long been the minor leagues of the NFL but can now claim no other way, fans should not be expected to act like anything other than professional sports fans. I would argue that those loud voices should be directed more at the $9.9 million a year coach who put this team together, Mike Norvell, but I’m sure that’s the intention of many. Hopefully most.
And if exercising their right to express disappointment in the most guttural way possible is all they do, these fans are fine. There are attacks on the college football labor pool that are more problematic. They come from management. Let’s go to Hugh Freeze’s postgame press conference following Saturday’s five-turnover, 24-14 home loss to Arkansas.
“I know there are people open and I know we run the ball. We’ve got to find a guy who’s not going to throw it to the other team and we’ve got to find running backs who can hold it,” said Freeze, who picks and coaches the players for $6.5 million a year, is 8-9 in his second season at Auburn and got the chance despite being fired by Ole Miss in 2017 for what the school called “a pattern of personal misconduct” that often quotes Scripture but has been less than forgiving here.
College football coaches face unprecedented challenges right now. But annual free agency and more players getting paid more money — as opposed to select players getting paid under the table — doesn’t absolve them of any responsibility. The coach who tries to absolve it all is doing the work of a million boos and should be called out for something so pathetic.
The same goes for the coach who attacks a kid on social media. Remember that one with Deion Sanders last spring? His son, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders, got into an altercation at “X” with Xavier Smith, a safety who transferred to Austin Peay after Sanders took over the program and told The Athletics of the transition under Sanders: “He destroyed guys’ self-confidence and belief in themselves. The way he did it could have been done with a little more compassion.”
That led to a discussion where an Austin Peay teammate eventually defended Smith and Deion Sanders posted “Lawd Jesus” in reference to a post about that teammate’s stats.
— COACH PRIME (@DeionSanders) May 1, 2024
“I need to do better and not continue doing this, but I was bored,” Sanders later told USA Today. “I was bored and I didn’t say anything hurtful. I don’t attack people.”
Except this is clearly an attack. On an Austin Peay player. On Colorado’s $5.7 million-a-year coach. Now let’s go to that coach’s press conference from last week, where he was asked if he would go fishing with star player Travis Hunter.
“We talk about everything and he’s not the only one,” Sanders said, adding that “I really love these kids” before moving on to unsolicited commentary on the media in the NIL era.
“You used to never attack college football players,” he said. “Now they make more money than any of you. And some of you are jealous of that. So you attack. It used to be hands off a college player because he’s an amateur. Remember that, guys? Now it’s hands on. Go at them. Any way you want. ‘They make more money than me and I’m mad about it. I’m mad about it.'”
Sure, that comment lacks self-awareness, historical perspective, and accuracy. The attacks on Colorado have been overwhelmingly reserved for Sanders, and in part because of the way he’s treated some kids. Sportswriters have been covering college football players with bigger bank accounts long before Eric Dickerson and his gold Trans Am at SMU. Pro tip for aspiring sportswriters: Don’t do it when you’re angry around people who make more money than you, because you’ll be angry all the time.
But Sanders does raise a point worth discussing. If it’s more acceptable for fans to boo in the NIL era, should the sports media treat college players like pros?
As a young reporter covering high school football ($25 a story, less than some kids’ weekly allowances; I’m not mad about it), I once called out a player who fumbled at a key moment. An editor ripped it out and explained it this way: We can say the team fumbled and name the player who recovered it, but we don’t have to publicly shame someone who doesn’t have a scholarship and isn’t getting paid.
College athletes have long existed in that in-between space, on scholarships and perhaps on the path to riches, but not compensated like the pros. Now there are confirmed college quarterbacks who earn more than San Francisco 49ers starter Brock Purdy, for example.
“I always look at the pros as the highest level and I’m more critical of them right away because of the ownership of what they do, it’s their job,” ESPN analyst Booger McFarland said. “College kids, even though they’re the ones playing, I put the ownership on the coaches because it’s their job, so to speak. NIL hasn’t really changed my analysis of the players or the game. It will change my analysis of the coaches. They handpick these teams and decide who gets the money.”
Here’s an idea: Treat everyone fairly and as a human being, a student and a professional. Criticism without getting personal is fine. Just like booing is fine. It’s also not entirely new.
Twelve years ago, I reported on a Michigan State team that had multiple quarterbacks booed off the field. In a quick poll of a few longtime Tennessee football observers, the same two players were both booed the most by the home fans in Neyland Stadium — pre-NIL quarterbacks Jonathan Crompton and Jarrett Guarantano.
Booing is fine. Sharing an athlete’s number on social media (as happened last week to Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis) is not. Sharing a coach’s address on social media (as happened recently to Detroit Lions coach Dan Campbell) is not. Online harassment of players and coaches, and especially people close to them — like Uiagalelei’s fiancée, who was reportedly insulted by some FSU fans — is not.
Get guttural. Don’t get personal. NIL has changed things in three years. But we’re about into year 15 and running from empowering the most pathetic people in sports, the ones who land anonymous attacks directly on a sports figure’s phone.
Bruce Feldman of The Athletic contributed reporting to this story.
(Photo: James Gilbert/Getty Images)
