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Culture War Roundup for the week of June 22, 2026

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Yep.

Its one of those situations where the constraints in place made it more 'special.' As a student, you expect to actually run into the players on campus. They were expected to spend a full 4 years there, and attend (easy) classes. They weren't millionaires (yet) but had a good shot at making it big in the NFL if they did well.

Ultimately, I'd be fine if the college football players make money from their likeness, but the team as a whole should still feel entangled with the college its tied to in ways that aren't easily severable, and that's just completely lost now. "Student-Athlete" just isn't really a thing.

I don't want to just randomly lay another problem at the Boomers' feet, but it sure looks like they're the ones who decide to break the system by both being the deep pockets that keep pumping up the athlete's values AND keep pulling out the guardrails on various behaviors and restrictions on the athlete's loyalties b/c they want to make their preferred team as competitive as possible.

Overall seems like another example of a 'runaway' system where everyone pursuing their immediate interests shifts the whole edifice elsewhere, at the detriment of the whole.

I have many thoughts on such things.