MustardVol
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2024
- Messages
- 131
- Likes
- 331
Don’t wanna post the link and get in trouble but here is my counterpoint on why Joey should get one more season.
“The NCAA makes a couple billion dollars each year and the people who actually do the work that enables them to make that money receive none of it.”- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”-Warren Buffett
Like you, I read the recent column by John Moorehouse ranting against Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar suing for an additional year of eligibility and immediately thought, “Oh, come on, man!”
College football has changed. It’s very likely going to continue to evolve and those of us that watch the games will have the least impact on what those changes are. We are along for the ride and we have to choose to accept them and keep enjoying the most passionate sport there is, or go the way of the 1990s NASCAR fan and leave the sport behind.
John told us himself he isn’t against college athletes being paid. That’s good because that toothpaste will never go back in the tube. His issue is with a 25 year old Aguilar getting what he calls an eighth year of eligibility. Really? There is a reason John didn’t mention where those eight years were at.
Aguilar received no offers to play college football coming out of high school. I’m not just talking D-I offers, I’m talking none, not Division II, D-III, NAIA, not JUCO, nothing. Joey enrolled in City College of San Francisco and redshirted as a freshman in 2019. In 2020 he wasn’t able to play due to the pandemic, so eligibility wise, going into 2021, he hadn’t played a single snap at any level.
In 2021 Aguilar transferred to Diablo Valley Community College and began competing for the starting job with Dylan Graham. Joey ended up beating Dylan out and started the sixth game of the season, going 3-2 but having played in 10 games. After the season Graham transferred out and Joey was the starter. Unfortunately, after playing the first two games of 2022, an injury sidelined Aguilar for a month and he played in only six games.
For Aguilar’s junior season of 2023, he transferred to D-I Appalachian State University. Going into the season as a junior he’s only played in 16 junior college football games. Despite this, he becomes the starter in the second game of the season and keeps the job through 2024 playing in 25 total games for Appalachian State. A player that received no offers coming out of high school, Aguilar sets multiple single season passing records ranking among Appy State’s top 10 in several career passing categories despite only playing two seasons.
At this point in his college career he has his COVID year left and decides to transfer to UCLA. The NCAA however granted a waiver to players for the 2025-26 season that had played at the NAIA or JUCO level to have those seasons not count against their eligibility. The Nico Iamaleava drama then unfolds and after Nico leaves Tennessee for UCLA, Joey makes the decision to transfer to Tennessee where he played in 13 games in 2025.
So this is where John says Joey is seeking an eighth year, but the argument could be made that the NCAA waiver of JUCO years gave him 2025-26 and that he still retains his COVID year for this season. Joey has played in a total of 37 Division I games, or equal to a three-year starter’s amount of games. It’s disingenuous to pretend what Joey is seeking is an eighth year of being a college athlete.
John’s mentions of players like Kelley Washington, Chris Weinke, or even players that go onto religious missions out of high school only to return to college in their early 20s further makes the point that what Joey is seeking has precedent and that his age shouldn’t be factored in as a reason he shouldn’t be allowed a final season of eligibility. Indiana just won the national championship with a roster that included more than 45 players in the 22-25-year-old range.
The last component of this is that now that we are in the era of college athletes being able to negotiate deals for themselves to be paid, denying Joey the ability to make what reports have said would be around two million dollars for an additional season with Tennessee when it’s obvious that going pro will not be an option for him, seems punitive and against the spirit of NIL era paydays.
Joey graduated with a degree from Appalachian State in Communications. He hasn’t taken the path of a lot of bolt-and-run college athletes that turn pro without even finishing school. Joey doesn’t have off-the-field troubles that bring negative attention to the school. His ability to play at a level worthy of an SEC starting QB, the leadership and maturity that he can pass on to Tennessee’s other youthful quarterbacks, and the money he can help generate for the university is worthy of the payday that comes with it.
With all of the things going on in college football right now, letting a young man like Joey Aguilar benefit from the NIL era paydays is the last thing anyone should be ranting about or having issue with. There is nothing that should be seen as “bad optics” letting a good player and even more so, a good person get compensated for a complete career of college football which is what an additional season would provide Aguilar.
I agree that there has to be some end to eligibility at the college level. There should never be a player that moves on to the pro level that can come back into college and play. On the other end of the spectrum, I don’t believe that years played lower than the FCS level should affect Div-1 eligibility years for FBS players. The competition level is just so drastically different.
John finishes saying Joey should “get a job”. Like it or not, college football player is now very much a job and for Aguilar it’s a job that he will likely never be paid as well for, as this single season would pay him.
“The NCAA makes a couple billion dollars each year and the people who actually do the work that enables them to make that money receive none of it.”- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
“The most important investment you can make is in yourself.”-Warren Buffett
Like you, I read the recent column by John Moorehouse ranting against Tennessee quarterback Joey Aguilar suing for an additional year of eligibility and immediately thought, “Oh, come on, man!”
College football has changed. It’s very likely going to continue to evolve and those of us that watch the games will have the least impact on what those changes are. We are along for the ride and we have to choose to accept them and keep enjoying the most passionate sport there is, or go the way of the 1990s NASCAR fan and leave the sport behind.
John told us himself he isn’t against college athletes being paid. That’s good because that toothpaste will never go back in the tube. His issue is with a 25 year old Aguilar getting what he calls an eighth year of eligibility. Really? There is a reason John didn’t mention where those eight years were at.
Aguilar received no offers to play college football coming out of high school. I’m not just talking D-I offers, I’m talking none, not Division II, D-III, NAIA, not JUCO, nothing. Joey enrolled in City College of San Francisco and redshirted as a freshman in 2019. In 2020 he wasn’t able to play due to the pandemic, so eligibility wise, going into 2021, he hadn’t played a single snap at any level.
In 2021 Aguilar transferred to Diablo Valley Community College and began competing for the starting job with Dylan Graham. Joey ended up beating Dylan out and started the sixth game of the season, going 3-2 but having played in 10 games. After the season Graham transferred out and Joey was the starter. Unfortunately, after playing the first two games of 2022, an injury sidelined Aguilar for a month and he played in only six games.
For Aguilar’s junior season of 2023, he transferred to D-I Appalachian State University. Going into the season as a junior he’s only played in 16 junior college football games. Despite this, he becomes the starter in the second game of the season and keeps the job through 2024 playing in 25 total games for Appalachian State. A player that received no offers coming out of high school, Aguilar sets multiple single season passing records ranking among Appy State’s top 10 in several career passing categories despite only playing two seasons.
At this point in his college career he has his COVID year left and decides to transfer to UCLA. The NCAA however granted a waiver to players for the 2025-26 season that had played at the NAIA or JUCO level to have those seasons not count against their eligibility. The Nico Iamaleava drama then unfolds and after Nico leaves Tennessee for UCLA, Joey makes the decision to transfer to Tennessee where he played in 13 games in 2025.
So this is where John says Joey is seeking an eighth year, but the argument could be made that the NCAA waiver of JUCO years gave him 2025-26 and that he still retains his COVID year for this season. Joey has played in a total of 37 Division I games, or equal to a three-year starter’s amount of games. It’s disingenuous to pretend what Joey is seeking is an eighth year of being a college athlete.
John’s mentions of players like Kelley Washington, Chris Weinke, or even players that go onto religious missions out of high school only to return to college in their early 20s further makes the point that what Joey is seeking has precedent and that his age shouldn’t be factored in as a reason he shouldn’t be allowed a final season of eligibility. Indiana just won the national championship with a roster that included more than 45 players in the 22-25-year-old range.
The last component of this is that now that we are in the era of college athletes being able to negotiate deals for themselves to be paid, denying Joey the ability to make what reports have said would be around two million dollars for an additional season with Tennessee when it’s obvious that going pro will not be an option for him, seems punitive and against the spirit of NIL era paydays.
Joey graduated with a degree from Appalachian State in Communications. He hasn’t taken the path of a lot of bolt-and-run college athletes that turn pro without even finishing school. Joey doesn’t have off-the-field troubles that bring negative attention to the school. His ability to play at a level worthy of an SEC starting QB, the leadership and maturity that he can pass on to Tennessee’s other youthful quarterbacks, and the money he can help generate for the university is worthy of the payday that comes with it.
With all of the things going on in college football right now, letting a young man like Joey Aguilar benefit from the NIL era paydays is the last thing anyone should be ranting about or having issue with. There is nothing that should be seen as “bad optics” letting a good player and even more so, a good person get compensated for a complete career of college football which is what an additional season would provide Aguilar.
I agree that there has to be some end to eligibility at the college level. There should never be a player that moves on to the pro level that can come back into college and play. On the other end of the spectrum, I don’t believe that years played lower than the FCS level should affect Div-1 eligibility years for FBS players. The competition level is just so drastically different.
John finishes saying Joey should “get a job”. Like it or not, college football player is now very much a job and for Aguilar it’s a job that he will likely never be paid as well for, as this single season would pay him.
