RIDGE RUNNER CHRONICLES: Is This the Future of College Football?

By Editor | August 5, 2025 |

By Bill Hoagland

I don’t follow college football anymore. With the new portal rules, the influx of big money (thanks to NIL and alums who are way too rich) and the confusing and ongoing ramifications of the House v NCAA settlement, it just adds to the list of things that get me confused; college football is becoming much too complicated. The old Big Eight Conference, which I used to enjoy because of its simplicity, is no longer simple; the Big Ten now has an east coast school and several “alien” west coast schools in the conference in addition to the traditional mid-west schools that we all know and love; and now we have this: Texas Tech is paying Felix Ojo, a high school senior, to come and play football for them in exchange for 5.1 million dollars. We are told that money is not the reason why he is coming to Texas Tech. Right.
According to a public relations spokesman at Texas Tech, the guaranteed amount for Ojo is actually 2.3 million dollars and if he meets the “conditions” in his negotiated contract, then he could receive the extra 2.8 million. I still cannot find out what those “conditions” are, so I am curious: as a part of the “deal,” does Ojo have to maintain a passing grade point average? Better yet, if Texas Tech or some rich alums are giving a significant amount of money to this one player, does anyone really think that Texas Tech is going to let Ojo flunk out, assuming that maintaining his grades is a “condition” in this contract? And by the way, why are we still referring to these big money eighteen year olds as “student” athletes? At what point do they become “professionals” ?
After the Texas Tech deal was announced last week, I listened to some sports bloggers discuss it. Lots of fans are upset—not because an obscene amount of money is going to an 18 year old high school kid, but rather, because some other colleges (including my alma mater, Michigan) did not beat that offer. But at least one sports blogger put a positive spin on it: if schools with less prominent football programs start coming up with this kind of money to induce high school students to play for them, it will improve parity in the big conferences, and less prominent football programs in those conferences will benefit and everyone will be happy. Really? What could possibly go wrong?
We are talking here about “institutions of higher learning,” right? Maybe you are having trouble seeing what constitutes “higher learning” in this deal. Truth is, these standout athletes are already learning what appears to be an essential life lesson and that lesson is: “Follow the Money.”things that he did for major league baseball, it was his idea to plant the ivy at Wrigley Field, he induced Harry Caray to start singing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” at Comiskey Park, a tradition that continues in Chicago to this day, and he brought the first Black player, Larry Doby, into the American League. I don’t have the space here to get into further details about this unique man but intend to do so in a future column. Suffice to say that he was eventually inducted into the MLB Hall of Fame and rightly so. I bet plenty of White Sox fans today wish they could somehow get him back.
Note: My thanks to Alan Dowen, a lawyer buddy, for reminding me about Bill Veeck and Disco Demolition Night.
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■ Bill Hoagland has practiced law in Alton for more than 50 years, but he has spent more than 70 years hunting, fishing and generally being in the great outdoors. His wife, Annie, shares his love of the outdoor life. Much of their spare time is spent on their farm in Calhoun County. Bill can be reached at [email protected].