Today, Belitnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison of Pitt went into the transfer portal. The excuse was that Pitt would be breaking in a new quarterback and the offense would change and blah blah blah.

Bogus. He's looking for a better deal.

This isn't what NIL was supposed to be, even though it was painfully obvious from the word go that this is what it is. It's a pay for play system. College football has become NFL-lite.

Now that Pandora's Box has been open, the NCAA and university administrators are trying to shut it again. Ross Dellinger of Sports Illustrated reported today that they're putting together "additional guidelines" that state that boosters and booster-led collectives are not allowed to take part in the NIL process.

“We let things get out of hand,” one official told Dellinger. “We have to get [the boosters] out of contacting recruits and bartering with them.”

But how do you define what a booster is in this day and age? Is it in an individual, a company, or an individual leading a company?

"The guidelines will provide more guidance to member schools on what many administrators say are NIL-disguised 'pay for play' deals orchestrated by donors to induce prospects, recruit players off other college teams and retain their own athletes," Dellinger wrote.

Ok, great. But how do you enforce that? I don't know if anyone has any idea, and I doubt the NCAA has the guts to really drop the hammer on programs and coaches who are blatantly screwing around. And I don't mean A&M at all.

"College leaders are beginning to speak out publicly about the situation, airing their frustrations over an NIL concept that has quickly evolved from its original intent of star athletes sponsoring a local business to crowdfunding models doling out four- and five-figure payments for appearances," Dellinger wrote.

If they had had an ounce of forethought, they could have seen this coming.

There were rumblings this weekend that Texas WR Xavier Worthy might enter the portal after an excellent freshman season. The reason was that another program, or programs, had offered him a better NIL deal if he entered the portal and signed with them.

Worthy stayed put, but Addison clearly didn't. And Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi has let it be known he thinks USC and Lincoln Riley were tampering with Addison well before he went into the portal. Riley's allies in the media are trying to play that down, claiming that USC hasn't done anything with Addison.

Maybe they have. Maybe they haven't. But I know for sure that some well-known coaches have attempted to convince A&M players who weren't getting enough playing time for their liking to defect. None did, but the coaching staff found out about it.

With the portal and NIL, a player can become a free agent at the drop of the hat. There's nothing to stop them. And there are some real sleazeball coaches out there, some of whom have much better reputations than they deserve.

If I didn't know thousands of other people would beat me to it, I'd go help Mark Emmert clean out his office when he gets the heck out of town sometime between tonight and mid-2023. The man has made a mockery of the NCAA and has been, without question, the worst overseer in any sport at any level. And that includes your local Little League.

The mess that is NIL rests with the NCAA -- if not solely, overwhelmingly. Why? Because when the NCAA got smoked 9-0 by the Supreme Court in Alston V. NCAA last year, it meant that the association could not limit "education-related benefits", it was their second major defeat. In O'Bannon V. NCAA, it was ruled that the NCAA did not control the name, image or likeness of collegiate athletes. In other words, they had lost their control over players.

So, instead of trying to adapt to the new landscape, the NCAA washed its hands of the issue and threw it into the laps of individual universities and states. The association spitefully said they couldn't do anything and the federal government would have to handle NIL with legislation to make things uniform.

I think that there was another, unspoken agenda at play: they figured that, once NIL had become a complete mess, conferences would come crawling back and the NCAA would regain its status as the power over college athletics.

That hasn't happened and likely will not. The opportunity for the NCAA to really exert authority has passed, with 30 states having their own NIL laws now on the books. What's it going to do? If it tries to enforce a new set of rules, it will likely get sued. The only thing it can really do is bring the hammer down on blatant abusers of the system -- which will likely lead to lawsuits as well.

Heckuva job, NCAA.

This isn't about the BS "$30 million" A&M allegedly spent on the 2022 signing class. That's bunk. But are recruits getting paid upfront to sign with programs? You bet. That $8 million deal, that's rumored to involve Tennessee and a 2023 recruit? Not hard to believe.

I know for a fact that one highly-regarded recruit was offered $50,000 upfront from a booster to attend a certain school last year. He didn't take it and went somewhere else (and, presumably, got a better deal). Note: this doesn't involve A&M.

NIL was supposed to be income for players already on campus in return for services rendered (endorsements, basically). That went out the window fast, and it's now just craziness. And it's hard to fathom it changing until the major conferences come together and take care of it themselves.

It's kind of terrifying, but the Aggies won't have a lot of players eligible for the draft next year -- again. It's still a young, but extremely talented, team. But who could do well in the 2023?

Devon Achane, I expect, will have a big year. He could be the most exciting player in college football, and he gets very little attention. But scouts know about him. If he decides to leave, he'll have to answer questions about his size. But a durable season this year should shut up most skeptics.

Ainias Smith is the only starting senior on the offense. His versatility will making him appealing, but he's got to improve his hands -- as in, fewer drops. His size will also likely work against him, and, as with Achane, it shouldn't.

Layden Robinson is one player most folks don't think about, but they'd better. He's draft eligible and was second-team All-SEC last year. He can play, and if he dominates this year, he could head for greener pastures.

Whoever wins the QB competition between Haynes King and Max Johnson will be positioned to go if they have a good year. Both are draft-eligible. I'm not suggesting it, unless they have an amazing season, but it's possible.

The list has to start with Antonio Johnson. He had an awesome season last year, and he can do so many things well. That will likely be put to use this season, which will help his draft status further.

Demani Richardson is probably a mid-rounder at this point, but a big season could really help him. And man, has he gotten ripped. It's make or break for him in 2022.

The same can be said about Andre White. Right now, he's a late pick or undrafted -- but what does that matter? Zilch. He's got a big season coming up where he'll be one of the leaders of the defense. If he has a strong season, he's in the mix.

Watch out, but Edgerrin Cooper will also be draft eligible after next season. And if he's anything like he was last year, he's going to go and probably pretty high.

Both Joneses, Myles and Jaylon, are draft eligible after next season. Their futures, ironically, may depend on beating out the other this summer.

Jimbo Fisher on defensive tackle Shemar Turner: "He and God keep having a meeting, and there's nothing we can do about it right now. He keeps growing and growing and growing."

There are a lot of guys on the defense to be excited about in 2022, but I may be most excited about Turner and Tunmise Adeleye.

When Jimbo Fisher last visited the Houston Touchdown Club for lunch, he informed folks "We'll beat (Alabama's) ass while (Nick Saban) is there." And they did.

Well, he's back in town tomorrow and I wonder if he'll have some more choice words for Saban. Since the Aggies beat Alabama and put together the nation's top recruiting class, Saban has done a lot of whining about how A&M's gone about things. I doubt that has sat well with Jimbo, and if he gets asked about it tomorrow, what's he gonna say?

They might, even if the class isn't a full 25 players. But when you look at the players they're in good shape with right now -- Anthony Hill, David Hicks, TJ Shanahan, Javien Toviano, Chandavian Bradley, Tony Mitchell...you get the idea.

That's six players where A&M either leads or is in very good shape, and I didn't even go past the top 30. All of them would be 5-stars if there are as many in 2023 as there were this year.

Will A&M end up with all of them? No, probably not. But that's not the point. The point is that they're in a position where they could get them, which means they're going to be well-positioned for other elite talent too.

In a span of less than two months, Aggie baseball has gone from unranked to the cusp of the top 10. Their run started with a beatdown of Texas in Austin. At the time, Texas was a top-10 team. Now they're unranked.

I saw a regional projection chart this evening that had A&M hosting. And Texas as the 2 seed.

There wouldn't be fireworks there. Nah.