You want to know what really gets me about all this conference realignment and the playoff expansion and the CSC stuff Yormark is pushing through? It is the death of the walk on. That is what I cannot get past. Nobody talks about it because it is not flashy. It is not a 5 star recruit or a transfer portal splash. But back in the day, half the heart of this program was built on guys who showed up with nothing but a dream and a high school highlight tape their mom recorded on VHS.
I remember the 1998 season, we had a kid from some 2A school out in West Texas nobody ever heard of. He showed up to tryouts in cleats held together with duct tape. Coach Sullivan put him on scout team. That kid ran the opposing team's offense every single day for two years, getting beat up by starters, never complaining. By his junior year he was our starting strong safety and made All WAC. That does not happen anymore. Now that kid would have transferred after one seester or been pushed out for a portal guy with a flashy recruiting profile.
The walk on culture was the backbone of programs like ours. We never outrecruited Texas or Oklahoma on signing day. But we outworked them in the summer. We had walk ons who became special teams legends. We had guys who paid their own way for two years just to earn a scholarship. That built a toughness you cannot buy. That built a locker room where everybody knew the guy next to him earned his spot. Now you got 18 year olds showing up expecting a bag of NIL money before they ever take a snap in practice.
I watch these spring practice reports and all I see is transfer portal names and recruiting rankings. Nobody is talking about the kid who just showed up to walk on tryouts last week. Nobody is telling the story of the freshman who is going to spend two years on scout team before he ever sees the field. The new revenue sharing model at 20 million a school is going to kill the walk on completely. Why would a coach keep a walk on when he can use that scholarship slot for another transfer? It is just numbers on a spreadsheet now.
We lost something real when we lost the walk on tradition. That kid from the 2A school with duct taped cleats? He is not coming through that door anymore. And that makes me sadder than any conference realignment or playoff format change ever could.