Illini Football, Meet Devin Pugh

Devin Pugh, a former scholarship player at Weber State, had a common experience. He was promised a four year scholarship, but when his coach retired, the new coach said he did not intend to renew Pugh’s grant-in-aid. Pugh looked into transferring. Several D-I schools expressed interest and offered him a conditional scholarship—contingent upon his ability to play two years. But NCAA rules that require a transfer to sit out a year deprived Pugh of one year of eligibility. Another rule limits player eligibility to five years. The rules left Pugh with only one more year. The interested schools, therefore, withdrew their offers when Pugh was not granted a waiver.

Forced to sit for a year, Pugh transferred to a D-II school, where he could play immediately—but he had to borrow money for tuition. He also worked at a $9 an hour job. Recently, Pugh filed a class action lawsuit alleging that NCAA caps on scholarships and one-year transfer rules are antitrust violations.  Big Ten football programs treat football players better than Weber State treated Pugh. Schools grant athletic scholarships for the entire term of an athlete’s enrollment. Still, Big Ten schools have only 85 scholarships to give.

Turning to Illinois’s hiring of Lovie Smith, it is reasonable to expect more-than-usual turnover among players. The expectation, suddenly, is to challenge for the Big Ten West title, and move up from there. The current squad is mostly populated with two- and three-star star players, and walk-ons. The idea behind changing coaches so suddenly is to attract better players as soon as possible, while maximizing the potential of the current players (as the other coaching staff did).

The pertinent question is, what will happen to the current squad? Will they feel pressure to transfer? The recent turnover at Michigan, replacing Brady Hoke with Jim Harbaugh, suggests that college football—including the Big Ten— has a way of prodding players from the old regime to move on while the team quickly opens up more scholarships for new (and better) players.

If Illinois football players are treated the same way, they will leave with broken dreams and face monopolistic NCAA rules that have a tendency to break the bargain that was made when they were recruited. Pugh’s lawsuit seeks to uncap the number of Division I football scholarships that a member institution can grant in any given year. Pugh also seeks a court order to abolish the NCAA’s one-year eligibility penalty for players who transfer. And key to note, Pugh’s lawsuit seeks treble damages from the NCAA and member schools.

Pugh’s lengthy legal complaint makes the point, repeatedly, that coaching salaries are soaring due to monopoly rules that financially harm the very players who make the game worth watching. They point out that the problem for student athletes is especially acute at schools where a “win now” approach is imperative. The sudden change in Illinois football coaches has potential to add more plaintiffs to Pugh’s lawsuit.