Former NFL Stars JJ Watt The NCAA was called on Monday to refer to college athletes as students.
Watt points out in an article on X that the money that organizations make, name, image and similarity emergence (NIL), transfer portals and off-road travel teams have to make money.
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Arizona Cardinals’ defensive end JJ Watt, #99, responded after losing to the Patriots on December 12, 2022 at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona. (Patrick Breen / Republic / USA Today Network)
“At some point NCAA requires The former Wisconsin star wrote that he would give up the charm of “student first, athlete second”.
“Education is not the main focus. Recognize what it is. A business. Do that.”
When an X user noticed that Watt’s point seemed to refer to only the best player in the best program, Watt agreed.
“That’s exactly what I think,” Watt added. “We have no ‘make money’ kids and will never be professionals, but they are traveling around the country, attending ‘conference games, transferring schools, sacrificing physical education learning, etc. None of this is the most favorable thing for students.”

Arizona Cardinals defensive winger JJ Watt, #99, entered the field before playing against the Patriots at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on December 12, 2022. (Patrick Breen / Republic / USA Today Network)
Many college coaches at the NCAA level responded to Watt’s point.
The previous one Alabama crimson trend Football coach Nick Saban tore up the treatment for zero dollars in college sports in February 2024.
“What we have now is not college football, not college football as we know it. You hear someone using the term ‘student athlete’. It doesn’t exist,” Saban said in an interview with ESPN.
He added that the collective of college sports is “not related to name, image and similarity.”

ESPN analyst Nick Saban played against Lady of Notre Dame with the Irish against Penn State’s Nittany Lions in the Orange Bowl at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami on January 9, 2025. (Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn image)
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“Like NFL players have contracts or coaches have contracts, it’s already in place, so you don’t have all the raids on the roster and mass sports,” he said. “I want to know what fans would say when they don’t even know the team for a year because there’s no team development that attracts new players every year.”
Fox News’s Ryan Morik contributed to the report.
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