Texas A&M vs. Auburn - Box Score - November 12, 2022 - ESPN

Auburn has been playing ugly football all season, LTC Kevin B., but at least this game resulted in a win. To me, the result clearly shows that whatever Harsin was doing wasn’t right and he wasn’t the man for the job (despite the alleged shenanigans attributed to the administration and wealthy boosters). Auburn was perfectly capable of beating LSU, AR and MS St, but Harsin let all three games slip through his fingers. Frankly, I would have fired him last year (his first) right after the MS St game. Read about that game. It will make you ill.
From what I’ve heard, Jimbo’s buyout is of such a magnitude that even TAMU has decided to keep him. We shall see.
Buying recruits has been common practice among all the big schools forever, whether they’re from the Big 10, SEC, ACC or any other conference and whether anyone will admit it or not. Some schools have been more successfully discreet than others. Also, the bigger, wealthier schools naturally have a deeper pot of gold from which to dip (either to pay the players or pay for silence). The NIL has simply formalized and legalized the process. However, I do believe that the players deserve compensation for their efforts. The schools, conferences and broadcast networks are making millions of dollars, so why not? It does officially signal the end of an era, which is that of the true student athlete and I somehow see that as sad. Certainly they’ll continue to be student athletes, but in fact, they’re professional athletes trying to reach the next level, which is the NFL. It’s not wrong, and I really don’t know how else it might work, but that’s the situation as it is, in my opinion.
I realize I have one foot in the past, but I can’t help but think of men like my father. He played three years of varsity baseball for Auburn before he entered the Navy during WWII. He never received a nickel from anyone for tuition, books, room, board or transportation (from Birmingham to Auburn and back). He received nothing from his parents. The country was in the Great Depression and they were lucky to get by. The GI Bill didn’t exist. He used the Cooperative Education program (work a quarter, go to school a quarter) and stoked open hearth furnaces in a steel mill in Birmingham. He graduated from Auburn with a degree in mechanical engineering. He was a true student athlete and simply one of thousands of men who did the same.