With the world of the Transfer Portal and NIL, college sports have become very different than what they were even 10 years ago. NIL and the Transfer Portal have changed the face of college sports forever, and while it seems like some athletes are in it all for the money and just to prepare for their professional career, others are still in it for the education, just like Notre Dame's latest commit.
Notre Dame had one of their biggest recruiting weekends they have had all recruiting cycle during the holiday weekend. Receiving commitments from three big-time wide receiver prospects, Devin Fitzgerald, Kaydon Finley, and Brayden Robinson. Robinson was the latest to commit as a 4-star wide receiver, choosing the Fighting Irish over the Miami Hurricanes for one reason that might surprise a lot of people in this day in age of college football.
In his interview with On3's Blue & Gold, Robinson talked about why he chose the Fighting Irish, and it was not just because of the stellar football program. Robinson spoke about the education he believes he can get at Notre Dame and how that was a selling point from the coaching staff.
"The education there is huge," Robinson said. "They preached that the Notre Dame degree can help you do anything in life, that's definitely big for me. You get to meet the right people and get to where I want to be after I'm done playing football."
Education is a not a huge emphasis in college sports nowadays
With the world of NIL and the Transfer Portal, a student-athlete can spend four years in college and make more than some would make in their lifetime. They can also spend four years in college and go to a different university in a different part of the country every year. The emphasis on going to college is not necessarily on getting an education, but simply playing sports in order to go to the pros.
A lot of student-athletes go to college and don't even finish their degree in order to go to the NFL, or MLB, or NBA, or whatever professional league, in order to continue their career. However, they can't play sports forever, and then what do they do after with no degree?
Sure, they have a professional career, and if they are lucky, they are big enough to not need a degree, but many of them don't have anything to fall back on. Brayden Robinson doesn't want that for himself, so while he chose Notre Dame for their football program, he also chose the Fighting Irish because of the education he can get while playing football.