Why Oregon football recruiting is harder than it's been in 30 years

In relationships, facilities and development, Oregon is one of the strongest programs in college football. Dan Lanning is a relentless master recruiter who connects with players and their parents, a young, dynamic coach who's landed classes ranked 5, 6, and 9 over the last three cycles.

None of that has changed. What has changed is that competing schools are shelling out historic amounts of money for players, and some are frontloading deals and overpaying for recruits.

Tuesday Ross Dellenger of CBS Sports reported that Opendorse, the platform that processes payments to players by NIL collectives, shelled out $2.82 BILLION in June, a record that exceeded last year by 824 percent.

The NCAA and its member institutions brought this on themselves. For too long they lived by the myth of the student-athlete, exploiting players while reaping huge windfalls from television rights. Now the athletes have a hammer of their own, and they're using it.

The lucrative recruiting industry tells them exactly what they're worth. The network of tryout camps, combines, 7-on-7 competitions hype up demand. Well-produced highlight videos get boosters and recruiting coordinators salivating and now the players have professional representation, some of it exceedingly corrupt, charging fees as high as 20 percent to negotiate deals.

Kids, their parents and their agents have a firmer grasp on how this game is played. They want to maximize profits now rather than waiting for the long-view prospect of reaching the NFL, something that's real for only 1% of them.

By committing, decommitting and reserving the right to enter the portal, a recruit and his people get three and four bites of the apple. There's tampering. Inducements are paid merely to make a visit. With the proliferation of all-star games and combine events, players and their families talk.

What makes the landscape wilder and more lawless is the absence of a collective bargaining agreement, even an acknowledgement that athletes are employees. It's a specialized economy like acting or music with a complete absence of standardized contracts, lacking even a clear way of proving that an agreement has been reached or is enforceable.

There's no mechanism for special situations. Recently quarterback Jake Retzlaff left the BYU Cougars after he was sued in civil court for an allegation of rape. The parties settled out of court, but in doing so, Retzlaff had to admit to consensual premarital sex, a violation of Brigham Young's strict honor code, which prohibits coffee, drinking and beards, in addition to the horizontal Mamba.

Facing a suspension of seven games, Retzlaff left the program. But the portal is long since closed. He's considering a transfer to Baylor.

The NCAA can't get out of its own way or enforce its own rules. In a wild marketplace, a coach and a program can do everything right, present a good plan and make a good presentation to an athlete but still miss like a power hitter fooled by a 3-and-2 changeup.

Obot reportedly signed with Utah for more money than first-round draft pick Josh Conerly got as a two-year starter at Oregon.

Lanning and his staff are working the program and they'll still sign a good class, but this is a crazy competitive marketplace. If everyone is overpaying for players and you refuse to overpay for players, you'll have high principles, but no players.

The Ducks are winning a few, but it's harder than it's been for 30 years.

Remember last year, when UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka bailed on the team after three games because he said he wasn't getting the NIL deal he was promised? That's the world we live in now.

How long before the first playoff holdout? Not just an isolated player, but a starting offensive line or defensive backfield. With so much money at stake and the vast disparity between position groups and veteran players versus highly-touted recruits, it's a matter of time.

Read More: