Cameron Calhoun to the portal. Ouch!

[Utesbyfive]

This is getting ridiculous.

I’d post a link, but apparently Tony doesn’t want me to.

[BD]

What the????

[UteBacker]

Man, I’m really starting to lose my college athletics steam. I’m starting to wonder if it’s worth it anymore.

[Utesbyfive]

I’m turned off by it all. This has to end somehow.

[BD]

Same with me.

When I walked out of the Iowa State game, before I got to my car, I heard THREE separate discussions by Ute fans saying they are considering not renewing their season tickets for next season.

At this time, I am leaning on renewing my season tickets and coming back for one more season, but if my interest falls off, I might just not make it to next season, or 2026.

Sad what is happening.

[Rick Walker]

This is stupid

[Yergensen]

Terrible news. Thought he was good this year and only going to get better at one of the most important positions.

[PNWUte29]

This one hurts…I’m ready for some good news. It was a rough season, we had a pretty decent signing classes despite how poorly the year went. I’m ready for some positives.

[PhiladelphiaUte]

Did he all of a sudden just change his mind? The DNews reported a couple of days ago that he’d already committed to return in 2025. In fact, as of right now, they’re still reporting this.

[NarfUte]

He got offered a better deal

[jshame17]

They’re all just mercenaries now..

Absolute trash college ball has become.

[ryynoo]

They are reporting that he is leaving, not staying.

[NorthernUte]

Not seeing this anywhere, hoping it is not true

[Rick Walker]

He announced on twitter

[Anfernee]

😔

[RustyShackleford]

F**k him

[jshame17]

Oof 😓

We need bags on bags to rebuild this team…

[Holladay Ute]

This is way painful. Especially considering how he led us on (the fans, the team, etc.). Hopefully college sports changes something sooner rather than later. It’s pro sports but w/out salary caps, contracts, or a draft. Hard enough for small markets to compete in pro sports w/ those things in place.

[Stone]

Agreed. NIL is the wild west. There are no real rules. It is a mess, and it is going to kill the sport. The beauty of college football (in my opinion) has been getting to know the players, see them develop, and cheer for the alma mater. I liked that the players were trying to play their way to the next level and a paycheck.

I LOVED Utah basketball during my youth, but I started losing interest in Utah basketball and college basketball in general when players cycled through so much that I no longer recognized any players from one year to the next. It looks like football may be going that direction, too. Sadly.

I would support salary caps and contracts. Sadly, it needs to become more professional-like. Right now it is like the NFL, but without contracts, no salary cap, limited revenue sharing (only within conferences), no draft, etc.

It is a mess

[//r00t4Utes]

I know it may not be likely, but there’s a chance he comes back if Utah can re-recruite him.

I would say it is comparable to the NFL but with MLB rules. Meaning the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, and Boston are spending twice as much as other tems for whatever players they want.

[UteBacker]

I told myself that when we started losing players to P2 NIL $$, I’m out. I think I’m going to have to evaluate how serious I am about that.

[Stone]

Yes, I fear your feelings are shared by many (including me). If things are not reigned-in in a balanced way, I think a lot of fans are going to turn the whole thing off.

[The Miami Ute]

A combination of the networks and naked self-interest by players is going to kill college football as we know it. Without any guardrails or ground rules that everyone has to play by, then fans’ entertainment dollars are going to go elsewhere and college football will become a worse version of the XFL.

[stbone]

Growing up in Denver in the 80’s, I lived and breathed Broncos football. Free agency ended it for me when I realized I could either be a fan of players with no regard to their team, or I could be a fan of a logo and a team owner. I haven’t watched an NFL game in almost a decade.

With NIL, I am starting to feel the same way now about Utah football/college football. The fun is watching a program be built, watching players develop, and being part of a tribe. That is all gone. In the past three years, I have gone from watching every game to mostly just watching highlights.

At Utah’s first Rose Bowl, I thought that was likely peak Utah before NIL ruined the game. Turns out I was right.

[AlohaUte]

Man, this one hurts. Bummer.

[Holladay Ute]

It’s tough. Part of me wants to protest college sports and boycott everything until they fix it, but the only team I would be hurting is the Utes. Stuck between a rock and a hard place. My solution for now is to only watch Utah Athletics and nothing else.

[EagleMountainUte]

It’s what I do mostly. You just end up not being able to talk about college athletics with your buddies. The other con is you really take losing seasons harder. The little time invested watching Utah football became just a stressful annoyance more than entertainment.

Chat made it easier to just complain. But then you are told you are a bad fan and complainer. Kind of sucks. But I watched around 4-5 games outside of Utah. One was that Georgia rivalry game a few Oregon games.

[Bob]

I know I’m late to the conversation but I’m not losing sleep over this. “According to a source close to the situation, Calhoun’s decision came after receiving offers from two different programs that Utah was not willing to match financially. Calhoun was offered “nearly double” the amount of money the Utes offered him for the 2025 season, the source told The Salt Lake Tribune”. That tells me that Utah didn’t feel that keeping him was worth what he wanted. Utah has consistently put out one of the top defenses in the nation (an analysis in the past two days showed that with an offense even in the “top 90” Utah would have likely finished with at least nine wins). Until the defense lets us down I’m going to assume they know what they’re doing and that they feel like they will manage fine without him, otherwise they would have paid to keep him. There’s always the possibility that he comes back to Utah after “feeling out” the portal, but that is unlikely.

[rsimmons]

Nice observation Bob. Calhoun was my first ouch the others are easily replaced we’re going to have room for about 30 quality replacements just part of what’s going to be going down in the future let’s get used to it

[Author]

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