Albin speaks on continuous college football chaos, says 'we need guardrails'

Throughout his four-year tenure at the helm of Ohio, it’s more than clear that Tim Albin is a players’ coach.

Whether it be exemplified on the field with inspiring performances from those under the pads or the various other times student-athletes spill their love for the university in media sessions, those inside the program love Albin.

Now with the world of college football essentially becoming free agency and new turns left-and-right coming out of nowhere to entirely change the landscape of collegiate athletics as a whole, Albin is still stepping up for his players.

College football is unrecognizable to even five years ago. Whether it’s good or bad is completely subjective to the viewer, but it’s undeniable that the game has changed. The thing about the old days, is that those are the old days.

The introduction of Name, Image and Likeness has sent the NCAA and college sports into an economic frenzy that has no real clear rules or guidelines. It’s truly the Wild West when it comes to Division I athletics at this point.

The stories and disputes have been coming out since the inception of the idea but it seems as if the discourse and worries are now becoming prevalent every single day.

The big news breaker was a few weeks ago with the new of Matthew Sluka, UNLV and the alleged unpaid NIL promise from the program. It was new to see a player leave mid-season solely for financial reasons. As the weeks roll on now, numerous players around the country have taken the road to decide and leave early, redshirt and enter the transfer portal.

For coaches, it’s something that can completely blindside a program. These teams spend an entire offseason and preseason preparing in a way that expects the available players to… be available. While it’s not something that Albin and his staff have had to worry about, the fear is always there.

Once again supporting his players when asked about the chaos around college football, Albin opted to put the blame on the adults in the room, not the student-athletes.

“We need some guardrails on it… In my conversations that I’ve had with my team in the past two years on this, we didn’t make the rules, they didn’t make the rules. It’s what the rules are,” Albin said, noting that the players are just taking advantage of the system they’re placed in. “The rules state that they can do exactly what’s happening and it’s not their fault.”

Albin and his staff have surely been involved with the system before, more on the unfortunate side. The new era allowed Kurtis Rourke to scoot over to the Big 10 for a substantial pay and is now leading a ranked Indiana team. There’s other former Bobcats that left either for higher visibility or an NIL increase that would still be with the program as well.

Still though, Albin vehemently repeated that it’s not the student-athletes fault or to blame them in any way.

“We as the adults have to get some guardrails. The NCAA is basically paralyzed right now,” Albin noted. “We have to get through this litigation, which they’re getting closer on it… It’s not all on the student-athletes.”

When any real legislation or powerful decision comes from the NCAA, who knows. Will it actually change anything for the better? Completely undecided.

Either way, it’s a new age of college football and a football lifer like Albin is moving with the times to help support his players.