College football is facing a financial reckoning, and it’s happening at breakneck speed. In just three years since introducing Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules in 2021, the sport has stumbled into what some call the “Sam Bradford Problem.” While the term may seem complex, the problem is familiar to football.

What Is the Sam Bradford Problem?

The “Sam Bradford Problem” is a term that harkens back to the NFL’s own salary struggles in 2010. Bradford signed a staggering six-year, $78 million contract with the St. Louis Rams as a rookie, making him one of the highest-paid players in the league before he’d even taken a snap.

In 2010, Bradford’s deal with the Rams set a dangerous precedent in the NFL. Rookies, often drafted high based on potential rather than proven performance, were commanding salaries that dwarfed those of established stars who’d been grinding for years. This led to resentment in locker rooms and financial strain for teams, as massive rookie contracts ate up salary cap space.

The NFL took 90 years to confront this kind of rookie-veteran pay disparity, eventually addressing it with a rookie wage scale in the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). College football, however, has barreled into the same issue in a fraction of the time, and the fallout could reshape the sport as we know it.

It took like 3 years for college football to develop a Sam Bradford Problem

Took the NFL 90 years https://t.co/w0ptGgSbBW

— James David Dickson (@downi75) May 16, 2025

Fast-forward to this year, and college football is grappling with a similar imbalance, but the stakes feel even higher. The landscape has shifted dramatically since the NCAA allowed athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness in 2021.

Speaking on “The Paul Finebaum Show” recently, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, one of the most successful coaches, sounded the alarm on this issue. He implied that he wants a respectful system and more pay for seniority.

“I just want to be able to have a freshman come in and not make more than a senior, and I’d like for other sports to be able to still survive. You know, we’re on the brink of probably one to two years away from a lot of schools cutting sports,” highlighting how this pay disparity disrupts team hierarchy and threatens the broader ecosystem of college sports to a great extent.

RELATED: Georgia Coach Kirby Smart Issues Stark Warning About NIL Chaos and What’s Coming Next for College Sports

Top recruits are signing NIL deals worth millions before they even step on campus, often out-earning upperclassmen who’ve put in years of work. While it is impressive to see such young talent perform well in life, our favorite players build a strong financial foundation, the lopsided pay has created frustrations and instability, to say the least.

Multiple calls have reiterated some form of control on the pay scale, and those who value loyalty have been hurt by the ever-changing landscape.

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In terms of true spending power, there might not be a program in college athletics that holds more weight than Texas A&M.

The Aggies are heavily backed by oil-based money moguls that can drop seven-figure checks by the athletic director’s office without batting an eye, but it has yet to get them over the hump in the NIL era.

A&M fans have endured 122 seasons of baseball without a national title, and despite claiming three national titles—the most recent being in 1939—the Aggies football team has never won a nationally recognized championship in its 131-year history. Basketball has never made a Final Four, or an Elite Eight for that matter, and softball, well, it has won two national titles—but not since 1987.

This spring, it appeared that the program’s baseball and softball teams might have a chance to end their collective drought’s but after some late-night drama on Sunday, those hopes came crashing down in yet another disappointing result.

Coming into the 2025 season, Texas A&M’s softball program was the Preseason No. 1 team in the country and the trendy pick to win a national championship. Fast forward to the end of the regular season and the Aggies are 28-25 (11-19 SEC) and will likely be headed home when the NCAA Tournament starts.

After a 47-10 regular season, the Texas A&M softball team earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and were among a short list of favorites to dethrone Oklahoma. Then, in the blink of an eye, they became the first ever No. 1 seed to fail to advance out of their own regional.

The University of Minnesota Duluth women’s hockey program has announced the trio that will captain the Bulldogs for the 2025-26 season.

Graduate forward Mary Kate O’Brien will wear the “C” as the captain, while senior defenseman Tova Henderson and junior forward Grace Sadura will each sport the “A” as alternate captains.

O’Brien, an alternate captain last season, is coming off the most productive season of her collegiate career. The Wilbraham, Mass. native skated in all 39 games for the Bulldogs, and scored seven goals and added 18 assists – also a career best effort – for 25 points. O’Brien also added both a power play goal and a shorthanded goal, and had five games where she recorded multiple points. Currently working towards her Masters in Business Administration, O’Brien completed her undergraduate studies just two weeks ago, and graduated magna cum laude with a double major in Business Analytics and Marketing. O’Brien is a two-time AHCA Division I All-American Scholar, as well as a 2024 CSC Academic All-District honoree. She is also a three-time WCHA Scholar Athlete and WCHA All-Academic Team selection.

Henderson’s breakout season was crowned with a spot on the All-WCHA Second Team. A product of Richmond, B. C., Henderson compiled six goals and 14 assists for 20 points – all career best numbers. With two game-winning tallies and three power play goals, Henderson was twice named the WCHA’s Defender of the Week in 2024-25, and she owned a +20 plus/minus rating, the third highest rating on the team. Henderson was also named to Canada’s’ National Women’s Development Team as part of the Women’s Euro Hockey Tour that took place on Dec. 11-15 in Tampere, Finland.

Like O’Brien and Henderson, Sadura registered a collegiate-career best offensive season, scoring six goals and adding eight assists for 14 points. A AHCA Division I All-American Scholar, Sadura was named a WCHA Scholar Athlete, as well as to the WCHA All-Academic Team this past season, her first eligible season for either league honor. Sadura, who hails from Chanhassen Minn., was also a member of UMD’s Athletics Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council this past year.

The Bulldogs went 22-15-2 overall this season and reached their fifth-straight NCAA Tournament Regional Final.

Click HERE to view Texas A&M’s postgame press conference.

Game #58: #1 Texas A&M 14, #2 Liberty 11 (8 innings)
Records: Texas A&M (48-10, 16-7), Liberty (49-13, 23-3)
WP: Sydney Lessentine (6-2)
LP: Paige Bachman (11-4)
Box Score

Game #59: #2 Liberty 6, #1 Texas A&M 5
Records: Texas A&M (48-11, 16-7), Liberty (50-13, 23-3)
WP: Elena Escobar (25-3)
LP: Emiley Kennedy (21-6)
Save: Kaylan Yoder (1)
Box Score

After a magical season that peaked with being named co-champions of the 2025 SEC Softball Tournament, No. 1 national seed Texas A&M suffered a 6-5 loss to Liberty in Game 7 of the Bryan-College Station Regional on Sunday night.

With the loss, the Aggies become the first top-seeded team to not reach a super regional since the NCAA Tournament began seeding in 2005.

Backed into a corner and needing to win two straight on Sunday, A&M fought and clawed its way out of holes in both games and played through extra innings to win 14-11 in an afternoon affair to give itself a chance.

However, a five-run sixth inning in the nightcap led to the defeat that ended the Aggies’ season.

“There was so much good about this season,” head coach Trisha Ford said. “It’s just hard because of how this finished.

“These kids worked their tails off all year. They earned everything that was given to them, and we also earned this loss. … It wasn’t on my bingo card, to be honest with you.”

After an emotional rollercoaster of an early game, A&M led 3-1 in the sixth and positioned itself well with just six outs away from the super regional round. But catcher Savannah Jessee’s home run tied the game and forced Ford to remove left-hander Emiley Kennedy in her last moments in Maroon.

“[Kennedy] has been huge for us,” Ford said. “She’s helped build this program. Today just wasn’t her day. That’s sometimes how it goes. We’ve all been there. Unfortunately, pitching-wise, we had a lot of arms that we just couldn’t execute when we needed to.”

Righty Grace Sparks entered the circle and gave up a single and a three-run homer to put the Aggies behind, 6-3.

Needing an answer, Allie Enright’s clutch gene showed up again at the perfect time as she smoked a solo homer 262 feet to put the Aggies within two. Senior Koko Wooley had one more special moment under the Davis lights with an RBI single to cut the deficit to one.

With senior right-hander Emily Leavitt doing her job and going three up, three down in the seventh, all the Aggies needed was one run to save the season.

One run to keep dancing.

A&M put two baserunners on with a single and a walk, but Liberty southpaw Kaylan Yoder fizzed a ball past the swinging bat of Kramer Eschete to end it.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

In three appearances this weekend, All-American left-hander Emiley Kennedy allowed 15 runs on 14 hits across just nine innings pitched.

Ecstasy for the Lady Flames. Heartbreak for the Aggies.

“I want us to be remembered by our grit,” Kennedy Powell said. “We weren’t going to go down without a fight. We fought to the very last out in any and every game we played.”

The day’s conclusion was even harder to stomach after coming back and even needing an extra inning to stave off elimination earlier in the day.

Despite her eight earned runs against the Lady Flames on Saturday, Ford stuck to her guns and started her ace.

However, “Lefty” struggled again, putting A&M in a two-run hole before Ford pulled the senior.

Right-hander Sidne Peters briefly entered, but a Rachel Roupe grand slam put the Lady Flames up 6-0 and the Aggies on the brink.

In the fourth inning, the Aggies finally looked like the team they had been all year, erasing a 6-1 deficit in a blink.

Freshman KK Dement jolted the crowd awake with a home run on the second pitch of the inning. The Aggies kept rolling with four more runs, capped by back-to-back homers from Mya Perez and Mac Barbara.

“The future is very bright,” Ford said. “KK, that kid is special. Like so good, and just a student of the game.”

A&M kept the pressure on in the fifth, with seven straight batters reaching safely to tack on three more runs and put the team in the driver’s seat with a 10-6 lead.

Ford turned to an unlikely face: freshman left-handed spinner Kate Munnerlyn to relieve.

Will Huffman, TexAgs

Texas A&M finishes 2025 with a 48-11 overall record.

The little-used rookie showed her guts and only allowed one more run into the sixth, which she ended on a strikeout with two runners aboard.

A&M added an insurance run in the seventh via a Perez single that scored Wooley, but Munnerlyn’s luck ran out as the Lady Flames tied it with three straight singles and a bases-loaded hit by pitch. Fellow freshman Sydney Lessentine entered and escaped the potential game-winning jam to force extras.

The eighth inning saw Powell single up the middle to score Enright and Eschete right before Kelsey Mathis crossed on a Wooley grounder that grew the A&M lead to an insurmountable 14-11.

Yet those good feelings were erased as the sun set on Davis Diamond and the 2025 A&M softball season.

“I’m excited for this freshman class and also who’s returning next year,” Ford said. “We have pieces, we know this. We just have to keep moving forward, the sun will come out tomorrow.”

For some college graduates, collecting a diploma is an essential step towards a high-paying or professionally fulfilling career. (Maybe even both.) But others are taking a less expected path, finishing up their academic careers and pivoting to blue-collar jobs involving manual labor, including farm work and construction. Does this represent a loss of ambition — or is it more a case of doubling down on what really matters?

Writing at Air Mail, Jeanne Malle explored the growing phenomenon of Gen Z graduates deciding that office work really isn’t for them. The recent grads Malle spoke with opted for a wide range of jobs that you might not expect to be highly sought by people in their early 20s, including farming, butchery and wildlife work. Malle described the appeal of “trades that feel ethically grounded and carry little social risk” among the twentysomethings seeking out jobs in those fields.

This shift isn’t without precedent, though. The last 15 years have seen the publication of a number of acclaimed books that made the case that working with one’s hands can be deeply fulfilling. Both Matthew B. Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry into the Value of Work and Nina MacLaughlin’s Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter are compelling books that challenge the conventional wisdom of what a meaningful job can be.

It also seems like no coincidence that Malle’s article was published at a time when there’s a wide-ranging national discussion happening on the subject of higher education. Is the purpose of college — and, more broadly, of education — simply to instruct someone in a trade, or is it to impart a wider range of knowledge and spark a lifelong process of discovery? The graduates profiled in this recent Air Mail article certainly seem to know where they stand.