Mark Madden's Hot Take: College athletes should do what's best for themselves

Jordan Addison, the reigning Biletnikoff Award winner as college football’s top wide receiver in 2021, will likely transfer from Pitt to Southern Cal. Addison will be a junior.

Pitt supporters are apoplectic, which is their preferred disposition. You’d think they’d be grateful for a chance to martyr themselves.

Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi is mad, also his preferred disposition. He thinks Southern Cal is tampering with Addison before he enters the transfer portal. Well, duh.

But there’s no reason for Addison to stay at Pitt.

Pitt will have a new quarterback, offensive coordinator and receivers coach next season. If Addison has to start over, do it someplace with a higher profile where he can better profit by his name, image and likeness (NIL) rights.

Addison is also friends with Southern Cal quarterback Caleb Williams. Both are from the D.C. area.

Addison isn’t betraying Pitt. He doesn’t owe Pitt anything. If Addison stayed at Pitt, he’d betray himself.

Freedom of movement finally exists for college athletes. They no longer have to sit out a year after transferring. Such liberty is long overdue.

Coaches recruit kids, then move to greener pastures. Why can’t athletes also seek better situations?

College football could have controlled this by paying its players a reasonable stipend. Instead, NIL has taken over. College football’s greed opened the door for perceived chaos.

Except it’s not chaos. It’s the same as free agency in pro sports. It happens in the corporate world, too. The strong survive. The weak are the Pirates.

Addison is projected as one of the top two wide receivers in next year’s NFL draft. Southern Cal will better burnish his prospects. More money now, more money later.

Athletes should do what’s best for themselves. Nobody should have a complaint about it. (Why do athletes have to go through the filter of college football to get to the NFL, anyway?)