As things wind down in 2025, I continue to question where we are headed with college athletics. Let me preface this article by saying that, yes, I’m old school when it comes to college athletes being paid. It’s just not right in my opinion, though I do believe in “reasonable” compensation.

Why is it no longer good enough to get a full scholarship and leave college with a degree that sets up a student-athlete for the rest of their life? Why does that no longer have value?

I’m all for subsidizing these athletes so they can go out and enjoy a pizza or go to a movie with a date, but we have now surpassed the idea of a little “spending money” to have a good time and enjoy college life.

As a former college athlete, I get that in the past certain athletes have been taken advantage of. I also get the positive financial impact some athletes can have on a university. But what we are doing with regard to paying college athletes is out of control!

Let’s not deceive ourselves into thinking this is something new. Ever since the beginning of college athletics, certain athletes with gifted abilities have always been catered to in some form. From the early days, the prized recruits might get a meal paid for or maybe a cow and some land given to their family—all due to an athlete’s ability to play at a high level.

In the 1970s, some elite athletes received cars as a gift or incentive to sign with a particular university. In certain instances, it took a briefcase full of money or a well-paying job for mom or dad to get a kid to sign. Some athletes were given high-paying summer jobs that exceeded the normal minimum-wage jobs other students got.

So, great athletes have been catered to for decades! But in 2025, this has gone above and beyond a car or a good-paying summer job. Today, kids are getting millions of dollars up front just to sign with a university—players who have yet to play a down or a minute in college.

What message are we sending to today’s young athletes with all this money being given up front?

They’re being paid whether they start or sit on the bench. What has happened to the idea of proving yourself and earning what you’re worth? Where’s the incentive for today’s athletes? Aren’t we setting them up for failure down the road?

We have placed kids on a pedestal and lifted their egos to levels never seen before! The word “entitlement” comes to mind as the number-one issue among all college coaches. Kids today don’t want to compete for a position—they want it given or promised to them. Oh, and coach, make sure they get some cash.

Just because they were an All-State player in high school, they think they should be starting as a true freshman and handed a starting position in college. Forget the idea of competing for a job and earning it—they expect it to be given to them! After all, they were All-District in high school.

Here’s another issue for today’s athlete. While travel ball in any sport has historically been a good thing, it has also been one of the worst things that has ever happened to so many of today’s athletes. The mindset and lessons learned through travel ball make some kids very hard to coach.

We have now raised a generation of athletes who are truly soft and uncoachable. Kids today cannot handle hard coaching and think a coach yelling at them means he or she doesn’t like them.

Over their entire careers, travel ball kids have been told how good they are and catered to. The recruitment of players, even at this level, is not beyond a few dollars being exchanged by a parent to get their kids on the right travel team.

A lot (not all) of these highly paid travel ball coaches, no matter what sport, are not in it to help develop players and make them better. Some (not all) are strictly in it to win. Winning is their primary focus, not making the kid better. But as all travel coaches know, the best way to attract the best players is to win!

Here’s the kicker with a lot of college athletes today: if they’re not happy, they’ll just transfer to another school. This is also starting to trickle down even to the high school level. If you’re not happy, transfer!

Forget competing and trying to get better—just go where they will pay you more money and promise you a starting position.

A college coach recently told me the first thing that goes through many players’ heads today after the season is over is not “How can I get better?” but “Where can I go and make more money?” Commitment and loyalty to the team have gone out the window with the bathwater, as so many athletes today are out for themselves.

Oh, I’m sure I’ll have many who will disagree with my assessment, especially those who have kids playing today. But just like a referee, I call it like I see it! This comes from someone who has coached and played at the Division I level in two sports.

I also know this: as a booster, it’s getting awfully hard to write those checks to a program where athletes only want one thing—more money. I want my money to be spent on things that will make the program better, not pay an athlete!

I can’t stand the idea that the check I’m writing is going to pay a kid to stay and play for a university that, in some cases, was the only scholarship offer they had. How about staying and playing for the college or university that made a commitment to you? How about playing for your teammates—now there’s a new concept!

If the powers that be (NCAA) don’t make some major changes to the structure and the money that college athletes can make, there’s no end to what lengths colleges will go to get the best players. As they say, “The love of money is the root of all evil.” Yay, go team!

As the new year approaches, many of us will be compiling our New Year’s resolutions, a tradition that dates back to 2000 B.C. in ancient Babylon. The Babylonians held their New Year’s celebrations during a 12-day festival called Akitu which began with the first new moon after the vernal equinox, usually in what is now March. Their New Year began with the beginning of their farming season. One common resolution from their agricultural-based society was the return of borrowed farm equipment. The ancient Romans adopted this Babylonian celebration along with the tradition of New Year’s resolutions. In 46 B.C., the Romans reformed the calendar year and created the Julian calendar which was named after Roman dictator Julius Caesar. The Julian calendar officially set January 1st as the New Year’s Day.

In more recent history, people have shifted their resolutions away from returning borrowed farm equipment to what has become the most popular New Year’s resolution of all, improved fitness. When 29-year-old Jeane Mortenson sat down in the winter of 1955 and scribbled her extensive list of resolutions for the upcoming year on the first page of her Gucci address book, she focused mainly on her career. Jeane was in the midst of a very successful career, but she was unhappy. In the margin, probably as an afterthought, Jeane scribbled, “Try to enjoy myself when I can – I’ll be miserable enough as it is.”

While most people list a maximum of three resolutions, Jeane detailed 11 resolutions. Her first four resolutions dealt with going to classes in her career field. Her first resolution was, “go to class – my own always – without fail.” Another resolution showed her determination toward her craft. She wrote, “go as often as possible to observe…other private classes.” She continued, “keep looking around me – only much more so – observing – but not only myself but others and everything – take things (it) for what they (it’s) are worth.” In her list, she made notes on correcting certain aspects of her life. She wrote, “must make strong effort to work on current problems and phobias that out of my past has arisen – making much much much more more more more more effort in my analisis [sic]. And be there always on time – no excuses for being ever late.” Jeane resolved to take at least one class in literature and to take dancing lessons. While most of our lists of New Year’s resolutions would begin with improving physical health, that was last on Jeane’s list. She scribbled, “take care of my instrument – personally & bodily (exercise).”

Despite Jeane’s seemingly constant feeling of miserableness, her list of New Year’s resolutions allows us to see how determined she was to make the most of the opportunities she had earned or had been given. By the time she scribbled these New Year’s resolutions in December of 1955, Jeane had appeared in 26 films, she had become a star, and there were several more films to come. On February 23, 1956, just two months after she scribbled her New Year’s resolutions, Jeane legally changed her name to the one she used in her professional career. Jeane ultimately became more than a star; she became a pop culture icon. Everyone knows Norma Jeane Mortenson as Marilyn Monroe.

Sources:

1. Catherine Boeckmann, “The Interesting History Behind New Year’s Resolutions,” The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Almanac.com, December 17, 2025, accessed December 21, 2025, https://www.almanac.com/history-of-new-years-resolutions.

2. “Marilyn Monroe’s Go-Getter List of New Year’s Resolutions (1955),” Open Culture, January 1, 2015, accessed December 21, 2025, https://www.openculture.com/2015/01/marilyn-monroes-go-getter-list-of-new-years-resolutions-1955.html.

3. “Marilyn Monroe,” ImDB.com, accessed December 21, 2025, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000054/?ref_=fn_t_1.

On December 31, 1999, as nations prepared to welcome a new millennium, millions braced for what some feared might be the most significant technological disaster in modern history. The Y2K computer bug, a programming issue linked to the way early software recorded dates, sparked widespread predictions ranging from power grid failures to global financial collapse.

The concern stemmed from a simple problem: many computer programs stored years with only two digits, meaning “00” could be read as 1900 instead of 2000. As computers became deeply integrated into banking, government, aviation, and utilities, analysts warned that the rollover at midnight could cause catastrophic malfunctions.

For years leading up to the event, engineers and governments spent billions examining critical systems. By late 1999, the global response involved one of the largest coordinated technology audits in history. Still, uncertainty lingered. As the final hours of the decade approached, everything from hospital equipment to nuclear facilities faced scrutiny.

Cities around the world implemented contingency plans. Emergency operations centers remained fully staffed. Banks increased cash reserves. Airlines added additional monitoring teams. New York, London, and Tokyo all prepared to reroute or ground flights if necessary.

In many households, people stockpiled water, batteries, and emergency supplies. Some even treated the night as a potential survival scenario rather than a celebration.

Australia and New Zealand were among the first major nations to cross into the year 2000. When midnight passed without significant disruption, relief spread globally—but so did skepticism. Had the threat been exaggerated, or had the massive preparation prevented disaster?

By the time the clock struck midnight across Europe and then the United States, the feared collapse never materialized. Minor errors did appear—such as mistaken dates on receipts and a few isolated software glitches—but critical infrastructure remained intact.

The night became a worldwide exhale. Crowds that had been cautiously optimistic broke into full celebration. For many, the Y2K experience transformed from cause for concern into a story retold with humor. Yet computer experts emphasize that the absence of catastrophe was not proof that the problem was exaggerated; rather, it reflected the enormous amount of behind-the-scenes work performed over years.

Today, the events of December 31, 1999, are remembered as one of the most unusual moments of modern technological history—a rare example when the entire world watched the same countdown not just with excitement, but with uncertainty about whether digital systems would continue to function on the other side of midnight.

DEAR IDA: My daughter is getting married in June. My “best friend” of thirty years, “Linda,” was naturally on the guest list. However, Linda recently went on a social media tirade, using AI-generated images to mock a political cause that my daughter and her fiancé professionally advocate for. My daughter has rescinded the invitation. Linda is sobbing to me that “politics shouldn’t ruin a thirty-year friendship.” I feel caught in the middle. Do I side with my daughter’s boundaries or my friend’s history? — TORN IN MONROE

DEAR TORN IN MONROE: A thirty-year friendship is no small thing, but neither is a daughter’s trust. In this situation, the core issue is not “politics” in the abstract; it is that your friend chose to publicly ridicule work your daughter and her fiancé have devoted their professional lives to, using a powerful new tool in a careless way. That goes beyond a difference of opinion and into disrespect.

Your daughter has the right to decide who feels safe and supportive at her own wedding. A wedding is not a town hall; it is an intimate milestone where the couple is entitled to set boundaries about who is present, especially when their life’s work has been mocked. Honoring her decision now will matter far more for your long-term relationship with her than smoothing things over with a guest who is not central to the marriage itself.

You can care about Linda’s feelings without overruling your daughter. Tell Linda, kindly but clearly, that this is your daughter’s event and her professional work was mocked in a way that caused real hurt. If Linda truly values the friendship, she can start by taking responsibility—offering a sincere, non-defensive apology, taking down the offending posts, and rethinking how she uses AI and social media when people she loves are directly affected.

At the same time, your daughter’s boundary about her wedding does not have to dictate every relationship you have for the rest of your life. A mother can maintain a measured, cautious friendship with someone her adult child chooses not to include, so long as she is clear that she will not undermine her daughter or lobby on her friend’s behalf. Your role is not to “pick sides,” but to accept your daughter’s boundary for her own wedding, support her decision, and let Linda know that relationships are strained not by “politics” alone, but by how we treat one another when we disagree.

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Whether you are navigating the boardroom or the living room, I’m here to help you weigh the scales when you feel… as I so often do… completely torn.

 Just Ask Ida

Ida B. Torn is the pen name of a lifelong Southerner who was born in 1973 in Kinder, Louisiana, and has spent nearly all of her life in her home state. A high school and college graduate, she has worked in the newspaper industry, built a career in digital graphic creation, and now manages a large segment of a United States agency division based in Louisiana.

Drawing on decades of experience in media, public service, and management, she writes to help everyday Americans navigate work, family, money, and community life with clarity, courage, and a touch of tongue‑in‑cheek humor. Under the Ida B. Torn pseudonym, she believes in considering all sides of an issue, practicing Radical Candor, and urging readers to think for themselves while making informed, values‑driven decisions.

As Christmas approaches, the Avoyelles Online News would like to extend our warmest wishes to each of our readers. This season reminds us of the joy of community, the comfort of tradition, and the importance of taking time to appreciate the people who make life meaningful. We are truly grateful for your support and for the privilege of sharing Avoyelles Parish’s stories throughout the year.

To allow our staff time to enjoy the holiday with family and friends, AON will take Thursday and Friday off. We’ll return Wednesday, refreshed and ready to bring you more of the news and updates that matter to our parish.

From our family to yours, Merry Christmas, and may your holiday be filled with peace, warmth, and all the things that make this season bright.