boy 50 years ago, I pretty much worshipped BYU's starters (Kresimir Cosic, Jim Miller, Phil Tolstrup, Bernie Fryer and Steve Kelly). Had those guys left BYU to go play someplace else after putting in a year at BYU, I'd have been devastated. Then again, if all of them only played one year, I wouldn't have worshipped them. If young fans don't get the chance to become fond of their team's players due to players moving from one school to the next for more money, etc., they won't become loyal fans.

And this is why, even now that I'm old, I'm so frustrated with our current situation. I really liked the players on last year's team. I loved watching their development the last couple of years, and I was expecting to see them play together again next season. Obviously, we would have seen them together next year had Pope not left, but he did. But to finally see things coming together only to have them fall apart because Pope had ambition beyond BYU, is disheartening. NIL and the portal have not made college basketball more entertaining for fans. And it is probably making it almost impossible for young kids to become diehard fans of their local college team.