Oregon recently received a commitment from punter Bailey Ettridge, who spent the 2025 college football season at Nevada. Wolfpack head coach Jeff Choate hopes the Ducks will return the favor.
Although he was being sarcastic with his thoughts, he alluded to the future of the sport.
Unless there is a major overhaul in regulation, it seems inevitable that college football will one day become a true professional sport with CBAs and salary caps instead of a professional sport disguised as an amateur sport. Group of Six conferences will effectively serve as a minor league system for the Power Four conferences. They already are. That is already happening with the transfer portal and NIL.
Oregon poached a punter.
Bailey Ettridge punted 47 times for 2,099 yards (average 44.6 yards per kick) as a freshman in 2025. His longest punt of the season went for 62 yards. He downed 18 punts inside the 20. And he can scoot!
Although Ettridge is only a rising sophomore, he will turn 28 years old next season and has three years of eligibility remaining. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound punter played Aussie Rules Football in a city southwest of Melbourne, Australia before he started training with ProKick and moved to the United States.
Yes, you read that correctly. Ettridge will finish his career as a 30-year-old senior.
And, as of right now, he is expected to play the next three seasons at Oregon. He committed to the Ducks out of the transfer portal Monday afternoon. There is likely a lucrative NIL deal attached.
Bailey Ettridge fills a key need for Dan Lanning next season with James Ferguson-Reynolds and Ross James set to graduate at the end of this season. Nevada now needs to replace him.
Nevada cannot afford Bailey Ettridge.
Wolfpack head coach Jeff Choate alluded to the broken system that currently exists within college football in response to his punter’s departure. The smaller schools effectively serve as minor league programs for the programs with more money and better resources.
“You are welcome,” he wrote on Instagram. “Happy to be your farm club. Maybe send us guys you want developed and will get them right.”
You can feel the sarcasm.
However, this is the reality of the transfer portal era. College football players who perform well at a school like Nevada are worth a lot of NIL money. The Wolfpack cannot afford to pay six figures to a punter. It does not have the financial pool to compete with the Ducks.