Tom Holliday said he’s saddened that college sports has turned into professional sports with the new rules allowing players to be paid for their participation by schools.

The former Oklahoma State University baseball coach was the guest speaker Tuesday at Kingfisher Rotary Club.

Holliday coached at OSU either as an assistant or head coach from 1978 through 2003.

He’s the father of the current head coach, Josh Holliday.

Holliday told Rotarians that agents now play a large role in the recruitment process and, unfortunately, now college sports is “all about the money” schools can offer.

He noted that OSU was primed to enter this season with several seasoned upperclassmen, but three of them left because they were offered more money by other schools.

Now OSU is playing the season with several freshmen who were originally not counted on to play starting roles.

He said this is the reason several high profile, longtime coaches in all sports retired early from their major college jobs. They didn’t want to be a part of the new professional element, Holliday said.

“It’s a very weird challenge now,” said Holliday. “The best part of coaching for me was developing character.”

He said allowing agents and large sums of money into college athletics was teaching young players the wrong life lessons and was making character building much more difficult for the coaching profession.

Holliday’s other son Matt was a longtime Major League Baseball player and is a volunteer assistant coach for OSU.

Matt’s son Jackson is now playing for the Baltimore Orioles after being the first overall selection in the 2022 draft.

Matt’s younger son Ethan is now in Stillwater High School and is expected to be a selected early in this year’s MLB draft.