I admit, sometimes I get a bit nostalgic for the way college football was – or at least the way I thought it was when I was a kid.
I grew during the era when there usually was just one televised game per Saturday, so that was the game you watched. If it happened to be a matchup that featured the team you cheered for, well, that made a big deal that much bigger.
It was a time when there were only a handful of bowl games and national champions were determined by a vote of coaches and sports writers.
By today’s standards, it was downright primitive. But when it was all you knew, it all seemed pretty good.
Now here we are in 2025, with Notre Dame and Ohio State the last teams standing in major college football following a 12-team tournament. They’ll meet on January 20 in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, an event that culminates the first year of a “real” playoff.
(I realize something called the CFP Playoff has been around since 2014, but up until the 2024 season it included only four schools. As I’ve said many times, when a national championship is settled among four out of 134 teams, that’s not a playoff, merely an invitational).
Yet – speaking as a fan – the game gives off a completely different vibe now. The teams represent colleges, but what they’re playing doesn’t seem like NCAA football anymore.
Big-time college football has become so … transient. Players are looking to make the most of their opportunities, and nowadays that means jumping from one team to another thanks to the transfer portal and the possibility of a financial windfall.
Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia suited up for New Mexico Military Institute and New Mexico before making his way to Nashville and the SEC.
Alan Bowman calls signals for Oklahoma State. Previously, he was on the rosters of both Texas Tech and Michigan.
And before moving on to the coaching ranks in 2024, J.T. Daniels played QB for Southern Cal, Georgia, West Virginia and Rice. The list goes on and on.
The Athletic reports that by the time the winter transfer portal had closed last month, more than 3,000 Football Bowl Subdivision players had entered it. That’s a whole lot of shuffling.
Playing time is the primary reason, of course, with the subtext being that more snaps increase NIL opportunities. Now that athletes can make money off their name, image and likeness, it’s even more important to join a program where you can elevate the profile of your name, image and likeness.
At this point you probably expect me to play the old man card and start pining for the “good ol’ days.”
I’m not gonna do that.
If a player can ink a big money sponsorship deal with Aunt Gertrude’s Old-Fashioned Carbuncle Salve, more power to him. And I’m glad revenue sharing will come into play starting with the 2025-26 season.
With head coaches making as much as $10 million per season, it’s criminal for athletes not to benefit financially. They’re the ones putting their bodies on the line and bringing fans to the stadium (and eyes to the TV).
That said, the evolution of college football has taken away much of its charm. While my decades-long fandom came with a heavy dose of naivety, I liked the fact that Saturdays were reserved for “amateur” kids playing for school pride. Sundays, meanwhile, were all about grown men playing for a paycheck.
The lines between college football and the NFL were clearly drawn, and I appreciated the distinction.
And while there’s still a huge gulf between the Power Four and the 32 franchises that play with the ball bearing Roger Goodell’s autograph, the relationship is increasingly symbiotic.
Today’s elite college players are often ready to move to the NFL and make an impact by the end of their junior years. And choosing a school is less about growing up cheering for that school and more about which institution provides the clearest path to the NFL – and the biggest payday.
Again, all of this makes perfect sense and I’m completely in the players’ corner. College football is big business, even if we like to pretend otherwise, and these guys have every right to make the best business decisions for themselves.
However, these major changes mean the game has morphed into more of a pro-type league – one with unlimited free agency and major financial disparity, depending on the team and conference. Many institutions have “collectives,” which raise money from donors to provide NIL compensation. The playing field is tilted, and the have-nots are falling even further behind the haves.
In cbssports.com’s report on the Buckeyes’ 28-14 victory over Texas in Friday’s Cotton Bowl semi-final, one line read, “Ohio State’s $20 million roster, one of the most expensive in college football, was on display throughout a gutsy win over the Longhorns.”
With that kind of cash floating around, I imagine there’ll come a time – likely soon – when the top 40 or 50 programs break away and form their own “Super League.”
It’ll be at the top of the collegiate pyramid, moving far ahead of the FBS, Football Championship Subdivision and Division II. Calling it “NFL Lite” won’t be too far off the mark.
What college football “was” to me is now merely a fond memory. The days when a scholarship was the dangling carrot to lure a student-athlete are long gone.
What college football “is,” well, it’s a natural progression, and that progression comes with a hefty price tag.
We might not like it from our outside-looking-in vantage point, but we have no choice but to acknowledge it.
