Let’s get straight to the point. College football has a serious problem. Actually, that’s not entirely true. College football has a lot of serious problems. With ever-present issues ranging from NIL deals and the transfer portal to more needs-to-be-fixed-now matters like the college football playoff setup, college football has problems across the board.
The sport of college football has been changed and molded so much over the past few years alone that I don’t even recognize it anymore. Saying something like that can make me sound like an old-timer who’s against any kind of adjustment, but that is absolutely not the case. Change can be good, but the game’s recent changes have been bad.
One of the significant modifications that college football has seen lately is NIL deals. NIL, also known as Name, Image, and Likeness deals, have been around ever since colleges began throwing students onto the field to play football. It was illegal until about four years ago and should’ve stayed against the law, at least for a couple more years. I like NIL, but not to the extent that it has become today. I’m all for college kids getting paid to be in a couple of commercials or advertisements, but when colleges are handing out millions of dollars for literal teenagers to play collegiate football, that’s where the line should be drawn.
NIL has become one of the worst features of college sports, especially in the past couple of years. Thanks to the inflated and swollen amount of money being pushed into NIL, players can now make more dough in college than being a pro in the big leagues. If that doesn’t give you an indication that something is wrong with the way NIL is, I don’t know what does.
Plus, all of these NIL deals are being made on top of players receiving full-ride scholarships to a college to play a sport. However, NIL has affected almost all sports at the collegiate level, so this problem could be addressed at a later date when the other collegiate sports end NIL deals.
On the other side of the gridiron, the transfer portal has directly caused one of the biggest problems in college football alone: Too. Much. Freedom. I hate to go all ‘Oh, back in my day,’ but back in my day, when you signed a commitment to play somewhere, you signed a commitment. Since the transfer portal became less of a privilege and more of an entitlement, the number of transfers has been outrageously high.
College football has become more neglectful in the unrestricted movement of players. Somehow, the transfer portal has created more lawlessness than the NFL free agency period.
Unlike the NFL, college football players can transfer whenever and wherever they want with little to no restrictions. No wonder more players choose to stay in college for another year instead of being drafted to the pros (hello, Carson Beck!).
However, these problems pale compared to the worst issue affecting college football today: the college football playoff system. I believe that a larger number of teams should make the playoffs and have the opportunity to compete for a national championship.
The setup that only included four teams was too exclusive and should’ve been retired long before it was two years ago.
However, the new system might be even worse than the previous one. The arrangement of a twelve-team playoff, four conference champions receiving an elongated bye week, and eight non-conference winning teams going against each other simply does not work. What happened this year in the college football playoff might be one of the best examples of why the postseason structure is defective and flawed.
Number eight Ohio State and number seven Notre Dame battled it out in the championship game, with the Buckeyes managing beat the Fightin’ Irish in a never-actually close contest.
Nevertheless, the fact that two mid-ranked teams played against each other in the showdown game shows how fallacious the setup is.
Both Notre Dame and Ohio State proved to the college football world that their ranking in the playoffs can deceive. Most of the teams lower on the polls were better than the top four teams in the playoffs.
The most condemning evidence that demonstrates the faultiness of the playoff organization is that all four conference-winning teams that received a bye lost in the first round they played in. Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State all took losses after sitting out a week. If that’s not contrived, then I don’t know what is.
If the playoffs were set in a different format (say a more realistic eight or sixteen teams), I’m near positive that there could’ve been different teams playing in the later rounds or even the championship.
Turning the playoff format into sixteen teams would also simplify matters a lot. Having sixteen teams would be the most efficient way for teams to compete for a championship, doing away with bye weeks and giving all teams an equal chance of winning in their respective games.
Also, it doesn’t look as though bye weeks necessarily help teams in the playoffs, so removing them might just be a win-win for teams on both sides.
College football has a ton of problems, and most of them should be fixed in a way that could benefit fans, players, coaches, and university regents alike.
Things like the transfer portal, NIL deals, and the college football playoff system should be altered and fixed, or I believe things will just get more expensive and worse from here on out.
I don’t particularly want to experience all of these complications and headaches when I attend college in the future, and just want to watch some football like any other good fan.
