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NCAA losses, realignment races and the 25 stories that changed college football since 2000

No sport has a longer offseason than college football, and it’s nearly inarguable that the sport has as much drama off the field during that eight-month layoff — and during the regular season itself — as it does on Saturdays in the fall. As The Athletic continues its look back at the last two-plus decades […]

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No sport has a longer offseason than college football, and it’s nearly inarguable that the sport has as much drama off the field during that eight-month layoff — and during the regular season itself — as it does on Saturdays in the fall.

As The Athletic continues its look back at the last two-plus decades of college football, we examined 25 college football stories whose influences extended beyond the gridiron over the last 25 years, from conference expansion, NCAA power struggles, coaching hires and postseason changes to players whose star power impacted the game in ways the box score did not always measure.

Editor’s note: For more of The Athletic’s look back at the first 25 years of the 2000s in college football, check out our rankings of the top 25 teams, top 25 players, top 25 coaches and top 25 games.

25. Johnny Football

Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel captured the nation’s attention as a thrill-seeking redshirt freshman in 2012, but his celebrity status hit a level rarely seen even for Heisman Trophy winners, thanks in part to a brush with the NCAA. An investigation into allegations that he was paid to sign memorabilia sidetracked his celebratory post-Heisman offseason and led to a half-game suspension. Manziel still became a Heisman finalist in ‘13 but entered the NFL Draft the following spring. His professional fall is a story for a different list.

24. Food deregulation

The NCAA once micromanaged how much food its member institutions could serve on campus. Outside of competitions, schools were allowed to provide one meal per day to athletes. A cracker was considered a snack; a cracker with cream cheese was considered a meal. The rules were so rigid that Oklahoma self-reported violations when three football players ate too much pasta at a graduation buffet in early 2014. The school forced the players to pay $3.83 apiece for the extra food or face ineligibility.

Under increased scrutiny to loosen their grip on the benefits permitted for college athletes, the NCAA lifted all food restrictions on Aug. 1, 2014. The change added significant costs for schools — LSU spent $6.2 million on meals during the 2024 fiscal year — but it restored some common sense to the bottom line.

23. Rise of the recruiting websites

Fans had few one-stop outlets to share their joy, vent their frustration and find nuggets of information on their favorite teams until Rivals debuted in 1998. After Shannon Terry bought the site in 2001, its focus narrowed to recruiting and team message boards, which enabled fans to interact, argue and share content every day of the year.

Scout joined Rivals as a fan fixture in the mid-2000s, before Terry created 247Sports and then On3 that ultimately overtook the earlier fan site models. But the intent remains intact, which is to provide fans with an interactive experience far from the stadium.

22. Bowled over

The bowl system held a much different place in college football at the turn of the century. Outside of the BCS and its four bowls that rotated as title game hosts were 21 other bowl games that held immense power over the selection process. Teams were required to stay on location for a week or more, schools were often saddled with large ticket allotments, including many of the worst seats in the stadium, and programs bid against each other for bowl invitations.

Fast-forward 25 years, and conferences and schools have pushed back on unreasonable trip lengths and ticket requirements. With player opt-outs and the transfer portal lessening the importance of non-College Football Playoff postseason games, many bowls are reinventing themselves as preview exhibitions for next season. Sponsors like Pop-Tarts and Duke’s Mayo have established tongue-in-cheek entertainment products that show a less serious side of the game, which could prolong their relevance in college football’s new era.

21. A 12th game

The number of games in a Football Bowl Subdivision season once fluctuated based on the number of weeks between Labor Day and Thanksgiving weekend. In 2006, the NCAA and its institutions shifted to a consistent 12-game schedule each year, enabling FBS power-conference programs to rake in millions of dollars from an additional home game, leagues to squeeze more from media rights contracts and non-power programs to receive guarantee game payouts that currently range from $500,000 to $2 million or more. The extra game also coincided with leaps in coaching salaries.

It all prompted players to start questioning why they weren’t receiving anything extra despite putting their bodies on the line for another game. From this moment onward, the whispers about fairly compensating athletes ratcheted up in volume.

20. QBs and NIL collide

In September 2024, quarterback Matthew Sluka left UNLV three games into the season while claiming his team’s collective failed to meet its financial obligations. Sluka preserved his redshirt and later signed with James Madison. In April 2025, Tennessee’s Spyre Sports Group rebuffed starting quarterback Nico Iamaleava’s attempt to renegotiate his name, image and likeness deal. Iamaleava sat out the end of spring football practice, entered the transfer portal and landed at UCLA.

Both cases lay the groundwork for future battles between players and management over NIL. Will in-season holdouts become a more regular occurrence? Will the industry move toward increased compensation transparency or binding contracts? Until then, it’s likely a quarterback will one day push even farther than Sluka and Iamaleava.

19. 2003 Big East-ACC war

The ACC and Big East were on equal footing in the early 2000s, but neither conference had the required 12 members to stage a championship game, setting the stage for one to poach from the other. The ACC struck first in 2003, landing Miami and Virginia Tech after about two months of courtship and later adding Boston College as its 12th member.

The Big East sued the ACC and the departing schools, accusing them of conspiracy to defraud the conference. The sides settled in 2005, with the ACC paying $5 million and agreeing to schedule games against Big East teams, and the conferences coexisted for about six years despite the Big East’s waning football influence. Then in 2011, the ACC invited Pittsburgh and Syracuse, which bolstered its ranks and killed the Big East as a football entity.

18. Northwestern’s unionization movement

In 2014, former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter spearheaded an effort to certify the Wildcats football team as a union and be declared employees, firing a warning shot to the NCAA that athletes were done with complicit silence. The Chicago branch of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that football players are employees, but Northwestern appealed and the full NLRB overturned the decision.

In response to Colter’s efforts, the Big Ten instituted multi-year scholarships and improved its medical insurance. But the NCAA and its membership stubbornly resisted issues raised by Colter regarding practice hours and pay, which led to bigger fights — and losses — for the organization down the road.

17. Rocky Mountain Prime

Deion Sanders commanded the spotlight during his Hall of Fame playing career, but nothing could prepare college football for his 2023 debut as an FBS head coach in Colorado. Sanders took over a 1-11 squad, flipped the roster and became the sport’s most compelling story as the Buffaloes upset defending national runner-up TCU, then beat rivals Nebraska and Colorado State to start 3-0. Each of Sanders’ first five games drew more than 7.2 million viewers.

With multiple football programs hiring former NFL superstars like Michael Vick (Norfolk State) and Desean Jackson (Delaware State) in the ensuing years, Sanders’ emergence has helped usher in a new level of celebrity to the coaching carousel. His past exploits, charisma and cultural status have helped him connect to potential recruits and fans in a way few coaches can attain. And the five-year contract extension he signed this spring implies he’s not going anywhere.

16. Tebowmania

With his fiery leadership, bruising playing style and public expressions of his Christian faith, Florida quarterback Tim Tebow became one of college football’s most popular and polarizing athletes on Gators teams that won national titles in 2006 and 2008. Between those championships, Tebow was the first sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. His willingness to take his faith everywhere helped Tebow become one of the sport’s transcendent figures, and his popularity more than 15 years later as a media personality and speaker has extended far beyond his long list of accomplishments on the field.

15. College football’s video game, lost and resurrected

EA Sports’ NCAA Football franchise had players arguing over their ratings and fans leading their favorite teams to championships from the late 1990s through 2014, but NCAA rules prevented players from profiting off of video game characters with suspiciously similar physical attributes to their own. After former UCLA men’s basketball player Ed O’Bannon and other athletes sued the NCAA and EA Sports over the use of his likeness, the game was put on hiatus for a decade and left a void for both fans and athletes.

With players now receiving payment for NIL, NCAA Football returned in 2024 and resumed its role as a cultural phenomenon, bringing fans closer to the sport with realistic graphics and sounds. According to industry tracker Circana, College Football 25 has become the best-selling sports video game of all time in total dollars.

14. Cam Newton

No player was more electrifying over the last 25 years than Auburn quarterback Cam Newton, who lifted the Tigers to the 2010 BCS title without much NFL-bound help around him. But Newton’s lone season of stardom sparked a firestorm when reports surfaced that his father had sought payment for the quarterback’s services while Newton was in junior college.

Lingering questions led Auburn to declare Newton ineligible just days before the SEC Championship Game, then immediately request his reinstatement. The NCAA allowed him to compete during its investigation, which concluded Newton’s father did seek payment but could not find proof the quarterback knew about it. With financial negotiations now an unavoidable part of the player acquisition market, the matter seems trivial in today’s world. But this was the first time the obvious player of the year faced such strong allegations during a Heisman Trophy campaign.

13. Connor Stalions

Michigan staffer Connor Stalions conducted an advanced sign-stealing operation by buying tickets at more than 30 games of future Wolverines opponents over a three-year period and compiling videos of opposing coaches’ signs. Deciphering signals in-game, and modifying your own to avoid detection, had been a cat-and-mouse game common across college football, but the lengths Stalions went to and the fact that the scheme coincided with Michigan’s return to national contention — Stalions even received a game ball after one victory — sent fans and rivals into a frenzy and prompted an NCAA investigation.

The equal parts complex and juvenile scheme, which may have included sideline disguises, brought weekly controversies as Michigan was building a national championship resume. The Wolverines rallied around the scandal and its accompanying suspensions (including three games for coach Jim Harbaugh) on their way to the 2023-24 national championship.

With current coach Sherrone Moore serving a two-game suspension this fall for deleting texts with Stalions sought by investigators, the fallout remains incomplete. However, distrust for Michigan football remains high in Big Ten circles.

12. Reggie Bush’s lost trophy

Reggie Bush’s dazzling runs helped lead the Trojans to a share of the 2003 national title and the undisputed crown in 2004, then won him the Heisman Trophy in 2005. A year later, the NCAA opened an investigation into Bush, who was accused of receiving improper gifts and cash during his USC career. In 2010, the NCAA stripped the Trojans’ 2004 national title, and Bush became the first Heisman winner to forfeit his trophy.

What Bush and his family received was considered improper during his playing days. Today, it’s standard operating procedure. As the rules of college athlete compensation loosened, public pressure mounted on the Heisman Trust to resume honoring the running back. On April 24, 2024, Bush had his trophy returned.

11. The 12-team Playoff

College Football Playoff expansion was a subject of national fascination for years, but it still felt like a surprise in June 2021 when leaders announced the tournament would grow from four teams to 12. But as with most things in college football, even simple processes become complicated.

After the SEC added Texas and Oklahoma later that summer, other leagues put up CFP expansion roadblocks that took years to untangle. All parties eventually agreed to a plan of the six highest-ranked conference champions and the six highest-ranked at-large teams. That template needed to change when the Pac-12 broke apart after the 2023 season.

The full plan for a 12-team CFP was finally approved in February 2024, but the saga has not stopped there. The CFP Board of Managers voted to change the seeding format to a straight ranking after one year and are in ongoing discussions to expand from 12 teams to 14 or even 16 for the 2026 season.

10. Meyer vs. Harbaugh

The Ohio State-Michigan feud matters every day, and two hirings brought red meat to the rivalry and sizzle back to the Big Ten. Urban Meyer took over the Buckeyes in 2012 and promptly called out his fellow Big Ten coaches for their recruiting woes, which was not well received. But Ohio State’s instant success, including a 2014 College Football Playoff title, forced the league to improve quickly or fall further behind.

Tired of floundering against its rival, Michigan hired former quarterback Jim Harbaugh as head coach in 2015. Despite never beating Meyer, Harbaugh brought instant credibility and focus to college football’s winningest program. Like Meyer, Harbaugh won his own national title in 2023.

Their collective success turned the burners up on one of sports’ greatest rivalries, and it remains red hot well after their tenure, courtesy of how Meyer and Harbaugh elevated the Big Ten’s flagship programs.

9. Expansion chaos 2010-11

The zero-sum expansion spat between the ACC and Big East from 2003 to ’05 had little impact on the rest of college football. That was not the case in 2009 when Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany announced his league was exploring expansion on an 18-to-24-month timetable. That forced other leagues to expedite expansion plans, and the Pac-10 launched the first salvo when it pursued six Big 12 schools, including Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.

Colorado became the first Big 12 school to jump to the Pac-10, and Nebraska left for the Big Ten a day later. The remaining schools waited on Texas, which opted to stay in the Big 12. The Pac-10 then added Utah to become a 12-team conference.

But the 10-member Big 12 was far from a happy family. The holdovers allowed Texas to form the Longhorn Network, but the financial and recruiting boost was too much for Texas A&M, so it bolted for the SEC in 2011. That earthquake started another round of aftershocks, and by the time it subsided, Missouri joined Texas A&M in the SEC and the Big 12 added TCU and West Virginia in their stead.

This round of realignment allowed an unvarnished reality to override the platitudes of college athletics: Football is king without exceptions, and brand power trumps on-field excellence.

8. College football’s first playoff

Oklahoma State’s double-overtime loss at Iowa State in November 2011 opened the door for an all-SEC matchup in the BCS Championship Game, clinching a sixth consecutive title for the nation’s premier football conference and roiling the rest of college football.

The Big Ten and Pac-12, which historically had stood in the way of a playoff, finally relented in the face of the SEC’s title wave. Commissioners agreed to the four-team College Football Playoff to begin play in 2014 with a neutral-site national championship game.

Controversy swirled the very first year when Ohio State jumped TCU and Baylor for the final spot, then claimed the first CFP title by upsetting Alabama and Oregon. Eventually, bracket creep became too hot to ignore, and the four-team model was shelved 10 years later. But considering the decades of obstinance in the face of a playoff, it was the single biggest competitive change in college football history.

7. Big Ten Network

Frustrated after a low-ball offer from ESPN in 2004, Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany sat on a Miami beach with Fox executive Larry Jones and sketched on a napkin plans for a new venture: a network dedicated solely to the conference’s sports. The Big Ten Network debuted on Aug. 30, 2007, and once it received full distribution, it became a reliable source of cash and exposure. The league initially owned 51 percent of the network but now owns just 39 percent after selling equity shares to Fox.

The joint venture led to Fox taking a larger stake in college athletics. The network began airing the Big Ten Championship Game in 2011 and picked up the Big Ten’s first-tier rights in 2017.

BTN’s success also spawned similar successful conference networks for the SEC and ACC — which are owned and operated by ESPN, ironically — as well as ill-fated channels like the Longhorn Network and Pac-12 Network.

6. 2020

The first American pandemic in a century had far more pressing consequences than disruption to the sports calendar, but COVID-19’s impact on college athletics was profound. With little guidance from public officials or the NCAA, the conferences were left to decide whether or not they’d play football as the 2020 season approached. After a heated debate, the Big Ten voted 11-3 to shut down football on Aug. 11, and the Pac-12 followed the same day. The SEC, ACC and Big 12 chose to play. After intense public pressure, the Big Ten changed course in mid-September and returned to action in late October, while the Pac-12 started play in November.

The result was an uneven season with no fans at Big Ten and Pac-12 stadiums and limited attendance elsewhere. Several bowl games were canceled, and the Rose Bowl moved to Arlington, Texas. Alabama dominated the season and claimed the national title over Ohio State, which played just eight games. Nearly every athletic department lost millions of dollars, and some are on multi-year repayment plans, are replenishing their reserves that were emptied that year or are still otherwise digging out of the hole those months without games created.

5. Alabama hires Nick Saban

Mal Moore would not take no for an answer. The former Alabama athletic director pestered Nick Saban repeatedly following the Miami Dolphins coach’s second season. Despite multiple denials, Saban relented and turned Alabama into the sport’s signature program.

Hired in 2007, Saban became the college football’s greatest coach of this generation and perhaps of all time. In 17 seasons, Saban won 206 games, nine SEC titles and six national championships. He propelled the SEC into the sport’s dominant conference and forced rivals to improve their staffs to catch up. But his impact stretches beyond his individual leadership qualities.

His coaching tree includes national champions (Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher), hall-of-famer Mark Dantonio, CFP semifinalist Steve Sarkisian and dozens of other SEC, FBS and NFL head coaches. Saban has become the authoritative voice for the sport, from his role on ESPN’s “College GameDay” to discussions with President Donald Trump on the future of college football.

4. Expansion and “The Alliance”

The most impactful expansion cycle in college sports history took place in 2021-22, just as the industry reemerged from the pandemic. After Oklahoma and Texas’ shocking plan to leave for the SEC went public, the Big Ten, Pac-12 and ACC formed “The Alliance,” which sought to protect their interests in the face of expansionist SEC aggression. But it was a short-lived, non-binding arrangement. On June 30, 2022, the Big Ten figuratively torched The Alliance and significantly wounded the Pac-12 by luring away USC and UCLA.

Before this expansion, the Big Ten and SEC long were considered first among equals. By taking the major brands from the Pac-12 and Big 12, the leagues rocked an uneasy competitive balance among the five power conferences and set them apart as the sport’s undisputed heavyweights.

3. The Pac-12’s demise

Long known as “The Conference of Champions,” the Pac-12 (previously the Pac-10 and Pac-8) enjoyed a proud tradition as a model academic-athletic conference. But financially it had fallen well behind its long-time partner — the Big Ten — and other power conferences. The league failed to secure distribution of its Pac-12 Network, and inept leadership turned a problem into a crisis.

A cascading departure of members followed USC and UCLA’s jump to the Big Ten, including Washington and Oregon (Big Ten), Arizona, Arizona State, Utah and Colorado (Big 12) and Stanford and California (ACC). Oregon State and Washington State remained as the Pac-12’s only members during the 2024 football season. The duo have mostly reconstituted the Pac-12, grabbing Boise State, Colorado State, San Diego State, Fresno State and Utah State from the Mountain West for 2026. But it is not the same, not even close.

2. Wide open transfers

A decade ago, if athletes wanted to transfer and compete for another institution, they had to sit out for a year. Schools often restricted where athletes could attend on scholarship, and conferences also had rigid rules within their leagues. As rules relaxed, the transfer portal’s arrival in 2018 compelled schools to enter transferring athletes into a database within two days, and players are now eligible to play right away without restriction.

Thousands of athletes hit the transfer portal each year, which has reshaped each sport and remade championship programs in immeasurable ways. Freedom of movement has double-edged pluses and minuses for both coaches and players. Teams get an offseason opportunity for instant improvement, but the fear of losing talent is equally pervasive. Likewise, players have more power to leverage their talent than ever before, but they run the risk of making a wrong move that torpedoes their career.

New coaches often face massive personnel exits, but they also can select players who fit their program more easily than at any time in history. Buoyed by 29 new players through the portal in 2024, Indiana set the program’s wins record (11). Cross-state rival Purdue, conversely, has lost 87 players in the portal the last two seasons.

1. ‘The NCAA is not above the law’

For generations, college athletes signed an annual student-athlete statement that forfeited their rights to earn money based on their name, image and likeness (NIL). No matter how much revenue the NCAA and its member institutions gained from television contracts, the entities stood firm on their bedrock principle of amateurism. It was the barrier the NCAA reinforced at all costs, and it ultimately cost the organization and its member schools billions of dollars.

Lawsuits and law changes punched holes in the NCAA’s definition of amateur athletics, but the status quo was shattered when the United States Supreme Court’s opinion in Alston v. NCAA was delivered on June 21, 2021.

The court ruled 9-0 that the NCAA could not cap “education-related” financial benefits that athletes received from institutions. The landmark decision, though limited in scope, offered signals for how the Supreme Court would rule against the NCAA in other cases regarding players’ ability to make money.

“Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote in a scathing opinion. “And under ordinary principles of antitrust law, it is not evident why college sports should be any different.

“The NCAA is not above the law.”

The House v. NCAA settlement, which received formal approval late last week, permits athletic departments to pay athletes directly while providing billions of dollars to former athletes who were prevented from earning revenue while in college. The ability for athletes to generate income at the height of their marketability is not only the most important development of college sports’ last 25 years, it’s the greatest reversal in American amateur sports history.

(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; Kevin C. Cox, Carmen Mandato, Christian Petersen / Getty Images, iStock)



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‘Don’t Make Sense’ — Colorado HC Deion Sanders Provides Alternate NIL Idea Amid Inequality in College Football

Deion Sanders stood at the podium during Big 12 Media Days with a message that addressed college football’s biggest problem. The Colorado head coach wasn’t mincing words about NIL deals and the chaos they’ve created. His solution? Stop pretending the current system works and start copying what does. Dive into Try out PFSN’s FREE college […]

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Deion Sanders stood at the podium during Big 12 Media Days with a message that addressed college football’s biggest problem.

The Colorado head coach wasn’t mincing words about NIL deals and the chaos they’ve created. His solution? Stop pretending the current system works and start copying what does.

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Why Does Colorado HC Deion Sanders Think NIL Creates an Unfair Playing Field?

The college football landscape has shifted rapidly, largely due to the rise of NIL deals. While these opportunities benefit student-athletes, they have also deepened the divide between powerhouse programs and those with limited funding.

Wealthier schools now leverage major donor support and lucrative endorsements to secure elite talent, leaving smaller programs struggling to compete. As these major developments continue to unfold, Sanders has closely monitored them, expressing concern about the NCAA’s uncertain role in this evolving system.

Colorado head coach Deion Sanders has reemerged on the college football stage, and with him comes a renewed critique of the current state of NIL deals. Speaking at Big 12 Media Days, Sanders didn’t hold back while addressing the competitive disparity NIL has introduced into the sport.

He pointed directly at the imbalance in spending among programs and its visible impact on postseason appearances. “All you gotta do is look at the [CFP] and see what those teams spent, and you’ll understand darn well why they’re in the playoffs,” Sanders said.

His frustration was rooted not in the principle of player compensation, which he supports, but in the lack of structure guiding it. Sanders voiced concern over how programs now land recruits based primarily on NIL money rather than coaching or development.

“You got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him a half a million dollars and you can’t compete with that,” he said. “We’re not complaining because all these coaches up here could coach their butts off… but what’s going on right now don’t make sense.”

Sanders noted that schools with the largest donor bases are stockpiling talent, while others simply can’t keep pace financially.

“And you’re talking about equality, not equality, like equal, I guess, equality. And all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn they’re wider in the playoffs.”

What Solution Does Sanders Propose for College Football’s NIL Problem?

Sanders has long advocated for NIL regulations and, earlier in April, proposed a clear solution: a salary cap mirroring the NFL’s structure.

“There should be some kind of cap,” he said in an interview with USA Today‘s Jarrett Bell. “Our game should emulate the NFL game in every aspect. Rules. Regulations. Whatever the NFL rules, the college rules should be the same.”

Sanders believes a structured cap would allow fairness to prevail across programs of varying size and resources. This approach would level the playing field by preventing the wealthiest programs from simply outspending their competition for top talent.

RELATED: Colorado HC Deion Sanders Takes Cheeky Jab at Texas Tech HC Joey McGuire’s Transfer Portal Activity While Praising Red Raiders

However, the current trajectory suggests his concerns are only growing. As part of a recently approved antitrust settlement in the House v. NCAA case, schools will soon be permitted to share up to $20.5 million annually with athletes. However, for Sanders, that measure falls short of addressing the core issue.

“It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s given $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class,” he said, pointing out the growing gap between schools flush with cash and those without such advantages.

Sanders’ message was direct and uncompromising. Without firm guidelines, the sport risks becoming a predictable cycle dominated by the wealthiest programs. His NFL-style salary cap proposal represents a fundamental shift toward structured competition rather than the current free-for-all approach that has transformed college recruiting into a bidding war.





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Deion Sanders calls for rev-share cap, points out spending among College Football Playoff teams

With the revenue-sharing era well underway in college football, coaches are evaluating the state of the landscape. Schools are now able to directly share up to $20.5 million with athletes as part of the House v. NCAA settlement. Colorado coach Deion Sanders sees a way to further settle things, though. Speaking during a roundtable at […]

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With the revenue-sharing era well underway in college football, coaches are evaluating the state of the landscape. Schools are now able to directly share up to $20.5 million with athletes as part of the House v. NCAA settlement.

Colorado coach Deion Sanders sees a way to further settle things, though. Speaking during a roundtable at Big 12 Media Days on Wednesday, Coach Prime called for a cap on rev-share dollars to shift things toward an NFL-like operation.

To illustrate his point, Sanders pointed out last year’s College Football Playoff and the conversations around roster costs. National champion Ohio State made headlines with its roster, worth upward of $20 million.

“I wish there was a cap,” Sanders said during the panel. “Like, the top-of-the-line player makes this and if you’re not that type of guy, you know you’re not going to make that. That’s what the NFL does. The problem is, you’ve got a guy that’s not that darn good, but he could go to another school and they give him another half a million dollars. You can’t compete with that. It don’t make sense.

“You talk about equality … all you have to do is look at the playoffs and see what those teams spent, and you understand darn near why they’re in the playoffs. It’s kind of hard to compete with somebody who’s giving $25, $30 million to a darn freshman class. It’s crazy.”

Ohio State’s 2024 roster was considered one of the more expensive rosters in college football last season as the Buckeyes took down Notre Dame to win the national championship. This year, though, roster costs continued to grow as teams braced for the House v. NCAA settlement.

On3’s Pete Nakos previously reported those figures soared toward $25 to $30 million on the higher end before the settlement’s approval. Once Judge Claudia Wilken issued her order, the NIL Go clearinghouse went into effect for deals worth at least $600. That led to frontloading of deals during recruitments prior to final approval.

But even with the rising costs of rosters and the ever-changing landscape, Deion Sanders said coaches still have to develop players. That said, he also reiterated what spending big money on a roster can do when the postseason comes around.

“We’re not complaining, because all these coaches up here can coach their butts off and given the right opportunity with the right players and to play here and there, you’ll be there,” Sanders said. “But what’s going on right now don’t make sense. We want to say stuff, but we’re trying to be professional.

“But you’re going to see the same teams darn near at the end, and with somebody who sneaks up in there, the team that pays the most is going to be there in the end.”



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CFB revenue-sharing causing massive shift in NIL collectives, private equity money

The world of college sports has shifted more in the last few years than it has in almost its entire existence. With NIL, the transfer portal, and more popping up and changing in the blink of an eye, it can be hard to keep up with everything happening. With the most recent change, or adjustment, […]

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The world of college sports has shifted more in the last few years than it has in almost its entire existence. With NIL, the transfer portal, and more popping up and changing in the blink of an eye, it can be hard to keep up with everything happening.

With the most recent change, or adjustment, the House settled with the NCAA and ruled that colleges and universities could directly pay their athletes, a virtual pay-to-play situation for college athletes.

You might be thinking, “How is that any different from the NIL collectives and funds that have been in place for the past couple of years?”

Honestly, that’s a really great question, one that even some college athletic departments are trying to grapple with as we speak. These universities built million-dollar funds through boosters, donations, NIL deals, and more.

Now, those funds are rapidly getting cut as schools no longer have to use a “workaround” to get their players the most amount of money possible. Yet another shift in college sports.

The NIL Go Clearinghouse was created within the House settlement as a virtual vetting system for various NIL deals that continue to pop up, even with programs directly paying athletes, and is run by the brand-new College Sports Commission.

Beyond NIL deals and getting a paycheck signed over to them by their teams, college athletes now have a big question surrounding them:

“Is it possible for private equity funds to pay collegiate athletes without crossing any of the House settlement lines?

For now, the answer is still unknown. Colleges are having to look between the lines to ensure that they aren’t walking themselves or their players into a sticky situation, mainly because this has never been a situation before.

Currently, the Texas Tech Red Raiders are the frontrunners in the learning curve, already writing a three-year $5.1 million check over to five-star offensive tackle Felix Ojo, and preparing to write an even bigger one to land LaDamion Guyton, the No. 1 prospect in the class of 2027.

To put it simply, most questions you’re possibly asking are being asked by everyone else, including the bigwigs in the NCAA and athletic departments. Most of the answers to those questions are still unknown, and may be for quite a while.



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NIL Spending Influences College Football Playoff, Says Deion Sanders

During Big 12 Media Days, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders made headlines with his staunch critique of the current NIL landscape in college football. He expressed concerns that the unregulated spending on athletes creates an imbalance, favoring wealthier programs. Sanders argued that the teams with the biggest financial resources, not necessarily the best coaching or […]

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During Big 12 Media Days, Colorado head coach Deion Sanders made headlines with his staunch critique of the current NIL landscape in college football. He expressed concerns that the unregulated spending on athletes creates an imbalance, favoring wealthier programs. Sanders argued that the teams with the biggest financial resources, not necessarily the best coaching or player development, dominate the College Football Playoff. He noted that programs are investing exorbitantly into recruiting, leading to a competitive hierarchy rooted in financial backing rather than merit. His comments highlight the pressing need for a structured approach to NIL compensation in college sports.

By the Numbers

  • Some programs are reportedly offering 25–30 million for a single freshman recruiting class.
  • Sanders’ Colorado Buffaloes finished last season with a record of 9-4, including a bowl loss to BYU.

State of Play

  • Various college football programs are engaging in a financial arms race to attract top talent.
  • Sanders’ comments reflect a growing concern among coaches and players about the influence of money in recruiting.

What’s Next

As the dialogue around NIL spending intensifies, it could prompt discussions among NCAA leadership regarding potential regulations or caps on compensation. This tension may lead programs to either invest more heavily in recruiting or advocate for more equitable compensation structures. The outcome could redefine competitive balance and strategy in college football.

Bottom Line

Deion Sanders’ remarks underscore a critical crossroads for college football, where financial power is eclipsing traditional values of skill and teamwork. His call for regulations highlights an urgent need for reform to ensure that competition remains fair and based on athletic ability rather than budget size. The future of college sports hangs in the balance as stakeholders weigh the implications of endless NIL spending.





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John Calipari heads into his second season at Arkansas trying to balance old and new

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — John Calipari admits he is still navigating the “new” college basketball, a world in which the 66-year-old’s traditional recruiting style is no longer the norm. But Calipari made it work last season, his first with the Razorbacks, and proved naysayers wrong. But the Arkansas basketball coach isn’t interested in doing things the […]

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FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — John Calipari admits he is still navigating the “new” college basketball, a world in which the 66-year-old’s traditional recruiting style is no longer the norm.

But Calipari made it work last season, his first with the Razorbacks, and proved naysayers wrong. But the Arkansas basketball coach isn’t interested in doing things the same way moving forward.

Calipari spoke about his first year at Arkansas on Wednesday.

The Razorbacks started Southeastern Conference play last season with five straight losses. But Arkansas ultimately reached the Sweet 16. Now, Calipari has taken a different approach in rebuilding the Razorbacks’ roster heading into his second year in Fayetteville.

“I came here saying I want eight or nine guys because of NIL (name, image, likeness). I can’t pick 12,” Calipari said. “Now I’m like ‘Let’s have eight or nine that know,’ but you have other players we’re developing.”

Calipari has long been known as a master recruiter of high school players, regularly collecting top-10 classes at Kentucky and Memphis before that.

Now, the transfer portal has changed things. High school recruiting is not irrelevant, but preps players aren’t as big a focus. Now, it’s about veterans with college experience.

Arkansas had one returning player last season, forward Trevon Brazile, who is also back for his final season. Calipari built the rest of the roster and used a nine-player rotation. The other five team members played 23 minutes total.

Injuries sapped the Razorbacks of their two leading scorers. Guard Boogie Fland, who has transferred to Florida, played in 21 games, and forward Adou Thiero, who was selected in the NBA draft, played in 26. The two played less than 10 minutes in Arkansas’ season-ending loss to Texas Tech in the NCAA Tournament. Also gone are center Jonas Aidoo, forward Zvonimir Ivisic and guard Johnell Davis.

Now, the Razorbacks have two 6-foot-10 transfers in Nick Pringle from Alabama and Malique Ewin from Florida State. And there are three perimeter freshmen. Guards Meleek Thomas and Darius Acuff Jr. were five-star recruits, and wing Isaiah Sealy ranked as a four-star.

On Wednesday, Calipari had practically a full contingent to run through 5-on-5 work, which rarely happened last season.

“Last year, we were always together, but as injuries started peeling off guys, they understood how much they needed each other. The way this is, you probably need to play more people,” Calipari said.

Arkansas reached the Sweet 16 for the fourth time in five years after entering the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed and starting SEC play at 1-5 for the third straight season. That start came as the least experienced team in the league, Calipari said.

This season, Arkansas returns the most production in the SEC, increasing expectations and stakes.

“It’s only 45%, but it’s still the most in our league,” Calipari said.

DJ Wagner is the only returner who averaged double figure scoring. Karter Knox tested the NBA waters before returning, and Billy Richmond saw plenty of key minutes. There is also Brazile, once considered a possible first round NBA pick before a torn ACL three seasons ago. In his final seven games last season, Brazile averaged 12.6 points and 9.7 rebounds.

“I’d tell you he (Brazile) is playing the best ball since I’ve coached him,” Calipari said. “If he’s the guy I’m seeing, you’re talking about someone that we have one or two like that, then this thing is on. He’s that good. Now you’ve got to find out who are the other couple that can make differences in the game.”

Arkansas’ mix of young and old looks familiar to Calipari — and anyone who saw his teams at Kentucky. Whether or not the new-old approach to roster building comes to fruition, even Calipari is unsure.

“None of us know,” he said. “We’re trying to figure out how this is going to work.”



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What Jay Paterno’s bookshelf teaches about NIL, revenue-sharing, and college football

A bookshelf, among the trinkets and clutter that we have nowhere else put, contains stories and memories; some our own, some passed down from family members or legends, immortalized for the words they wrote or the many written about them. Sometimes those legends are family. A bookshelf is where Jay Paterno keeps Steve Spurrier’s visor […]

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A bookshelf, among the trinkets and clutter that we have nowhere else put, contains stories and memories; some our own, some passed down from family members or legends, immortalized for the words they wrote or the many written about them.

Sometimes those legends are family. A bookshelf is where Jay Paterno keeps Steve Spurrier’s visor from the 1998 Citrus Bowl, the same place that his father, Joe, once kept it after losing that game, and a friendly wager with his friend that required him to wear it off the field. 

Penn State had national championship aspirations that season and was the No. 1 or 2-ranked team in the country until a Week 11 loss to Michigan and a Week 14 loss to Michigan State.

The Nittany Lions settled for the Citrus Bowl meeting with Florida, which also spent time at No. 1 that year. Paterno and Spurrier, who were close friends, agreed that if Penn State won, Spurrier would wear Paterno’s glasses off the field, and if Florida did, Paterno would have to wear the visor. 

The visor, white with the script “Gators” across the front in blue with orange piping, served as an important mnemonic for Joe and a lesson that still echoes in his son’s head. 

“Going into that game, we had a couple of players that were eligible to play, but had kind of broken some team rules, and Joe left them home,” Paterno, then the tight ends and running backs coach on his father’s staff, recalled in an exclusive interview with Soaring to Glory. “Joe took that visor and always had it inside of his bookshelf at home because it was a reminder that he was willing to potentially risk losing a football game to try to do the right thing for the general health of the program.” 

Paterno still plays a role in overseeing the health of Penn State football, as a member of the Board of Trustees, but his latest endeavor concerns the health of college football writ large. 

Paterno is the author of Blitzed!: The All-Out Pressure of College Football’s New Era. A story that follows fictional Ohio State head coach Ed Hart as he navigates the increased demands and new challenges of the NIL and transfer portal era, based on real stories. Stories about how coaches with bags of cash and a handgun quickly became legitimate financial agreements, and every way in which the job is different from when his father did it for 46 years in Happy Valley. 

“Recruiting has always been a big deal, but recruiting now is identifying high school talent, identifying talent at other schools that’s entering the transfer portal, but also recruiting your own players to stay on your roster,” Paterno said, echoing a common refrain from frustrated coaches who have either left the sport, or like Chip Kelly and Jeff Hafley, resigned from head coaching jobs to become coordinators either in the college ranks or the NFL. 

However, Paterno, contrary to the message that many college football doomsday preppers began to trumpet when Kelly left UCLA and Hafley left Boston College, doesn’t foresee any mass exodus from college football coaching, or even many other coaches viewing the NFL as a life raft off NIL island. 

“I think as long as we’re paying college coaches the kind of money that we’re paying them right now, head coaches, I think there’s going to be a real incentive for them to stick it out,” Paterno said, tongue planted firmly in cheek. “When you talk about the business model of college football, you have some head coaches at schools making 10 percent of total revenue of the program, not profit, but revenue. That’s hard to find in any business anywhere in the world.” 

And what does that money buy? Well, in many cases, some of the best rule breakers (or evaders if you don’t get caught), in sports. 

“As a coach, your job is constantly to find loopholes. Ohio State has a certain type of defense, I have got to find a hole in that defense, if the NCAA passes a certain rule as it relates to NIL, I have got to find what I can do that’s not forbidden… We’re going to see some very creative stuff because this profession does attract some very creative minds.” 

Creativity is a necessity in the profession, even for a fictional character like Coach Hart leading the Buckeyes. Because even within the pages of Paterno’s college football fantasy, winning is everything. 

“Let’s be realistic about what we’re dealing with here. We’re dealing with a bunch of people for whom winning at all costs carries a significant financial reward,” Paterno acknowledged, addressing the perpetual line-stepping throughout the history of the sport. “We’re not giving coaches big six-figure bonuses if they graduate 85 percent of players.” 

While he’s taken a coach’s perspective throughout the book, if you’re searching for sympathy for the most highly-paid figures in the sport, look elsewhere. Paterno is a vocal advocate of the players and their involvement in solving college football’s most existential issues. 

There aren’t many people involved in modern college football as connected to the sport in its previous form as the son of a man who coached from 1966 until 2011, and Paterno, like many traditionalists, is not a fan of the “implosion of the amatuer model” as he calls it in the description of his book. But that may be the only part of the issue where he and other old-school college football minds find common ground. 

“We need to be realistic about what we’re doing here,” Paterno said, referencing the boom in television contracts and revenue generated by the Power Conferences and NCAA’s major events like March Madness. “This is not an extra-curricular activity that guys come to school to play for ‘Dear Old State’ or whatever it may be.

“This has become a business, and when you start talking about coaches making the kind of money that they’re making – I think the one thing I would change is with the revenue-sharing, I think coaches’ salaries should come down and revenue sharing for players in all the sports should come up, but I don’t think that’ll happen anytime soon.” 

Revenue-sharing is the latest monkey wrench thrown into college athletics, part of the House vs. NCAA settlement that went into effect on July 1, 2025. The settlement allows schools to pay athletes directly from a pool of revenue-sharing money that in Year 1 will total about $20.5 million.

It’s the result of three federal antitrust lawsuits that claimed the NCAA was illegally limiting the earning power of college athletes. It also requires the NCAA to pay $2.8 billion in back damages to athletes from 2016 through the time of the settlement, over the next 10 years. 

It’s a step in the right direction, but Paterno and many of its detractors agree that it’s merely a half measure. He believes that college football needs something more… revolutionary. 

“It’s time for a constitutional convention,” Paterno said. Like the visor that loomed large over his right shoulder, a bit of history informing his vision for the future of college football. “The governing bodies of these schools should be part of this process, as should student-athletes. When you look at the College Football Playoff, every year they make changes, and the student-athletes aren’t at the table to say, ‘wait a minute, maybe we don’t want to play four more games or five more games without getting a chunk of the money.” 

Then, like a true former college football coach, Paterno proceeded to find every potential loophole in the current deal; the state laws that can override its validity, the future lawsuit from a new star player who wasn’t represented in these class action suits, who doesn’t want their earning power artificially capped by this agreement, and the old-fashioned bags of cash that could make their triumphant return to the sport to skirt the NIL clearinghouse. 

Then, Paterno addressed the elephant that has wedged itself into every room where the future of college football is discussed. 

“I think collective bargaining has to show up. I think it’s going to happen. They’re going to have to be treated as employees. Let’s be realistic about that,” Paterno said. “You’re giving somebody a 1099 form for $1.5 million to play football at your school, it’s hard to argue that they’re not employees.” 

Paterno’s fictional Coach Hart may not make the same argument, but for someone so entrenched in the history of the sport, Paterno is uniquely pragmatic about its future. Coaches must adapt, and players deserve more power. Most of the powers in college football will resist these necessary changes as long as they can. Instead, maybe they should take a lesson from the Paternos and Spurriers’ famous visor, and sacrifice this game for the long-term health of the sport. 



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