Throughout Nebraska football’s history, walk-ons have been an important part of the program. The Cornhuskers have traditionally carried a larger roster with non-scholarship players – but things could be changing in the new college football landscape.

Roster limits are coming to college athletics, and that number will be at 105 for football. That creates uncertainty around the future of walk-ons, and Matt Rhule has been outspoken about their importance to not only Nebraska, but the sport as a whole.

Now that the House v. NCAA settlement has full approval, roster limits will be on the way. Rhule weighed the impact it can have on the sport and confirmed Nebraska will still find a way to carry walk-ons and maintain that proud tradition.

“I know people here at Nebraska, we don’t love the fact that we can’t carry the larger roster, which has been part of our culture,” Rhule told Greg McElroy on Always College Football. “But we won’t get rid of it all together. We’ll still take some walk-ons. It’ll be, maybe, a little bit harder.

“But I hope those kids that would’ve walked on here, now, they’re at other schools in the Dakotas, the FCS schools in the Midwest and really elevate that level of football.”

Matt Rhule does not ‘love’ roster limits

As the House v. NCAA settlement went through the final approval process, uncertainty swirled – specifically for athletes who could have lost spots on rosters as a result of the new limits. However, the final agreement included a provision to “grandfather” spots for those athletes at schools’ discretion.

In the meantime, as rosters begin to downsize, Matt Rhule said the non-power conferences could see a boost in talent. That includes non-FBS programs, as well as those in Division II and Division III. It could create parity, although Rhule said he’s still skeptical about the idea of roster limits.

“On the positive side, you’re hoping that it pushes more really good players into positions of success at the Group of 5 level, FCS, Division II, Division III and downward,” Rhule said. “Sitting on the bench for four years at a school where you’re not going to play, maybe you’ll go somewhere and play.

“I don’t love the roster limit, I think we’re always looking for ways to create parity that aren’t really real. I would much rather just say, hey, this is the amount of guys that can dress on game day. But that was the rule. We’re going to stick to it.”

Oregon is getting beat on the recruiting trail pretty badly this off-season. It’s been ages since the program has had a major win. It appears that Dan Lanning and Oregon’s main NIL cooperative, Division Street, may be changing their strategy, with a greater focus on spending NIL dollars in the transfer portal rather than on high school recruits. Mr. FishDuck took a break from figuring out his betting payouts on the expected value calculator–to express his concern as many Duck fans have.

At this point in the year, this can feel like a good explanation for Oregon’s recruiting woes, but the reality is that Oregon doesn’t like to get in bidding wars concerning NIL allocation until December, right before the early signing period. For the most part this strategy has worked for the Ducks and this likely explains what is happening right now regarding Oregon’s recruiting woes.

The Ducks and Division Street  refuse to get into a bidding war this early in the recruiting cycle and are continuing to recruit many of these committed athletes. However, if some of these NIL deals hold to the end of the cycle, the Ducks may be left with a small prep recruiting class, and thus a change in strategy is prudent.

USC and Others Are Spending Money Like It’s 2022

Through this recruiting cycle so far, some programs have gotten more active in NIL and they are playing the game like it is 2022. USC, for instance, seems to be throwing millions at recruits right now, and according to Athlon Sports, their NIL cooperatives are going to pay Mater Dei tight end Mark Bowman $10 million to come and play at USC — more than most NFL tight ends make, let alone rookies.

Emmanuel Pregnon (left) lined up at left guard during the Oregon Spring Game. (Photo By: Gary Breedlove)

There are also reports of absolutely insane requests being made by recruits this cycle, like charted flights for their families to all their games and leases on luxury vehicles.  There are also reports of recruits being paid to just commit and stay committed.

And we have already seen this story before. In 2022, Texas A&M spent by far the most on their No. 1 recruiting class, and that class failed to save Jimbo Fisher’s job and has since imploded. Furthermore, Tennessee signed Nico Iamaleava in 2023 to a multi-million dollar contract, and his on-field results have been underwhelming for a price tag that high. He transferred out of Tennessee when he failed to leverage the program’s NIL for more money.

USC’s NIL cooperatives have woken up and are spending money like it’s 2022. And they are recruiting like it too. They are buying their recruiting class without learning from the history of how this has played out in the past. I don’t blame a high school recruit like Bowman for taking that payout — that is enough money to set him up for life.

But what is also clear is that USC is not spending enough of their NIL resources on maintaining their roster. Otherwise, they never would have let their best lineman, Emmanuel Pregnon, transfer out and go to Oregon.

Lanning and Division street are too savvy to play this NIL game and as a result, they are possibly changing their strategy.

Using All of College Football as a Feeder League

Focusing on the transfer portal to fill holes in the roster with proven recruits is a better way of spending Oregon’s NIL money. However, this strategy shift only works because Lanning has proven that he can go into the portal and effectively get whomever he wants, including two of the most coveted positions out of the portal, offensive and defensive linemen.

Derrick Harmon puts fear into Ohio State quarterback Will Howard in October 2024. (Photo By: Eric Becker)

Ajani Cornelius was the best offensive lineman of 2023 in the transfer portal, and Ohio State was pushing for him before he settled on Oregon. He was developed at Oregon and drafted in the sixth round of this year’s NFL draft. Additionally, Derrick Harmon transferred from Michigan State to Oregon in 2024 and certainly elevated his draft stock. He was still likely to be drafted if he stayed at Michigan State, but in transferring to Oregon, he elevated his skills to where he became a first-round pick.

Outside of offensive and defensive line positions, Lanning and his staff has proven they can develop transfer players into draft picks. Bo Nix is probably the poster child for this. He was unlikely to be drafted at all if he stayed with Auburn, but in his two years at Oregon, he boosted his stock enough that he was taken No. 16 overall and had a fantastic rookie season with Denver.

This point was emphasized by one of the best safeties in the 2025 transfer portal, Dillon Thieneman, when he explained why he chose Oregon: “I saw that Oregon’s really good at taking in transfers and developing them and transitioning them to the next level.” With this reputation, Lanning gets almost anyone he wants out of the portal.

This all emphasizes the difference between recruiting the transfer portal instead of high schoolers.  For transfer portal recruits, their priorities tend to be fair pay via NIL, a chance to compete at the top of college football, and the opportunity to elevate their draft stock — all of which Oregon can provide.

This means Oregon can rebuild every year with the best players from other teams who are proven college talent. Just on the offensive line, this year Oregon landed: Alex Harkey from Texas State, Isiah World from Nevada, and Pregnon from USC. All of these linemen were huge gets for Oregon, as they were some of the best linemen in the portal.

Alex Harkey protects Dante Moore in the Spring Game. (Photo By: Gary Breedlove)

In addition to adding Thieneman from Purdue, Oregon landed another defensive back from a B1G team, Theran Johnson from Northwestern. On the face of it, neither of these players come from teams at the top of the B1G as both are typical conference basement dwellers. However, Oregon picked up two experienced players who were perhaps the best players on their former teams.

Oregon is using the rest of college football as feeder programs, not unlike Ohio State and other major programs. They are letting other programs develop diamonds in the rough and then taking them once they hit the portal, continuing their development, and elevating them to the next level.

The position Oregon is in has become highly unique at this stage of the transfer portal. Oregon can supplement their roster with the best players from teams all over the country, including the B1G and SEC. Oregon is able to treat the majority of the college football programs as feeder programs. These teams bring in undiscovered talent that they develop, and then Oregon and other top tier programs take from the transfer portal and polish them into higher NFL draft picks.

Oregon does this at a far more sustainable and reasonable NIL cost than the method many other college football programs are taking this year. Is this what Oregon is doing, or am I outright sunshine pumping Oregon’s transfer recruiting while the Ducks continue to struggle with prep recruits?

David Marsh 
Portland, Oregon
Top Photo By: Gary Breedlove

Andrew Mueller, the FishDuck.com Volunteer Editor for this article, works in higher education in Chicago, Illinois.

Share your thoughts about this team in the only free, “polite and respectful” Oregon Sports message board, the Our Beloved Ducks forum!

David Marsh is a high school social studies teacher in Portland, Oregon. As a teacher he is known for telling puns to his students who sometimes laugh out of sympathy, and being both eccentric about history and the Ducks.

David graduated from the University of Oregon in 2012 with Majors in: Medieval Studies, Religious Studies, and Geography. David began following Ducks Football after being in a car accident in 2012; finding football something new and exciting to learn about during this difficult time in his life. Now, he cannot see life without Oregon football.

The Big Ten and SEC have been encouraging the College Football Playoff landscape to change, and the NCAA has yet to find a stable, consistent format that makes everyone happy.

The 2024-25 CFP format was a 12-team playoff bracket with the five, highest-ranked conference champions receiving automatic bids. The top four conference champions received a bye in the first-round. The other seven spots were filled out by the highest-ranked teams remaining, according to the CFP Selection Committee. This format revised the original bracket that included the six, highest-ranked conference champions with the leftover spots filled by the six, highest-ranked teams remaining.

Heading into he 2025-26 season, the picture is still under revision.

How the College Football Playoffs format could look in 2025-26

In May 2025, the CFP format was officially tweaked again, according to ESPN. It was decided that CFP would take on a straight seeding format with the highest-ranked conference champions still receiving an automatic bid. The four highest-ranked of all 12 qualifying teams, regardless of if they are a conference champion or not, would receive a bye in the first-round.

This still did not appease all conferences in the NCAA, notably the Big Ten and SEC. In return, the commissioners decided for a total do-over, according to Brett McMurphy on X, to determine what the 2026 CFP format will look like.

The Big Ten and SEC pushed for their conferences to have four automatic qualifiers and the ACC and Big 12 to have two per conference. As expected, the ACC and Big 12 opposed this pitch and eventually the SEC followed suit. Instead, the SEC, ACC, and Big 12 openly supported the 16-team playoff bracket with five automatic qualifiers and 11 at-large teams.

The Big Ten and SEC butt heads over regular season schedules influencing the CFP format

Alongside the 16-team bracket, the SEC wants strength-of-schedule to be an important deciding factor for the committee wen ranking teams. Not only does the conference as a whole support this but so do individual players.

Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia said on a podcast that certain conferences are not challenged week after week in the regular season.

“You want to play with the best – you don’t want to play with the Big Ten … You ignore those calls,” Pavia said on the “Bussin’ With The Boys” podcast, according to Spartans Wire. ” … The SEC, it’s like week after week. You’re going to get beat on. The Big Ten, you’re not gonna get beat on with the Purdue, Nebraskas.”

Determining the playoff bracket with strength-of-schedule being one of the most important factors, though, also leads to some questions. If SEC schools, like Vanderbilt, were thrown into schedules from other conferences, it can’t be said for certain that they wouldn’t struggle.

Some conferences also don’t play the same number of league games, which goes into their schedule strength or lack thereof. The SEC, for example, plays eight league games while the Big Ten plays nine in the regular season. The Big Ten has also encouraged playing an SEC school in the regular season, but the SEC continues to oppose this idea.

“I don’t think there’s any way we can do a 16-team playoff if [the SEC is] not at nine,” Illinois head coach Bret Bielema said.

As for Penn State, committee bias remains a larger issue.

“There’s all these complaints about the BCS, but then we go to this, and I think it goes back to really, my answer is, the problem is, everybody voting and everybody involved in the process — whether you want to be biased or not, we all are biased,” Franklin said, according to CBS Sports in early June.

When commenting on selection committee bias, though, the Nittany Lions’ 2025 playoff fate was not something fixing bias would change. If anything, switching to a 16-team bracket would help improve objectivity as opposed to the Big Ten-pitched model that automatically gave two conferences eight playoff seeds.

At the latest, the 2026 CFP format must be finalized on Dec. 1. With the straight seed format still in consideration and conferences throwing in their wants and opinions, the playoff landscape will likely be up in the air for a while.