The way college football operates in the NIL/revenue-sharing era has moved a lot closer to the NFL model, and one high-profile program is acknowledging that in a very public way.

USC has been announcing on social media that players have “re-signed” with the program, essentially acknowledging that all college football players are free agents each year now, thanks to the transfer portal and the ability to chase better compensation elsewhere.

A big one for the Trojans this week was quarterback Jayden Maiava’s decision to return to USC rather than pursue the NFL draft this year or a bigger payday from another school, but USC has publicized the return of more than two dozen players in this way — from starters to little-used freshmen and even its kicker.

Coach Lincoln Riley was asked about this new approach for his program.

“I think that’s something that should be celebrated. In this day and age, it’s almost more like an NFL team. Like, it’s an accomplishment to be welcomed back, and then on top of that, when you do have that option, it’s something that should be celebrated by a school or a program that somebody wants to continue on what’s being built or what they’ve already started at that place,” Riley said.

“… It’s changed so much on all accounts. It’s changed a lot for the players. It’s obviously changed a lot for us.”

USC overhauled its player personnel/recruiting department a year ago by hiring general manager Chad Bowden away from Notre Dame and building a new staff for him. Bowden has a reputation for thinking outside the box, so this was likely an idea that he and his staff came up with for the Trojans.

College football analyst Adam Breneman chimed in with his thoughts on USC’s “creative” approach to roster management.

“To me, USC has always been known for creativity. They’re in Los Angeles, the creative capital of the world, that’s where great things happen, and a great job here by USC’s creative department, having this idea. I think we’ll see teams around the country copy this, announcing the re-signing of players to new contracts for the upcoming season with NIL and rev-share deals,” Breneman said.

“Chad Bowden, the USC general manager, is ahead of his time. He’s innovative, he thinks forward, he’s proactive, and his staff clearly has something here, really great with announcing the re-signing of the roster at USC. What a great idea.”

USC may have indeed started something with this, as Missouri announced the return of star running back Ahmad Hardy in the same way.

Amid the spectacle of the College Football Playoff’s opening weekend — and the nagging sense that we’re watching a sport we no longer love — here’s the uncomfortable question no one in power seems eager to answer:

Is college football slowly turning off the very fans who built it?

The other day on our radio show, we asked a simple poll question: “What’s your excitement level for this year’s College Football Playoff?” The result wasn’t close. The runaway winner was: “Mild at best.”

No, it wasn’t a scientific poll by any means. But it was taken in a college-football-crazed state, in a city that hosts three bowl games, from listeners who have spent decades scheduling fall Saturdays around kickoff times. These are not casuals. These are the lifers.

And they sound tired.

College football has always thrived on passion — irrational, inherited passion. We fell in love with this sport because we were loyal to our hometown or home-state schools. Because our dads and moms went there. Because our grandparents wore the colors. Because even when our teams were bad, they were ours. We believed players loved our schools the way we did. We believed coaches were stewards of something bigger than themselves.

That belief is gone.

What we’re left with now is a sport that feels increasingly transactional, untethered from its own history, and openly hostile to the idea of loyalty. The transfer portal and NIL didn’t just change college football — they rebranded it. Players are no longer student-athletes growing into men within a program; they’re year-to-year contractors shopping their services to the highest bidder. And coaches are no longer culture builders; they’re free agents with obscene contracts and super-agents who are already negotiating new deals with new teams by midseason.

Lane Kiffin didn’t even wait for the College Football Playoff selection committee to put his Ole Miss team in the 12-team field before bolting for his next big job. Think about it: the head coaches from three CFP teams will be elsewhere next season, meaning in the most important tournament in the sport that a quarter of its leaders already had one foot out the door before the playoff even started.

That’s not continuity. That’s chaos.

And the collateral damage is everywhere. Bowl games — once the measuring stick of success — are now disposable. This year alone, Notre Dame opted out because it got snubbed by the CFP committee while Kansas State and Iowa State opted out because they lost their coaches. Bowls used to mean something. They were a reward, a destination, a final chapter. Now they’re an inconvenience.

Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz didn’t mince words when he said earlier this week: “College football is sick.” He warned that the sport is “cracking” — not metaphorically, but structurally. Rules without consequences. Participation agreements nobody honors. Tampering without punishment. Freedom without guardrails.

UCF coach Scott Frost went even further. He said the quiet part out loud: “It’s broken.” And for that honesty, he was attacked. Not because he was wrong — but because he threatened those who benefit from the disorder. Frost described a world where participation agreements are ceremonial, salary caps are fiction and booster money determines competitive balance more than coaching or development ever could.

That’s not college football. That’s the NFL without contracts, unions or rules.

Minnesota coach P.J. Fleck summed it up best: “College football does not have any of what the NFL has in place. … I don’t think the general public actually knows what it looks like when you peel back the onion.”

And that’s the point. Fans (and coaches) are finally peeling it back — and they don’t like what they see.

Conferences now stretch from coast to coast, stripping the sport of its regional soul. Rivalries that once defined generations are disappearing in favor of television windows. Which brings us to a fair question for UCF fans: With USF no longer on your schedule, who’s your big rival? Answer: You don’t have one.

A sense of place used to matter in college football. Geography mattered. Identity mattered. Tradition mattered. Now everything is optimized for TV inventory and gambling markets.

Don’t get me wrong, college football is still idiot-proof. It will march on. ESPN needs the programming. Sportsbooks need the content. Saturdays will still be filled with games, spreads and parlays. The machine will not stop.

But what happens when the true fans — the ones who stayed and cheered through the losing seasons, NCAA sanctions and decades of irrelevance — start checking out emotionally? When excitement becomes obligation? When loyalty feels foolish?

We’re already seeing the signs. Fans less invested in bowls. Fans less connected to rosters that turn over annually. Fans who no longer recognize their own conferences. Fans who watch out of habit, not hope.

This isn’t about opposing player compensation. Players deserve to be paid. It’s not about nostalgia for unpaid labor or closed systems. It’s about structure, fairness and meaning. A sport without rules isn’t freedom — it’s anarchy. And anarchy is exhausting.

College football was never supposed to be perfect. It was supposed to be personal. It was supposed to mean something beyond the scoreboard. It was supposed to connect campuses, communities and generations.

Right now, it feels like a sport in disarray where even coaches and administrators are just  hopeless spectators to its unraveling. It’s so bad that they are begging the federal government to get involved. Can you name another multi-billion-dollar business that actively seeks governmental regulation?

The scariest part isn’t that coaches like Frost and Drinkwitz are speaking up.

It’s that we longtime fans are starting to quietly nod along and wonder why we’re still watching.

Yes, the College Football Playoff arrived this weekend and it’s never been bigger.

But, sadly, the sport itself has never felt emptier.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my new radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen

Aftter helping propel Arizona State to its first College Football Playoff run in 2024, quarterback Sam Leavitt is officially preparing to test the transfer market.

Multiple outlets report Leavitt intends to enter the portal when the window opens in January, and early lists of suitors already include Oregon, Indiana, LSU, and Miami. 

Leavitt’s 2025 season was cut short by a persistent foot injury that required surgery and ended his year after seven appearances.

Despite limited time, he finished the campaign with 1,628 passing yards, 10 touchdowns and three interceptions, and leaves Tempe with a two-year body of work that includes a 2024 breakout season (2,885 passing yards, 443 rushing yards, 29 total TDs).

ASU closed 2025 at 8–4 under coach Kenny Dillingham, going 6-3 in Big 12 play.

On Wednesday, Mike Golic Jr. weighed in on potential transfer portal destinations, explicitly linking Leavitt to Miami as a natural schematic fit.

“Sam Leavitt, to me, would be a fascinating fit at the University of Miami. We reckon Carson Beck is going to be out after this playoff run, and when I look at Sam Leavitt’s game, I think about the Miami offense they ran with Cam Ward, an offense predicated on the quarterback’s ability to drop back, create, and make plays with both his arm and his legs. That feels like a very easy comparison.”

The Hurricanes went 10-2 this season and enter the postseason with a quarterback (Beck) who posted 3,072 passing yards and 25 passing touchdowns with a 74.7% completion rate.

However, despite Beck’s productive year as the starter and Miami’s CFP berth, the senior quarterback is widely expected to move on after the season, opening a potential vacancy at one of college football’s biggest brands.

Leavitt combines a CFP start, redshirt-sophomore eligibility, mobility, and a nationally ranked NIL valuation (estimated at $2.1 million), positioning him as one of the portal’s most attractive quarterbacks.

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Although the transfer portal doesn’t open until Jan. 2, the quarterback market is starting to take shape. Multiple high-profile signal-callers announced their plans to hit the portal, and ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported how much the top QBs could make.

Thamel reported the “tip-top” of the quarterback market could reach $5 million. For comparison, Duke quarterback Darian Mensah was one of the highest-paid players in the country this past season at $4 million, On3’s Pete Nakos previously reported.

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Multiple big-name schools are expected to be looking for a quarterback in the portal this year, and names such as Brendan Sorsby, Dylan Raiola and Josh Hoover are already front-and-center. As a result, the market could surge, Thamel said.

“This market looks robust already, guys. … I made some calls today. Sources told me the tip-top of this quarterback market, financially, could reach $5 million for one season,” Thamel said Friday on ESPN College GameDay. “Look, it’s supply and demand. You have all those guys. Sorsby’s been linked early to Texas Tech. Dylan Raiola, there’s some smoke to Louisville, although maybe a playoff team jumps in late there. There’s been early links between Indiana and Hoover, assuming that [Fernando] Mendoza goes pro.

“Look, this is what’s going to drive the market. Oregon may lose Dante Moore, Miami’ll be in the quarterback market, so will LSU. So when you really take a look at what’s going to drive this quarterback market, it’s going to be the most expensive in the history of college football.”

Quarterback remains one of the biggest positions in the transfer portal, especially considering the recent success. Seven of the last nine Heisman Trophy winners have been transfers, including Mendoza this year. DeVonta Smith and Bryce Young are the only ones to stay with their own program at Alabama and win the award during that time.

Last year’s transfer quarterbacks were also among the highest-paid players in college football, On3 previously reported. Mensah’s $4 million payday was part of a two-year, $8 million deal at Duke. At Miami, Carson Beck inked a deal worth between $3 and $3.2 million, but up to $6 million with incentives.

The NCAA transfer portal window officially opens Jan. 2, meaning that’s when players’ names will start to appear. It will stay open for two weeks, closing Jan. 16.

The perception of bowl games and their significance to college football programs and players has undergone a rapid shift over the last decade.

In the current age of the sport, teams are turning down postseason bids while the transfer portal is filling up before most bowl games even kick off.

That’s just the reality of the situation. Normally, it’s the needy who are hit the hardest as G6 schools and poorly constructed FBS programs have their rosters raided.

Just take a look at what’s happening at UTSA.

UTSA’s Jeff Traylor: ‘I Hate What’s Going On In College Football’

Since transitioning to the FBS over a decade ago, UTSA has established itself in the Conference USA and the American Conference.

Head coach Jeff Traylor has led the program to six consecutive bowl games. That includes an up-and-down campaign in 2025, when the Roadrunners started 0-2 and won two of their final three games to finish 6-6.

UTSA is a week away from taking on FIU in the First Responder Bowl on December 26.

Going into the matchup, the Roadrunners could be without as many as 20 players. Many of those losses are due to the portal.

“We’ll be a shell of ourselves, but whoever we got out there, we’re going to go out there and play the best we can,” Traylor said, according to KENS 5’s Vinnie Vinzetta. “It’s just the numbers are so big with all the tampering. All the agents, it’s coaches too, it’s all of them. Our kids are being promised such incredible numbers, they’re getting lured into the portal.

“I just hope all the things those coaches and agents are promising they’re going to do for my kids. I hate it because I really want to coach them in a bowl game, but they’re getting leveraged out of it,” Traylor continued. “Their agents are telling them, they’ve got to not play in the bowl, they’ll get this number, they don’t play in the bowl [they’ll get this number].”

“I hate what’s going on in college football. I just think the numbers have gotten so large. You’re talking about teams that have $26 million to $40 million, and the number’s just too big, and who knows if they’re being told the truth? It’s sad, it really is sad,” Traylor added. “I never thought we’d be punished for making a bowl game by being leveraged, that if you don’t give them a certain number, they’re not going to play in a bowl.

Traylor is focused on the players still with the team, but he couldn’t help but recognize that college football looks a lot different than it did in his first season on the job.

“I’m going to celebrate the kids we have left, whoever that is, we’re going to go out there and play our tails off, and I’m very grateful for them,” Traylor said. “Again, I hate we’re talking about the 10 to 15 that probably are not going to play in the game, or 20, whatever that number ends up being. We should be talking about the 90 to 85 that are going to play with their teammates.”

“It’s like I just woke in another world as compared to where we were six years ago,” Traylor added.

Is there a way to combat what’s going on? Not really. There have been calls for coaches to report instances of tampering.

Most of the time, it’s hard for the people in charge to get the specifics of whose saying what.

“There’s no such thing as tampering. Coaches talk to players, agents talk to players,” Traylor said. “Oh, then turn them in, coach. You think those players are going to give me the coach that’s actually talking to them? Why? It’s driving the price up. The more they get driven up, the price goes up higher and higher.

“As long as there’s people gonna pay it, who’s going to stop it? What’s going to stop this? What’s going to stop it? Only the freedom of process is going to stop because when there’s no money left, what are we going to all do?”

As of December 19, four players who started multiple games for UTSA have announced plans to enter the transfer portal, including cornerbacks Davin Martin and KK Meier, defensive end Kenny Ozowalu, and defensive tackle Chidera Otutu.

More attrition is possible in the next seven days.

Read more on College Football HQ

• $45 million college football head coach reportedly offers Lane Kiffin unexpected role

• Paul Finebaum believes one SEC school is sticking by an ‘average’ head coach

• SEC football coach predicts major change after missing College Football Playoff

• Predicting landing spots for the Top 5 college football transfers (Dec. 17)