John Wall was the first No. 1 NBA Draft pick in Kentucky Basketball history; fifteen years later, he says there’s a scenario in which he would have returned to Lexington for another season.
During an interview with Matt Jones on “Sunday Mornings with Matt & Myron” on ESPN Radio, Wall said that he had so much fun during his one year at Kentucky that he would have come back for another if his draft stock wasn’t so high.
“I’d say great, man,” Wall said of his time in Lexington. “A once-in-a-lifetime experience. Since the day I stepped foot on campus, it was amazing. I already knew what the fanbase was like, and I knew how much they love basketball and horses out there, but it was surreal.
“I really enjoyed every moment of it, had fun, and it’d be one of those things, if I hadn’t had an opportunity to go number one [in the NBA Draft], I would have loved to come back for another year because I wanted to win a championship, but what we did and brought back the culture of fun basketball with Cal and all that going on at Kentucky, it was just so amazing.”
What specific draft projection could have kept Wall in Lexington for a sophomore season?
“I think like [pick number] 10 or higher, I probably would have come back.”
Wall was one of five Kentucky players drafted in the first round that year — a record for any school — along with DeMarcus Cousins (No. 5), Patrick Patterson (No. 14), Eric Bledsoe (No. 18), and Daniel Orton (No. 29). There’s no telling if the others would have followed Wall’s lead and returned to Lexington for one more run but it’s a fun hypothetical on a Monday in June.
Wall glad he didn’t play college basketball during the NIL era
One thing that could have factored into those decisions: NIL. If players had been able to profit off their name, image, and likeness when Wall was in college, there’s no doubt he would have been one of the top NIL earners in program history and maybe even all of college basketball. He was the biggest rockstar on the team that brought the fun back to Kentucky Basketball. Interestingly, Wall said he was happy NIL wasn’t around during his time as a Wildcat.
“Me and my homeboys talk about it all the time and joke, like, I don’t know if it’s true, but I just saw that [Duke star] Cooper Flagg made like $28 million, they say. I was like, good lord. But I don’t really — for me, I’m glad I didn’t come up in that era, you know what I mean?”
Nope. You would have made millions on millions. Explain more, please.
“Just for me, I think it’s dope, I think it’s great, I think what they’re doing is fun. I think they gotta do like some boundaries with some of it, you know what I mean, so it’s not like everybody jumping in the [transfer] portal every year and trying to just search for money, but I’m glad the athletes are getting paid. But I’m glad I got an era where I just got to play basketball, enjoy, have fun, and then make my decision if I want to go to the league or not.”
When Matt reminded Wall of how many fans still wear his Kentucky jersey to games, he admitted it would have been nice to get a piece of the pie; however, he wouldn’t trade his experience at Kentucky for anything.
“That would be dope, and it’s always like a lot of respect and love that I have for Kentucky, how much love they got for me, for all the things I’ve done there, and getting an opportunity to play there. Even though it was only one year, I enjoyed that. But yeah, that would be crazy to see how much I would have gotten from NIL for sure.”
We might see Wall back in Lexington soon. During the interview, he revealed that Mark Pope invited him to work out with the team this summer, and he’s trying to fit it into his schedule. Even if he can’t make that work, he vowed to return to his old Kentucky home sooner rather than later.
“Kentucky’s always home for me,” Wall said. There’s always love. That’s the school I went to, the jersey I put on. They gave me the opportunity to reach one of my goals and dreams in life to play college basketball, and play on one of the biggest levels for one of the best schools in the country, and a good opportunity to go to the league. So yeah, I’m definitely coming back.”
Listen to Wall’s interview around the 30-minute mark of Hour 3 of “Matt & Myron” below.
Good morning, and thanks for spending part of your day with Extra Points.
We’re in the middle of #PORTALSZN here in college football, which means we’re likely to see more headlines from coaches, athletic directors and others in the industry about chaos. The calendar doesn’t make any sense. Athlete labor costs are skyrocketing, and recent attempts to get anything passed in Congress have failed.
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Players and coaches are frustrated with the current system, wanting to negotiate salaries and build rosters with a clear idea of what rules will actually be enforced. [Boise State athletic director Jeramiah] Dickey says fans are frustrated as they invest energy and money into their favorite teams without understanding what the future holds. And athletic directors, who want to plan a yearly budget and help direct their employees, are frustrated too.
“It has been very difficult on campus. I can’t emphasize that enough,” [Tennessee athletic director Danny] White said. “It’s been brutal in a lot of ways. It continues to be as we try to navigate these waters without a clear-cut solution.”
The potential benefits of a CBA are clear: it would come with built-in antitrust protection, the very thing that Power 4 and NCAA leaders want from Congress. But it’s also complicated and expensive, seeing as there’s nobody for schools to negotiate with (yet) and the law doesn’t grant full antitrust exemptions to CBAs without employee status, among many other potential roadblocks.
We can talk about those until we’re blue in the face. But in December, somebody did the hard and difficult work of at least coming up with a first draft.
Athletes.org released its own potential college athlete CBA, one that explains what sorts of things could fall under the purview of a CBA, how to structure a it and comply with current law and what the end results of such an agreement could look like.
Is it a final draft? Of course not. But I’m glad an organization did the difficult work of completing the first and most challenging part of a brainstorm: getting something on paper.
I wanted to dig into this more before the holiday break, now might actually be a better time. I’d encourage all of you to give the draft a read, but here were a few things I liked (and a few I didn’t like so much) from the first effort:
What I really like
It’s very specific about what sorts of questions a CBA can address
A lot of the conversation around college sports CBAs have centered on restrictions of athlete compensation and movement — I.e., salary caps, transfer windows/limitations, etc. Those are certainly examples of issues that would probably fall under the purview of a CBA. But they aren’t anywhere close to the only issues athletes would want to negotiate over and that would probably fall under the jurisdiction of a CBA. This is a useful graphic:
As the document states a few times, it is a first draft, not a final product. But laying this out would be useful not just for an athlete who isn’t sure about whether they want to be involved with a players organization, but also for reporters and fans who want to engage with labor issues more fully.
Just about everything on this list is dictated to players, rather than meaningfully crafted with them … from gambling policies to biometric data ownership to anything resembling a standardized grievance process. Some of this stuff might be spelled out in an athlete rev-share agreement or an NIL contract, and others are the products of NCAA and conference staff meetings.
When any of us talk about CBAs, I think it’s important to think holistically about what that entails. This graphic (and first draft) do a great job of that, IMO.
There are a few concrete policy proposals worth discussing
Virginia Tech defensive end Kemari Copeland, a Kellam High graduate who earned third-team All-Atlantic Coast Conference honors in 2025, is returning to the Hokies.
Agency Grady Sports posted on X that, led by agent Nicole Kotler, it helped make Copeland, one of their NIL clients, one of the highest-paid players in college football. No details were given.
Copeland had 48 tackles (11 solo) in 2025, including 7.5 for loss. He led the Hokies with 4.5 sacks
More ex-Nittany Lions set to join Hokies
Meanwhile, Virginia Tech gained a commitment from Penn State transfer quarterback Ethan Grunkemeyer. The 6-foot-2, 212-pounder stepped in for the Nittany Lions after Drew Allar’s injury and threw for 1,339 yards in 2025, accounting for nine total touchdowns.
Another former Nittany Lion headed to play for James Franklin with Tech is Daniel Jennings, a 6-2, 257-pound edge rusher. Yet another is tight end Matt Henderson of Powhatan, who redshirted in 2025.
The Hokies also added a commitment from former Michigan State offensive tackle Justin Bell, a 6-6, 311-pounder who redshirted in 2025 as a true freshman, and one from former Louisiana Ragin’ Cajuns running back Bill Davis.
Virginia Tech also landed edge Javion Hilson, a 6-5, 250-pounder from Cocoa, Florida, with four years of eligibility. He had just one tackle in 2025.
Ex-ODU receiver Brown chooses LSU
Former Old Dominion wide receiver Tre Brown III committed to LSU after leading the Sun Belt with 20.1 yards per catch in 2025.
He became the latest contributor to the Monarchs’ 10-3 season to join a Power Four conference team, joining quarterback Colton Joseph (Wisconsin) and running back Trequan Jones (Maryland).
Ex-Nansemond River star going to Colorado
Former Nansemond River High star Immanuel Ezeogu, who played for James Madison, committed to Deion Sanders’ Colorado program, the defensive lineman revealed on X. He had 15 tackles and a sack and forced a fumble in 2025.
Former Virginia wide receiver Trell Harris committed to Oklahoma, according to On3 Sports. The 6-foot, 200-pounder had 59 receptions for 847 yards and five touchdowns in 2025.
UVA gained a commitment from Rutgers transfer defensive back Jacobie Henderson, according to the Daily Progress. He had 42 tackles (three for loss) and five pass breakups in 2025.
Defensive lineman Jason Hammond will return to Virginia, the Cavaliers announced, but cornerback Emmanuel Karnley will enter the transfer portal.
Karnley had 26 tackles, an interception and eight pass breakups for UVA in 2025.
Pittsburgh is set to hire Brent Davis as the Panthers’ tight ends coach, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel. The former Army offensive coordinator was last at Virginia Tech as the tight ends coach.
JMU comings, goings take shape
Alonza Barnett III, the quarterback who led James Madison to the Sun Belt championship and a College Football Playoff berth, revealed his commitment to Central Florida. Meanwhile, former JMU running back Ayo Adeyi committed to Oklahoma State.
JMU defender Aiden Gobaira, who had 38 tackles and four sacks for the Dukes this season after his injury-plagued time with Notre Dame, committed to UCLA, according to On3 Sports, reuniting him with coach Bob Chesney.
Gobaira will be joined at UCLA, according to On3 Sports, by former Virginia Tech cornerback Dante Lovett, who has 36 career tackles, an interception and a forced fumble.
JMU gained a commitment from running back Seth Cromwell, a 5-10, 215-pounder who rushed for 646 yards and nine touchdowns for Northern Arizona in 2025, according to his agency. Also committing to JMU was Danny Royster, a first-team All-Great Lakes Valley Conference defensive end from the Division II University of Indianapolis. So did long snapper Mitchell Dietzel from Eastern Michigan and tight end Cole Keller from East Tennessee State.
Former East Carolina quarterback Katin Houser committed to Illinois. He was 269 for 408 for 3,300 yards, 19 touchdowns and six interceptions in 2025.
ECU hires defensive coordinator, receivers coach
Jordon Hankins was named East Carolina’s defensive coordinator, according to an announcement by head coach Blake Harrell.
Hankins comes from the University of Memphis, where he served as the defensive coordinator (2024-25), linebackers coach (2021-25) and assistant special teams coordinator (2021-23).
Also, ECU hired Juan Soto as the receivers coach. He spent the last two years as the assistant wide receivers coach for North Texas under new Pirates offensive coordinator Jordan Davis.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S LACROSSE
UVA 7th, JMU 20th in preseason poll
Virginia was ranked seventh and James Madison 20th in USA Lacrosse’s preseason poll. Defending champion North Carolina, which will open its season at noon Feb. 7 at JMU, was ranked No. 1.
PRO FOOTBALL
Commanders do deal with ex-ODU cornerback
Former Old Dominion cornerback Tre Hawkins signed a reserve/futures contract with the Commanders. He spent the second half of the season on Washington’s practice squad.
COLLEGE MEN’S BASKETBALL
NSU assistant makes prestigious list
Norfolk State assistant coach Leonard Fairley has been named to the 2025 Silver Waves Media Rising Stars Mid-Major Assistant Coaches and GMs List, recognizing top emerging talent.
Fairley has been a member of the Spartans’ men’s basketball program for eight seasons, including his time as a student manager before transitioning into a coaching role.
During his tenure on the coaching staff, NSU has compiled a 155-88 overall record and a 77-23 mark in Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play, capturing five regular-season championships and three MEAC Tournament titles.
COLLEGE WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Radford freshman takes Big South honor
Radford forward Georgia Simonsen was named the Big South Freshman of the Week after totaling 30 points, 13 rebounds and two assists in two games.
A dream season that propelled a Southeastern Conference football program into the national title conversation has been marred by a chaotic coaching exit, leaving an elite roster in limbo. The sudden departure of the program’s architect to a fierce conference rival during the most critical stretch of the postseason has created an unprecedented conflict of interest for the remaining staff.
These assistant coaches are currently attempting to balance their loyalty to a group of championship-bound athletes with the demands of their new employers who are already focused on the next recruiting cycle.
The tension reached a boiling point after an unexpected victory against a top-ranked opponent extended the season and complicated the logistics for everyone involved in the building. ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum recently weighed in on the situation, noting that the optics of this exit have shifted from a standard career move to a damaging public image crisis.
While the departing head coach claims there is a transparent plan for his assistants to support both programs, the reality on the ground suggests otherwise: restricted access and divided loyalties.
The decision to prioritize the transfer portal over a chance at a national title has sparked a national debate about professional integrity and the responsibility a coach has to the players who helped build a winning culture.
Finebaum suggests that one specific individual is responsible for the ongoing friction and has failed to take the necessary steps to protect the program he built from unnecessary distractions. The fallout has created a significant hurdle for a team preparing for a semifinal matchup that represents the pinnacle of their school history.
Paul Finebaum says Lane Kiffin is poorly handling LSU transition
Appearing on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning podcast on Monday, Finebaum offered a scathing review of how LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin has handled his exit from Oxford. The veteran broadcaster did not hold back when discussing the optics of the situation as the Rebels prepare for a historic playoff game without total clarity regarding their coaching staff.
Finebaum pointed directly at the new Tigers leader as the primary source of the friction that has dominated the national conversation.
LSU Tigers head coach Lane Kiffin is not navigating the postseason well, according to ESPN college football analyst Paul Finebaum. | Matthew Hinton-Imagn Images
“I think it’s incredibly sad,” Paul Finebaum said during the broadcast. “There’s one person who can make all this easier and that’s Lane Kiffin. Lane Kiffin is badly losing the PR battle. I know he’s working hard. I’d love to look at Kiffin’s phone right now, guys, you can probably attest to this. To see how many media members he has texted, trying to spin them on how much he cares about the Ole Miss program. But it’s pretty obvious that he doesn’t.”
The analyst argued that the coach’s focus has clearly shifted to his new surroundings at the expense of his former players. “He cares about where he is now, which is understandable but it also negates a lot of what he said leading into his departure that he really wanted to stay there,” Finebaum noted.
“I think it turns out that Keith Carter and a lot of the administration at Ole Miss made a real good decision because I don’t think Ole Miss would’ve beaten Georgia if Kiffin had been going back and forth between Baton Rouge and Oxford.”
Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss (6) threw for 362 yards and two touchdowns in the Rebels’ 39-34 win over Georgia in the Sugar Bowl. | Amber Searls-Imagn Images
As the postseason reaches its peak, the veteran journalist lamented the lack of resolution for the remaining staff and athletes. “I’m not going to try to sound like I’m a peacekeeper for the UN,” Finebaum added.
“I think it’s really tragic that more hasn’t been done by all parties, but mainly Lane Kiffin, to make this transition for Ole Miss easier as they get ready to go to the Fiesta Bowl.”
The Ole Miss Rebels will play the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.
Florida State football leadership will meet with the media to discuss the program’s future.
Topics will include a front office restructure, NIL, and revenue sharing.
The program is undergoing a “comprehensive review” after a 7-17 record over the last two seasons.
FSU is actively recruiting from the transfer portal, including former Florida quarterback DJ Lagway.
Florida State football head coach Mike Norvell, Athletic Director Michael Alford and new Deputy AD and General Manager of Player Personnel John Garrett will meet with local media on Monday, Jan. 5.
The trio is expected to talk about the Seminoles’ front office restructure, Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) and revenue sharing, among other topics related to the FSU football program.
The Seminoles are hosting multiple transfer portal visitors, including former Florida quarterback DJ Lagway on campus as the program looks to restructure its roster following two dismal seasons that ended with a combined 7-17 record.
Norvell, whose job was under pressure during the season, will be back for a seventh season in charge of the program, and he promised a “comprehensive review” of the program that would change how the Seminoles operated. One of those changes is the hire of Garrett and Taylor Edwards as director of football and player acquisition.
Alford hired an outside consultant, Jake Rosenberg, to give a review of the program and help the Seminoles position themselves to best compete in the modern era of college athletics.
The Tallahassee Democrat will provide live updates from the discussion.
Live updates from Michael Alford, John Garrett and Mike Norvell press conference
Decision-making, leadership key to FSU’s next quarterback
Garrett said that what FSU wants in a quarterback goes beyond the intangibles they have, and they need to be mentally tough, make tough decisions and be a leader.
He said the “fun part” of recruitment is getting to know a player and finding out their fit within the program beyond their physical skill set.
Garrett said being an “accurate thrower of the ball” is the key physical trait that any quarterback needs to have.
Garrett describes new player recruitment structure
Garrett said there is constant evaluation going on with staff members assigned to certain regions of the country. Staffers will watch tape, communicate with high school coaches and talk with recruiting liaisons on a weekly basis to help evaluate and find the “best” fit for the Seminoles.
On the portal, Garrett called it a “mad dash” and something a program has to get ahead of when doing evaluations of players and who to bring in. He said the recruitment process is similar to prep evaluations, but done in a quicker timeline.
Alford describes the timeline for “review” and making changes to the FSU front office
Alford said that the decision to make these changes to the personnel staff has been something that has been discussed for a long time, and that after further analysis on what Norvell’s responsibilities were and how much he had to do, they felt it was right to make the changes now.
He said for an accurate “review,” the program had to wait for the season to end, because it’s where a “fair review” can take place.
Norvell, Garrett praise collaboration, ‘checks and balances’ critical to FSU’s success
“Everyone’s enthused,” Garrett promises that the Seminoles have the right “team” in place to build the right roster for FSU football.
Garrett said the staff is here to help Norvell make the most informed decision on the program. He said Norvell allows everyone to have a say on what is being discussed. Garrett said that collaboration allows all the different perspectives within the staff to have a say on what the program does.
Norvell said “checks and balances” is “critical” in modern-day college football.
Norvell said there won’t be a player brought into the program that everyone doesn’t agree upon.
On negotiations, Norvell said he doesn’t want to be the one negotiating with the players. He said his job is to coach and develop the players.
Norvell praised the work of Garrett and Edwards when discussing negotiations and helping bring players together.
Norvell labels college football as being in a “unique” position
On the transfer portal, Norvell said that working alongside Garrett and Edwards has been good through the first few days of the transfer portal.
He said there has been constant collaboration and that the staff has been very receptive to evaluations and decisions about who to target and what needs the program has.
Norvell called the state of college football “unique.” He said the program is going to find the “right people” to push FSU forward. He said he’s got a lot of confidence in what he and Garrett can do together when building FSU’s future.
Norvell says the new personnel department was a “necessity.”
Norvell said there was an aligned vision and constant collaboration throughout the restructuring of the program’s personnel.
“I’m excited for what this thing will mean, and how it will operate,” Norvell said.
Norvell said the willingness to allow the changes from everyone in the program will allow FSU to be taken to the “next level.”
Michael Alford opens the discussion by speaking on the program review
Alford said that FSU used both resources, both inside and outside the Seminoles program, to evaluate the operations of FSU.
John Garrett will lead recruiting efforts, retention and long-term decisions, while Norvell will have the final say on all decisions within the program. Garrett called it a “wonderful opportunity.”
FSU football players in the transfer portal
DL Darryll Desir, Jan. 5
DL Mandrell Desir, Jan. 5
DL Amaree Williams, Jan. 5
P Mac Chiumento, Jan. 1
DL KJ Sampson, Dec. 31
OL Ty Hylton, Dec. 30
OL Lucas Simmons, Dec. 29
RB Gavin Sawchuk, Dec. 28
OL Manasse Itete, Dec. 28
DB Ashlynd Barker, Dec. 28
WR Jayvan Boggs, Dec. 27
DE James Williams, Dec. 27
QB Brock Glenn, Dec. 25
WR Elijah Moore, Dec. 22
QB Jaylen King, Dec. 17
TE Randy Pittman, Dec. 16
LB Omar Graham, Dec. 16
DL Jaden Jones, Dec. 16
RB Kam Davis, Dec. 16
DB Cai Bates, Dec. 15
WR Camdon Frier, Dec. 12
DB Smoke White, Dec. 10
DB Edwin Joseph, Dec. 10
WR Willy Suarez, Dec. 10
RB Jaylin Lucas, Dec. 10
DT Jamorie Flagg, Dec. 10
TE Luke Douglas, Dec. 10
OT Mario Nash Jr., Dec. 9
DT L.A. Jessie Harrold, Dec. 6
DT Tyland Coleman, Dec. 9
LB Jayden Parrish, Dec. 5
Liam Rooney covers Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney.
There are a lot of underqualified QBs making big bucks this season.
Published•Updated
NFL fans are all too familiar with the market for quarterbacks.
The demand for great signal callers in pro football FAR exceeds the supply, so teams are more than willing to pay top dollar for mediocre (at best) QBs to help deliver some wins to their franchise.
Look at some of the quarterback contracts in the NFL, and you will see several players being paid either purely on potential or because their team just didn’t have a better option.
READ: NFL Teams Not Enjoying Dividends From Big Money QB Investments
Guys like Daniel Jones and Tua Tagovailoa were given massive contract extensions just for being “good enough,” but it isn’t entirely their teams’ faults.
The market for quarterbacks is so bloated – thanks in part to more deserving signal callers like Matthew Stafford and Patrick Mahomes inking mega deals – that even mediocre quarterbacks can command a fortune, hamstringing their franchises from making other moves to help the team.
It looks like college football, in their quest to be the NFL Jr., is following down a similar path.
Trey Wallace wrote earlier about how bad the market has gotten in the transfer portal, but it’s at its absolute worst when it comes to quarterbacks.
The latest offender is a familiar one: the Texas Tech Red Raiders.
I’ve written extensively about how Texas Tech has spent their way into becoming the next college football powerhouse, and while I can’t fault them for playing within the rules (because there are no rules), it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
The Red Raiders are all in on Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby, inking the former Bearcat to a $5 million payday.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Sorsby, but is he worth more money than most NFL players on rookie contracts?
The answer is actually more complicated than that, though, as there isn’t a salary cap (yet) in college sports, so Sorsby is technically worth whatever a team is willing to pay for him.
The problem is that for every Texas Tech (oil money) or Michigan (Larry Ellison), there are several other programs that won’t be able to keep up in the arms race.
I’m not even talking about the Tulanes and James Madisons of the world. Even blue-bloods like Georgia and Ohio State don’t have the booster base to keep up with any of the Texas schools.
That means teams like Tech, A&M, and even Houston can theoretically price out everyone for almost any player they want.
READ: College Footbal Is SIck – Transfer Portal, NIL, And More
Unqualified quarterbacks commanding top dollar in college football isn’t a new phenomenon, either.
Miami reportedly paid Carson Beck somewhere in the vicinity of $4 million to forgo his final season at Georgia and skip the NFL Draft to come down to Coral Gables, and while the Hurricanes are in the College Football Playoff semifinals, most of that is thanks to their dominance on the offensive and defensive lines of scrimmage.
The Canes probably could have gotten a similar result this season if they had cut that quarterback budget in half or, God forbid, actually developed a quarterback that was already on their roster for a fourth of Beck’s price tag.
Even non-traditional powers are upping the ante for quarterbacks.
A team like Duke paid their QB, Darian Mensah, $8 million over multiple years to leave Tulane after a stellar true freshman season.
Giving $8 million to a Group of 5 freshman feels risky, and while it paid off for the Blue Devils, it also robs a team like the Green Wave of the ability to develop a special talent like Mensah.
I don’t have a solution to any of this, and I doubt the NCAA does either.
They let this genie out of the bottle and have no desire nor power to put it back, so we as fans are now forced to deal with the consequences.
Regardless of what ends up happening, this is just another example of college football following in the footsteps of its older brother, the NFL, and being all the worse for it.
I’ve said it before, and I will say it again: I want my college football back.
As another college football season winds to a close, it’s difficult to imagine that the game could be a bigger mess. Not even Congress could’ve conceived of a plan that would produce the anything-goes state of affairs.
Everyone knows this. Everyone from fans to coaches to journalists talk about it and complain about it. Its flaws and excesses are obvious, and some of college football’s smartest have offered sensible ways to fix it. It’s not that difficult.
But no one is doing anything about it. And the reason no one is doing anything about it is simple: The people in charge are the people who are making money and they have ZERO incentive to change anything.
They have the money and the revenues to continue the status quo. Who’s in charge, you ask? Not the NCAA, that’s for sure. There is no central government to oversee the overall good of sports; the NCAA ceded control of football to the SEC and the Big Ten and ESPN a long time ago. They are the de facto commissioners of college football, their very own cash cow.
“We’ve created a mess. Point blank,” Arizona State coach Kenny Dillingham said last month. “The whole industry is a mess. The only thing that’s not a mess is the dollar signs. Those are still pointing up. The dollar signs, the business of it, that’s skyrocketing. Everything else is a mess. That’s just being transparent and honest.”
“It’s broken; college football is broken,” says Scott Frost, the Central Florida football coach. “Everyone would agree if they were honest.”
“College football is messed up,” former coach Nick Saban said on “The Pat McAfee Show” last month. “The playoffs have created tremendous interest in college football. … There’s more interest than ever, higher TV ratings and all that. But the underbelly underneath, that is not really good. It’s not really good for the development of players. It’s not really good for all the sports that we try to sponsor in college. …
“We’ve got to decide (if) we want to be a professional developmental league, or are we really going to have college athletes who go get an education and develop value for their future as they’re playing and making money?”
Every aspect of college football is messed up. NIL. The transfer portal. The scheduling. The uneven playing field. The lack of central leadership. Disruptive and frequent conference realignment. The constant player turnover. The playoff selection process. The length of the season. The bowl system.
The biggest problem is the combined effect of the transfer portal and NIL. The transfer portal enables players to transfer at will — it has created annual free agency for all — and NIL money has been used as the carrot to lure players into the portal and to other schools. Rosters are turned upside down every season. Players have more freedom than professional and high school players.
So far, more than 4,000 players have entered the portal, which opened Jan. 2 and closes Jan. 16. That’s about one-third of all DI scholarship players. That’s more than double the total number of players in the NFL.
In 2025, The Athletic examined the top 50 prospects at every position in the Class of 2021, which was the first to begin their careers with the ability to transfer and play immediately. In all, The Athletic followed the collegiate careers of 600 prospects. Result: 60.3% of the players transferred at least once, and one-third of that group transferred multiple times. College football allows annual free agency.
“I don’t think that’s really good for college football,” then-Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin told ESPN in 2023. “These massive overhauls of rosters every year really is not in the best interest of college football.”
(For the moment, let’s ignore the abject hypocrisy of a coach who abandoned his playoff-bound Ole Miss team to take the head coaching job at LSU.)
Players are chasing the NIL money. They (or their agents) are telling their current coaches, “Pay me or else.” They sell themselves off to the highest bidder. Boosters, rival coaches and agents encourage it. They are poaching players from other schools, offering endorsements, appearance fees and cash as a lure.
It’s the holiday shopping season for coaches, and it’s expensive. CBS posted a position-by-position price list for players on sale in the portal. The average price of a quarterback is $1.5 million to $2.5 million. An elite quarterback goes for $3.5 million. A running back averages $400,000 to $700,000. An offensive tackle: $500,000 to $1 million. A safety is on the low end of the hire-for-pay scale, $350,000 to $500,000.
It’s an easy fix. Limit players to one entry into the transfer portal, period. And/or make them sign contracts with a school, like the professionals they are. Let’s end the charade that this is anything but a professional football league and require contracts and a salary cap.
When a school makes a financial commitment to a player, he should make a commitment to the school. Big schools have turned Group of Five and FCS schools into farm clubs. These schools invest a year or two in developing a player, and then when he’s a finished product, the big schools swoop in and take him.
All that money and time is wasted. James Madison, which won one of the 12 spots in the College Football Playoff, has reportedly lost 11 starters to the transfer portal. At the very least, a school should be able to protect 80 players, and if one of them wants to transfer, he must sit out a year.
“I think (players) should make money, but there should be some restrictions on how they go about doing it,” says Saban. “And the movement is as big an issue, to me, a bigger issue than even the money. I mean, everybody being able to transfer all the time … that’s not a good thing.”
The lawless landscape has fomented other problems. Tampering is probably much more rampant than anyone realizes. Last spring, Colorado self-reported 11 tampering violations, which consisted of interactions with players from other schools who had not entered the portal.
The portal is bad enough, but now coaches are ignoring an NCAA bylaw that requires that players must actually enter the portal before they can have contact with another school. The irony is that Colorado coach Deion Sanders had accused Virginia’s coaching staff of tampering with Colorado players.
Florida State accused Oregon of tampering with running back Rodney Hill before he entered the transfer portal, while the player was practicing for the Orange Bowl. He eventually transferred to Miami.
Jeff Traylor, the head coach at Texas-San Antonio, says a school used an NIL offer to lure two of his players to leave his team before they were in the portal.
Agents also play a huge, underrated role in college football by facilitating, if not urging, transfers. NIL agent Noah Reisenfeld once claimed that “pretty much every NIL agency charges 20%” compared to the NFL/NBA standard of 3-5%.
They have every incentive to encourage players to leave for another school, annually.
Rodney Hill blames a bad agent for his much-traveled career. He says his agent pretended to be Hill and texted various schools attempting to get more money. When Florida State learned of these texts, Hill was shown the door. Hill went to Florida A&M, then decommitted after a coaching change, then committed to Miami, decommitted again, returned to Florida A&M, then entered the transfer portal again and landed at Arkansas.
“I wasn’t trying to leave (Florida State),” Hill told ESPN. “I didn’t want to leave, so I just had to, and the portal was closing up.”
He was fortunate, in a way. It has been widely reported that a high percentage of players in the transfer portal (40%, according to some reports) never find another school.
No matter how you cut it, college football is a mess for everyone except for a few very elite schools and players.
Mississippi head coach Lane Kiffin, left, cheers on wide receiver Miles Battle (6) as he runs along the sideline during the second half of an NCAA college football game against LSU in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. The Rebels will be playing the CFP semifinals later this week, but Kiffin won’t be coaching them on account he took a job with LSU after the regular season ended. | Rogelio V. Solis, Associated Press
