Amid a slew of changes in college football over the past few years, concerns about the longevity of the sport have persistently popped up. It’s a popular offseason talking point, if nothing else.

But ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum believes all the noise is more than just that. It’s a legitimate warning sign in the sport.

“100%. I think college football is at a tipping point, and I think what is going on now is an existential threat to the future of the game,” Finebaum said on the McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning radio program. “In a couple weeks, one thing we will all be saying is, ‘Just get me to that first Saturday. Get me to the last weekend in August and all this will go away.’ But all this will not go away. It’s still there.”

The changes to college football have been numerous. But in terms of order of magnitude, the transfer portal and NIL have been two of the biggest. Each presents its own set of challenges.

As college leadership moves to position itself for a new reality under the House settlement, everyone is grappling with the changes. Some are just ready for the never-ending offseason talk to end.

“A year ago, I really believed that the games on Saturday would cure the ills, and they were fantastic,” Finebaum said. “We all participate in them. But there is, slowly but surely, there is a disconnect. It’s the older fans first. And I know college administrators aren’t as concerned and television executives aren’t as concerned. But ultimately it will trickle down.”

The advent of a bigger playoff is another major change. After moving to 12 teams just last year, college football seems on the verge of an even bigger jump to 16 teams.

With that will come new qualifying measures, debates about automatic qualifying spots, and more. For Finebaum, though, the outlook of the playoff is less concerning than a problem coaches are already dealing with.

That’s equitable structures in the NIL era of college football. Easier said than done, as administrators lobbying in Congress are finding out.

“The fact that Kirby Smart had to say the other day when he’s at Regions that it’s not right for a freshman to be paid more than an upperclassman, I mean, there it is,” Finebaum explained. “It’s just a bizarre system and we don’t care that the players are making money, but ultimately,y the loyalty to the school is where the factor is. And it’s not so much the money, it’s not so much the talk of the playoffs.

“It’s the portal. It’s the fact that a player can leave at a moment’s notice with no commitment, no loyalty. I think (that) is disconnecting fans. It’s at a small rate right now, but it will expand.”

That’s a problem for college football, potentially. One that needs to be addressed in all forward-looking solutions.

Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules in college football have taken center stage over the last couple of years, but the last month or so in particular it seems things have been scaled up a notch.

The presence of President Donald Trump in potential action being taken by lawmakers to bring order to a chaotic system has ramped up the rhetoric and kept NIL in the news cycle.

With potential involvement in said action by former Alabama head coach Nick Saban, it’s become a complete firestorm.

U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) has long been at the forefront of the fight to fix a system that is clearly broken, or at the very least in need of some tuning up.

RELATED: Tuberville: Trump and Saban could join forces to tackle NIL reform – hopes to talk tonight at UA

From the potential elimination of non-revenue sports to other schools gaining a competitive advantage solely based off the size of their wallet, Tuberville has been one of the most powerful voices in politics on the topic.

Over the weekend, he put things in terms that residents in the Yellowhammer State understand better than anything else: by name dropping a hated rival and warning their seemingly endless supply of money tips the scales too much.

Referencing the Texas Longhorns, Tuberville issued a stern warning that if the system keeps progressing — or rather devolving — in the way it has, they will become unbeatable.

RELATED: Sen. Tuberville: ‘NIL has turned collegiate sports into the Wild West’

“You’re going to eliminate 90 percent of schools because they don’t have the money,” Tuberville stated via CBS Sports. “Look at Texas. Nobody’s ever going to beat them again if we allow them to keep going the way they’re going. Again, I’ve got nothing against Texas; they’re going by the rules, but we’ve got to hopefully make it work out.”

The Longhorns becoming a superteam who no other program can beat is probably unlikely, but the point remains.

NIL was pitched — obviously in addition to players profiting — as a way to balance the scales and bring to an end to power disparity in college football.

In reality it’s done the opposite and the rich have only gotten richer.

If something does not change, it will only get worse from here.

For the first time in nearly 10 years, the Oklahoma City Thunder will return to the Western Conference Finals — and they can thank MVP favorite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for getting them there.

Behind 35 points from Gilgeous-Alexander, the top-seeded Thunder took it to the four-seeded Denver Nuggets in Sunday’s Game 7, cruising in the second half to a dominant 125-93 victory at home. The Nuggets sprinted out to the early lead before OKC’s offense found a rhythm going into halftime. The Thunder led by as many as 43 points in the fourth quarter after trailing by as many as 11 points in the first.

With the win, SGA advances to the first Conference Finals appearance of his seven-year career. Alongside fellow Wildcat guard Cason Wallace, they’ll lead the Thunder into the next round against Julius Randle, Rob Dillingham, and the Minnesota Timberwolves. That series begins on Tuesday night in OKC. Even with only two teams remaining in the Western Conference, we’ve still got four Kentucky guys roaming the floor, three of them playing significant minutes (sorry, Dillingham).

Gilgeous-Alexander was terrific all series long against Denver, but hit another gear in the final few games. He dropped 31 points in a Game 5 win and followed it up with 32 more in a Game 6 loss. But his 35 points on Sunday marked a series-high. SGA shot an efficient 12-19 from the field (3-4 3PT) to get there while adding four assists, three rebounds, and three steals to his stat line in 36 minutes played. And oh yeah, he didn’t turn the ball over once.

Wallace chipped in seven points, five assists, three rebounds, and two steals in 28 minutes off the pine for OKC. Whenever the second-year guard is on the floor, he plays winning basketball — on both ends.

But while there was a celebration to be had in the Thunder locker room after the win, there was disappointment coming from the other end of the floor. Nikola Jokic, who is expected to finish second in MVP voting behind Gilgeous-Alexander, was held in check (by his standards) in Game 7: “only” 20 points, nine rebounds, and seven assists with five turnovers.

Jokic’s co-star, Jamal Murray, struggled to his a groove offensively. The former ‘Cat finished with a series-low 13 points on 6-16 shooting (1-8 3PT). It was a so-so playoffs for Murray, who just hasn’t been able to replicate the postseason success he had in the 2020 bubble and the Nuggets’ title run in 2023.

Karl-Anthony Towns representing Kentucky in the East

The Western Conference Finals won’t be the only series with some Kentucky flavor, though. Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks will take on the Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference Finals. And had Isaiah Jackson not suffered an Achilles injury early into the season for Indiana, we’d have even more Wildcats in the final two rounds.

Towns has been far from perfect through the first two series, but he’s done more than enough to contribute to New York’s wins. In the Knicks’ six Eastern Conference Semifinal games against the Boston Celtics, KAT averaged 19.8 points and 12.7 rebounds per outing while shooting 47.3 percent from the floor. His three-point shooting (3-19) and foul troubles (4.3 per game) were issues against Boston, but he can remedy that by bouncing back against the Pacers.

Game 1 between the Knicks and Pacers is set for Wednesday. Between the four remaining teams, none of them has won an NBA Finals since the 1970s.

College football is facing a financial reckoning, and it’s happening at breakneck speed. In just three years since introducing Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rules in 2021, the sport has stumbled into what some call the “Sam Bradford Problem.” While the term may seem complex, the problem is familiar to football.

What Is the Sam Bradford Problem?

The “Sam Bradford Problem” is a term that harkens back to the NFL’s own salary struggles in 2010. Bradford signed a staggering six-year, $78 million contract with the St. Louis Rams as a rookie, making him one of the highest-paid players in the league before he’d even taken a snap.

In 2010, Bradford’s deal with the Rams set a dangerous precedent in the NFL. Rookies, often drafted high based on potential rather than proven performance, were commanding salaries that dwarfed those of established stars who’d been grinding for years. This led to resentment in locker rooms and financial strain for teams, as massive rookie contracts ate up salary cap space.

The NFL took 90 years to confront this kind of rookie-veteran pay disparity, eventually addressing it with a rookie wage scale in the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). College football, however, has barreled into the same issue in a fraction of the time, and the fallout could reshape the sport as we know it.

It took like 3 years for college football to develop a Sam Bradford Problem

Took the NFL 90 years https://t.co/w0ptGgSbBW

— James David Dickson (@downi75) May 16, 2025

Fast-forward to this year, and college football is grappling with a similar imbalance, but the stakes feel even higher. The landscape has shifted dramatically since the NCAA allowed athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness in 2021.

Speaking on “The Paul Finebaum Show” recently, Georgia Bulldogs head coach Kirby Smart, one of the most successful coaches, sounded the alarm on this issue. He implied that he wants a respectful system and more pay for seniority.

“I just want to be able to have a freshman come in and not make more than a senior, and I’d like for other sports to be able to still survive. You know, we’re on the brink of probably one to two years away from a lot of schools cutting sports,” highlighting how this pay disparity disrupts team hierarchy and threatens the broader ecosystem of college sports to a great extent.

RELATED: Georgia Coach Kirby Smart Issues Stark Warning About NIL Chaos and What’s Coming Next for College Sports

Top recruits are signing NIL deals worth millions before they even step on campus, often out-earning upperclassmen who’ve put in years of work. While it is impressive to see such young talent perform well in life, our favorite players build a strong financial foundation, the lopsided pay has created frustrations and instability, to say the least.

Multiple calls have reiterated some form of control on the pay scale, and those who value loyalty have been hurt by the ever-changing landscape.

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In terms of true spending power, there might not be a program in college athletics that holds more weight than Texas A&M.

The Aggies are heavily backed by oil-based money moguls that can drop seven-figure checks by the athletic director’s office without batting an eye, but it has yet to get them over the hump in the NIL era.

A&M fans have endured 122 seasons of baseball without a national title, and despite claiming three national titles—the most recent being in 1939—the Aggies football team has never won a nationally recognized championship in its 131-year history. Basketball has never made a Final Four, or an Elite Eight for that matter, and softball, well, it has won two national titles—but not since 1987.

This spring, it appeared that the program’s baseball and softball teams might have a chance to end their collective drought’s but after some late-night drama on Sunday, those hopes came crashing down in yet another disappointing result.

Coming into the 2025 season, Texas A&M’s softball program was the Preseason No. 1 team in the country and the trendy pick to win a national championship. Fast forward to the end of the regular season and the Aggies are 28-25 (11-19 SEC) and will likely be headed home when the NCAA Tournament starts.

After a 47-10 regular season, the Texas A&M softball team earned the No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and were among a short list of favorites to dethrone Oklahoma. Then, in the blink of an eye, they became the first ever No. 1 seed to fail to advance out of their own regional.