"THE REAL MONEYBALL": INSIDE THE CYNICAL NEW ERA OF COLLEGE FOOTBALL

SUBSCRIBE HERE TO GAIN FURTHER ACCESS TO LSUODYSSEY

By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

FOLLOW @LonnPhillips

Whether you want to admit it or not, whether I myself want to confess this awful, heinous truth, the fact of the matter is now established: college football recruiting is losing its luster in the eyes of the average fan.

This is mostly due to the relentless back and forth, flip flopping, commit, de-commit, commit again circle of life among the current state of high school / college football recruiting, but now, with the added gasoline of bottomless Wild West agencies, NIL cash, endless transfer portal sagas, top echelon programs spending $15+ million dollars on each year's squad, the nonstop involvement of recruiting service machines lining up to take their cuts of the action, while numerous legislators across the country turn state tax payer funds into extended NIL war chests....the match has been lit, igniting this runaway freight train...

Hell, we've even seen media company CEOs like Dave Portnoy fork over large amounts of cash for top recruits, expanding the definition of "booster" to its absolute barrier.

Gone is the mystery, as info is inevitably leaked to photo edit creators, who then disseminate that info to collaborating reporters, who turn that information over for paid subscribers, breaking a previously sacred cardinal rule: never break the news of a kid's commitment before the announcement.

Now, us in the media use words like "expert prediction" or "expected" or "potentially" to get around that rule, all while the information hits the wire days, sometimes weeks before the kid's announcement, all depending on when NIL contracts get signed.

Not only are these commitments considered temporary now, they are often a smart way to leverage improved offers, initiating a "bidding war" so to speak, as kids will often commit the summer ahead of signing day, decommit by late fall & commit somewhere else again on signing day.

Plus, with the transfer portal, now the "process" never truly ends....

Now I love the transfer portal, I am in favor of its existence, but things have been extreme almost since it began.

We find ourselves in a time where a rising amount of college athletes will play for 2 or even 3 different schools over their 4-5 year collegiate career (examples: former Tigers Max Johnson & Arik Gilbert), essentially receiving another recruiting "process" of visits, tons of investment from programs & boosters, as plenty of agents line up for their cut of the action....

....the portal is yet another race for the prize, all as offers for new transfers must be weighed against how much your program is paying existing players already on roster (resulting in constant politics from coaching staffs, one of their few available weapons when managing rosters).

Things get even weirder & more ruthless as transfer portal windows open after the regular season, but prior to the playoffs:

On the cusp of playoff games, where stars are born & maximum brand building or money-making is possible, we've even seen reports of key, starting players holding their coaching staff "hostage" with improved monetary demands; If the demands are not met, they will opt out, using these high stakes games as bargaining leverage.

I'm not judging anyone for taking advantage of a flawed system, especially after growing up watching "student athletes" like Reggie Bush, Kevin Faulk, Tyrann Mathieu, Peter Warrick, Percy Harvin, Tim Tebow, Vince Young, Matt Leinart, and even Joe Burrow in an era where (officially) athletes weren't paid. I always found that aspect scandalous, overwhelmingly tilted against the student athletes.

That decades-long injustice needed to be corrected, and now it has been rectified....yet, maybe the pendulum may have swung too far the other way in favor of student athletes, agencies, and recruiting media over all else....

Has this current, unregulated NIL Wild West era hurt the game?

Is the mercenary era throwing away the tradition, sidelining the mystery, and benching the team-oriented spark that made us all love college football in the first place???

Is this era starting to erode a fan, hell even a coach's ability to become familiar & devoted to a squad of players over a 3-4 year trajectory, leaving players, coaches and fans short of loyalty toward one another???

Perhaps this Wild West Era is even messing with the development of the very players themselves???

Or is this new era of "pay to play" a reaction to the puppetmasters who've run college football's money making machine for decades, with the athletes now taking back control???

All of this endless recruiting, roster management, the relentless pace & sudden twists & turns....it may be manna from heaven for media folks like myself, however, it's all too clear the current state of recruiting is exhausting fans, has torn apart locker rooms in the past (Texas A&M's 2022 class), even retired coaches like Nick Saban (which may be a good thing in the eyes of some), but ultimately, this Wild West Era has turned off more than just old school-minded football people.....it's starting to exhaust the nerve endings of the average fan.

There are almost too many layers to be peeled back and analyzed when discussing the current New Era of College Football, with no one side immune from taking advantage or falling prey to the new ways.

For me, I will never get mad at or be disgusted by anyone making money, and any regular Joe who becomes enraged at the thought of a 17 or 18 year old signing a multi-million dollar NIL deal, you're either

A) Just mad that's not your son signing the deal

B) You hate capitalism

or

C) You have a micropenis.

Some knew where this was headed back in 2020's groundbreaking time of opt outs and transfer waivers, moves that granted players more power than ever before, while everyone from athletic directors, league commissioners, and the players themselves all acted out of alarming self interest in a schism that has continued to alter rules, postseason structures & conference alignments ever since....

....during that whirlwind Covid year, some could foresee a fast approaching era where money & individuals would guide the sport......not just at the top, but top to bottom....

As for myself, I take the good with the bad and adapt, however, I would be lying if I said it wasn't disheartening when I get to know a young man & their family, enjoying that relationship & evolution, only for them to change their minds at the last second, take a larger pile of money, and leave a program with such swiftness, it was like they were never there.....

Right or wrong, that is where the game is right now, a landscape of ultimate free agency, a kind of free reign oligarchy setup of tiers, where each level, from the SEC to the Sun Belt has its own giants devouring everything below them.

It is also abundantly clear the system hurts & favors everyone: all programs benefit and lose, as every school in every division poaches players from other teams while simultaneously losing plenty of their own....

Needing more opinions, I asked the fans what they thought on the new era of college football, and here's a few of the replies we received in response:

If it's the age of the high schooler getting paid 6 or even 7 figures with state tax payer funded cash or large pools of money from fan donations & ticket taxes, then it's also clearly the era of the cynical fan, regular people who will likely never see that same payday in their lifetime, now expecting teenagers to act, produce and perform like seasoned veteran professionals...since they're paid like one.

....but if you think these price tags buy instant maturity and loyalty, they don't....loyalty is another transactional negotiable ironed out in contracts & maturity is down to a number of factors, some within a program's control, some beyond....

In the end, the real question that must guide all decision making going forward: does this current model help or hurt college football's future???

Is this current setup sustainable???

Regardless of your opinion on NIL, the portal, etc, it's quite obvious there will be no longevity in the game without some kind of common sense, no brainer NIL & portal regulations.

The sad fact is so many of us fans and media folks blast kids who demand money and jump from team to team with zero loyalty to anyone, but nobody ever challenges or takes on the vast monetary interests running our sport...interests whose stranglehold on power relies on the maintenance of an out of control status quo.

The money-first ethos of college football's current landscape did not begin with the "student athletes", it started nearly 80 years ago...and those figures still loom largest when it concerns the never-ending tinkering & expansion of the CFP, collective bargaining, the rise of mega deal TV contracts, the gatekeeping of recruiting service machines....all of these factors both help and hurt the game, which is why common sense regulations must be imposed in the very near future.

Regulations must happen....because at the end of the day, money people are not football people.....they do not give one damn about the sustainability or longevity of college football, only the degree to which it can line the coffers now.

It is time for football people to protect the game, before the money people who run college football make the sport completely unrecognizable...nothing more than a mutinous, mercenary-filled glorified minor league for the NFL, buried under stacks and stacks of cash....

By LONN PHILLIPS SULLIVAN

©️ 2025 Uninterrupted Writings Inc