As the college football season has officially wrapped up, we have come to the end of another year in the name, image and likeness (NIL) and transfer portal era. Though the state of the sport is completely different from five years ago, it is not such a bad thing.
This season was one of the hardest to predict. The Indiana Hoosiers won the National Championship, while teams like Penn State, Notre Dame and LSU missed the college football playoffs entirely. In addition, a former two-star recruit won the Heisman Trophy.
These outcomes would be unlikely without the changes to college football, which started in 2021.
Of the last 20 championship games, five SEC schools won 14 trophies, with Alabama winning six alone; however, the previous three seasons featured unique champions, and the SEC was not included.
While Ohio State was consistently a contender, Michigan had not won since 1997 before its 2023 championship victory. Though the most surprising is Indiana.
The Hoosiers have never won a national title, and two seasons ago, they were sitting at a 7-5 loss. They also hold one of the worst program records in college football, so this turnaround is proof of the transfer portal and NIL being beneficial for the sport.
Many athletes on Indiana’s team played under head coach Curt Cignetti at James Madison, and then transferred to follow him after he took the position in Bloomington.
In Cignetti’s first season, they went 11-2, losing only to Ohio State and Notre Dame, who met in the championship game.
However, Indiana is not the only team to benefit from the transfer portal. The Miami Hurricanes, who played the Hoosiers in the championship, have struggled with relevance before the rule changes to NIL and the portal.
The Hurricanes won their first playoff game ever and made their first appearance in a national championship setting since the 2002 season. Transfers like Carson Beck helped lead the team to its best year in decades.
Due to the portal and NIL, players are staying in college longer rather than opting for the NFL draft. This raises competition levels while improving players’ draft prospects and their team’s championship hopes.
A program like Vanderbilt, which has been one of the worst football programs for years, is now competitive. Additionally, smaller schools like Tulane, James Madison, and North Texas get the opportunity to prove themselves against bigger schools. While that does not always work out, we do get some impressive games, such as Tulane’s upset of No. 10 USC in the 2023 Cotton Bowl.
The best evidence for the portal, though, comes from the Heisman Trophy itself. Of the last 10 recipients, only three were not transfer students. Those being Alabama’s Bryce Young and DeVonta Smith, and Louisville’s Lamar Jackson. Everyone else, from Baker Mayfield and Joe Burrow to Fernando Mendoza and Travis Hunter, were all transfer athletes.
The portal and NIL have destabilized the traditional power dynamics of college football, and I am here for it.
I do not want to see Alabama, Georgia or Ohio State winning the championship each year. It is quite refreshing to see other teams capable of competing. I personally have enjoyed watching the Big Ten take down the SEC, and if Indiana can win a national championship game, the possibilities for other programs are only growing.
