With Michigan defeating Washington 34-13 in the national championship game on Jan. 8 and being crowned the king of NCAA football, another season of College football is officially in the books. It was once again an enjoyable season, with viewership of the sport remaining high. However, this season undoubtedly raised many questions about the current status of College football and what its future should look like. Here are the three biggest issues with NCAA football that need to be addressed immediately.
The Transfer Portal: College sports are supposed to feel different from professional sports. The athletes, students and alumni are supposed to feel an unmatched sense of pride representing their school. Unfortunately, with the current status of the transfer portal, it seems that College football is becoming similar to a league like the NFL as players are constantly transferring from one school to another.
The transfer portal used to have a rule stating that players who transferred were required to sit out a year before they could play. This made players less inclined to transfer and instead they would play out their whole collegiate career at the school they originally committed to. When teams used to get new recruits there would be a ton of excitement as fans knew the athlete would be along for the long haul, but today that athlete might just play for one season and leave, making it difficult for coaches to develop their teams for the future and for fans to connect with them.
Bowl Games: According to ESPN, the average number of viewers across the 40 bowl games this year was 4.6 million. Yes, the numbers are great, but if anything, they just serve as a great checkpoint to improve upon and make bowl games even better. Outside of the two playoff games, players opting out of bowl games for the NFL draft, which increased significantly this year, or transferring prior to these games have ruined the competitiveness of bowl games. Take the Orange Bowl as an example: Georgia and Florida State were ready to face off as the two best teams that missed the College Football Playoffs. However, as 23 players from Florida State’s roster opted out of the game, they ended up losing 63-3, the largest point margin in bowl game history. After the game, Georgia coach Kirby Smart said, “It’s really unfortunate for those kids on that sideline that had to play in that game that didn’t have their full arsenal.” Bowl games are supposed to serve as an opportunity for schools to compete for something outside of a national championship, and if they lack competitiveness, the games become pointless. Next year, the College Football Playoff format is changing to include 12 teams (thank God), but bowl games are still going to exist, so something needs to be done to ensure that we won’t see a score like 63-3 ever again.
Conferences: One of the biggest changes for the 2024-2025 College football season is schools changing conferences. Most fans of the sport know the main power five conferences: the Big 10 Conference, Atlantic Coast Conference, Southeastern Conference, Big 12 Conference and the PAC-12 Conference. A big reason for creating these conferences in the first place was that they were geographically rational. Now, a team like Stanford, which lies on the Pacific Coast, is playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Makes sense, right? On top of that, these conference realignments affect all sports, so congratulations to the seventh ranked Maryland men’s lacrosse team, you now get to travel more than 2,600 miles to square off against the UCLA Bruins on a casual Tuesday night. This will cause irreversible damage to the lifestyles of student athletes. It is nowhere near feasible to have to travel across the country numerous times a year for your sport, and at the same time balance earning your degree. Also, who thought it was a good idea for the Big 10 to have a grand total of 18 teams?