NIL/portal (2021-23)
35 entries from the NIL/portal era (2021-2023), oldest first. Open in the filterable browser.
“I'm a believer that more is not always better and increasing is not always better.”
Asked about expanding the four-team CFP, Warren said the sport should first study the effects on player health, academics and injuries. He said he wasn't yet ready for eight teams and would vote no at that point.
“No, no, no, you cannot be doing that.”
As interim NIL rules took effect, Emmert said he hoped Congress would pass an NIL law. He added that the bans on pay-for-play and recruiting inducements must remain the bedrock of college athletics.
“I think the more you expand it, the less important the season becomes and the more you become the NFL.”
Swinney said he and his players opposed expanding the CFP to 12 teams, though he called it inevitable. He argued more expansion makes the regular season less important and turns the sport into the NFL, where teams rest starters once they're in.
“I think 12 teams is a huge step in the right direction. I personally would like to see 64, and you could map it out pretty easily.”
At SEC Media Days, Leach called the proposed 12-team CFP a huge step in the right direction but said he would personally like a 64-team bracket.
“This whole thing has been a complete articulation of deception”
After Texas and Oklahoma moved toward the SEC, sent ESPN a cease-and-desist letter accusing it of encouraging other conferences to poach Big 12 members; called the process deceptive.
“Science will tell you you can't keep hitting these guys and expect them to be fresh and ready to go”
Drawing on FCS experience, said 15-16 game seasons are a grind that requires less hitting in practice.
“People say, It's just one more game. To me, that is a total lack of appreciation for what it takes to win a game”
Said 12-team expansion may be good financially and for fans 'but I don't think that's what is best for the player'; called 'it's just one more game' a lack of appreciation for what those games take.
“To not be able to get paid for something like that, I say it's kind of crazy.”
Early in the NIL era, Williams defended athletes getting paid because their days are longer than most people's. He called transferring to run from competition 'a little weak-minded' but said coaching changes uproot players.
No verbatim quote recorded for this entry; summary of the source only.
Phillips said it was not the right time for CFP expansion, pointing to unanswered athlete health questions, wider disruption from NIL and the new NCAA constitution, and the need for a holistic review of the sport.
“We are 100 percent supportive of expansion. We think it's the right thing to do. But it has to be at the right time, in the right format, for the right reasons.”
After the 12-team proposal failed, Warren said the Big Ten fully supported expansion but only with the right format and timing, with revenue sharing, the academic calendar and mental health settled first. The Big Ten also favored automatic bids for Power 5 champions.
“In my life, I've never voted or signed a contract where I don't know the financial terms of that contract.”
On The Dave Pasch Podcast, Kliavkoff said the Pac-12 supported 8- and 12-team formats. He voted no only because the proposal ran past 2025 without any agreement on revenue split, and because he wanted protection for the Rose Bowl's traditional window.
“There's no rules, no guidance, no nothing. It's out of control. It's not sustainable.”
Swinney criticized the unregulated NIL environment, calling it unsustainable and warning that players would make decisions for the wrong reasons.
“They should get paid; they should be able to transfer. Coaches do it all the time.”
Backed NIL pay and free transfer ('if coaches can do it, players should'), but said the lack of rules turned it into the wild, wild west.
“It's like the wild, wild west. I do know I love the game of college football and I don't want it ruined.”
Said NIL rules should be more uniform across schools, calling the landscape the 'wild, wild west'.
“It's gonna become the NFL. You have these two conferences, the transfer portal is free agency. Will there be a player's union at some point? There's no governance right now.”
Predicted college football 'is gonna become the NFL', with two super-conferences, the portal as free agency and possibly a players' union within three to five years.
“The government is the only person that can regulate this.”
Speaking at the Texas High School Coaches Association convention, Fisher said the patchwork of state NIL laws had created dysfunction and that only Congress could set uniform national rules.
“We need some intervention, and then my bigger concern is: Who's going to do it, right?”
At Big Ten Media Days, Ferentz said the sport lacks basic operating rules, that nobody could fully explain NIL, and that it needs intervention from one stabilizing voice. He opposed bidding for high school recruits combined with unlimited transfers.
“The game on the field has never been better. Once you walk off the field, it's never been more chaotic.”
Fitzgerald agreed with Ferentz on the portal, NIL and a never-ending recruiting calendar.
“I also think that it's important we also kind of put up guardrails in place for the teams and the coaches and everyone to understand the do's and don'ts of it.”
Softened on NIL, calling parts of it 'really cool' but urging guardrails; predicted realignment would settle into at least three major conferences.
“But to take a kid out of high school and pay him eight million billion dollars to go to your school, I think that's insane.”
At the Little Rock Touchdown Club, Herbstreit said he had no problem with NIL for players with established brands, but wanted to end big booster payments to high school recruits and objected to power programs poaching starters from smaller schools.
“I just like more access.”
Days before the CFP approved 12 teams, Kelly, a former Division II coach, backed expansion because it gives more teams access and keeps more teams in the hunt later in the season.
“One thing the NFL has figured out is that they've got even playing rules for all 32 organizations.”
Ferentz compared the portal plus NIL to the early days of NFL free agency. He noted the NFL has equal playing rules, equal roster sizes and a salary cap, and said he would run recruiting like the NFL.
“We need to separate divisions.”
In an interview with SI, Brown said amateurism is gone and argued that Division I should split into separate divisions (Power 5, Group of 5, FCS) with their own rules, that athletes should be paid within a regulated system with a salary cap, and that a commissioner should oversee college football.
“I wish we would stop hiding behind NIL.”
Brown said NIL had become a cover for pay-for-play and inducements, and urged the sport to stop pretending and openly standardize and regulate compensation.
“It changed my life, to say the least, for sure.”
Said NIL 'changed my life'; he did no NIL deals in his year at Oklahoma, but after transferring to USC he could support himself and buy gear for walk-ons and teammates.
“Somehow it's got to get fixed because there's no system around it.”
In his SEC Media Days opening statement, Kiffin called the state of the sport 'a disaster.' He said NIL had become pay-for-play and the portal was free agency twice a year with no salary cap, and that huge roster overhauls aren't good for college football.
“I've always said, when asked, shorten the [transfer portal] windows, so at least we know what your roster is and not so many chances for players.”
Kiffin said he used to favor making players employees so teams could sign multi-year contracts, but now thinks employment would create more problems than it solves. His consistent fix is shorter transfer windows.
“I will tell you what we've seen is that the longer we wait for our media deal, the better our options get”
Two weeks before the Pac-12 collapsed, insisted schools were committed and that waiting would improve the league's media deal.
“Are student-athletes deemed to be employees if they are unionized and collectively bargained?”
Called athlete employee status a 'bigger and existential threat' than NIL, warning that unionization and collective bargaining would dry up money for Olympic and women's sports.
“I think the decision-making lost its way in terms of the focus on the student-athlete and what's primarily best for them, but we are where we are.”
On The Dan Patrick Show, Swarbrick called realignment 'a complete disaster' driven by money and said decision-making had lost focus on athletes. He urged more regional scheduling and said athletes don't need to become employees.
“Right now, the current status quo is unacceptable and won't survive.”
Harbaugh opened his weekly press conference with a monologue calling for a revenue-sharing system with athletes, calling the status quo unacceptable and saying schools that capitalize on talent should pay the talent.
“If you want to go to a college, it should be because you want to play football there, not because somebody pays you more than the other guy”
Said he has no problem with players earning money but NIL arrived without limits or uniformity; the portal erodes team bonds; called college football 'kind of upside down'.
No verbatim quote recorded for this entry; summary of the source only.
In a letter to Division I schools, Baker proposed a new top tier of Division I in which the richest schools would pay at least half their athletes at least $30,000 a year through a trust fund. He also proposed letting all D-I schools sign NIL deals directly with athletes.
No verbatim quote recorded for this entry; summary of the source only.
In an open letter to athletes about his 'Project D1' proposal, Baker said the new subdivision could write its own rules on scholarships, roster limits, recruiting, transfers and NIL, and invited athlete feedback.
“We, the adults, have done a lot to really screw this thing up.”
At a pre-Citrus Bowl news conference, Ferentz said the sport was in worse shape than two years earlier and blamed the adults. He called for a college football commissioner and a summit of Power Five commissioners, ADs and coaches to 'blow everything up and try to start over.'
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