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This sport sucks. 

I'm not positive about this because it won't be intentional, but I won't be surprised if this was my last year of serious fan engagement with my team. 

Portal's open again....players are leaving, some are probably coming.  I can't keep track and am losing the desire to try.  Most everything about the amateur-status, student-athlete sport I grew up loving has changed. 

It has been going this way for a while for me as well.  

Years ago my brother and I were in Bloomington for a game between Ohio State and Indiana.  Unsurprisingly, the Buckeyes were up big in the second half and had a bunch of backups in on defense.  As is typical, the backups were all overly eager to make a name for themselves by making a big play so Indiana wisely called a screen pass.  It was hilarious to watch.  Indiana's starting O-linemen all faked an attempt to block and all four of Ohio State's D-linemen plus a blitzing Lber each appeared to completely buy the fake and think that they were just so good that they got through then they all charged at the QB who threw a VERY easy pass to the IU RB who had 5 O-linemen in position to block for him while five of tOSU's defenders had taken themselves completely out of the play by falling for the fake blocks.  

IU gained something like 25 yards on the play.  After that my brother looked at me and said "That is ok, we don't want them making that mistake against Michigan in two or three years."  That statement encapsulates a big part of CFB that is just plain gone now.  Will tOSU's D-linemen in 2-3 years be 2023 tOSU freshmen or will they be transfers?  

That is part of it.  

Another part is something we haven't discussed in a while.  A few years ago there was a big article on the gap between "Athlete" SAT scores and general student SAT scores in the B1G and other P5 leagues.  Northwestern didn't report (private school) but the other B1G schools did and the gaps were shocking.  I remember that Michigan had the biggest gap but that really isn't a knock on them.  Everybody's football players had embarrassingly low scores, Michigan's gap was bigger simply because their general student population had the highest scores.  When I dived into the details it became glaringly obvious that the vast majority of the guys we root for on Saturdays wouldn't be able to get into Clown College if they couldn't play ball.  Seriously, the gaps were HUMONGOUS.  The "athlete" scores at the top schools were hundreds of points lower than the LOWEST general student scores.  

Eventually I had to simply accept the reality that when tOSU beats Michigan or when they beat tOSU, it isn't a case of tOSU students beating Michigan students or vice-versa, it is a matter of all of us watching each other's ringers because almost none of the players on the field would be at any of our schools without being world-class athletes.  

So now we've reached a point where (basically) none of the players are legitimate students anyway and they are all playing for NIL cash and have little-or-no loyalty to the school or the staff and they can transfer willy-nilly so I feel like each season is distinct and 2023's group of tOSU ringers came up just short of the playoff so now we'll go to the portal and restock and maybe next year tOSU's ringers will be a little better.  

Then on top of all of that, individual games will no longer be able to keep tOSU out.  It sucked losing to Purdue in 2018 but a BIG part of what kept me intensely interested in each and every game back then was the fact that tOSU's NC hopes could die any given week.  In Ohio State's other games that year they went 13-0 and really looked like a legit NC contender but one Saturday in October they looked like crap and that ONE bad game kept them out of the playoffs.  That ends with the advent of the 12-team CFP next year.  

So now regular season games will consist of my school's ringers playing some other school's ringers in a game that doesn't really matter except perhaps for seeding.  

 It'll get their faces on TV protecting the purity of the sport.

They'd need a time machine to do that.

I always liked college sports because the money side of professional sports just bores me to tears. I don't care about a gm trying to stay under the salary cap with all of his various contract negotiations at all. But you can't hardly talk about professional sports without it being a large part of the conversation. 

Now, college is getting to be the same way with NIL and TV contracts. blech

If nothing else, I respect his acknowledgement that there are haves and have-nots.  What I've called the big, fat lie that FBS has been propagating is more disrespectful than plain ole honesty.

No, G5 teams don't have a chance at a NC.  Not a real chance.  1984 was never going to happen again - not in the BCS (see TCU, Boise, Utah), not in the playoff (see Cinci - included, but 2 major, consecutive upsets aren't a thing), and ESPECIALLY not in a 12-team playoff (double your required major, consecutive upsets).

Also, the bottom 3rd of each P5 conference doesn't really have any chance, either.  There's no crime in saying so.  I have no idea what influence or power the NCAA president has (he may just be a 'tallest midget'), but at least the idea is based on reality.

I sort of wish the NFL would look at the money in CF and say... "we want that"... Form a development league that plays in the spring, leveraging existing infrastructure and pay college kids or kids out of HS to join your NFL team.    Basically, pull a lot of the talent from CF and change the whole landscape.

Else, CF just has to admit it is a football league, create a salary cap and just admit, it has nothing to do with the college.  If Nebraska is in the club...fine.  If not... fine.  I no longer invest energy in learning about the kids signing with Nebraska because many will be gone within a few years anyways. 

Ed Zachery - it's been mine/others POV for quite some time.Basically admit the Top 25 Division I teams are a Minor League that the NFL pays nothing/zippo/nada/zilch for to develop. Just transfer the bill to the League and charge for upkeep and other expenses

 University presidents need to redirect expenses and resources into actuall instruction and improvement

We KNEW we weren't NC material. But there was dignity and fun in the college football landscape as it was. It wasn't "suckitude". It was the understanding that there are other things to play for than an NC.

That's where the sport is losing me.  It used to be that a good season felt exactly like that....a good season.  The way everything is wired now--and consequently wires us--is it's NC or bust.  There's still some value in winning the conference, but that will be irrelevant soon enough when the B1G and the SEC swallow up the entirety of cfb alongside a 12-team playoff format.  

I'm old enough to remember when making the Sugar Bowl was priority Numero Uno for an LSU fan, and fans didn't think in terms of NCs....not because it was necessarily unattainable, but because winning the conference, going to the Sugar, and finishing top 10 or even top 5 just felt so good.  There was a lot more room for "successful seasons" then.  As some have noted, the playoffs suck all the oxygen out of the room.  NIL/portal/sit-outs don't help.  If you're not in the playoffs now, there's not much that a program like LSU feels good about, other than getting the young guys some reps for next year.  

The NCAA should hold an annual auction as an alternate to the portal and traditional recruitment for student athletes who care most about money.  The auction should allow pooling of booster and athletic department funds and non-liquid assets.