Urban Meyer admits he ‘misfired’ about impact of NIL, transfer portal on college football
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When NIL and the transfer portal arrived in college football, Urban Meyer recalled thinking the bigger programs would benefit. Given the amount of parity in the sport, he admitted he “misfired” with that prediction.
Meyer’s comments came after a historically day of upsets across the country. Of the top seven teams in last week’s AP Top 25, five of them loss, including No. 1 Georgia and No. 2 Notre Dame. As a result, every team moved in the latest rankings released Sunday.
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As a result, Meyer said NIL and the transfer portal have had a different impact on college football. Because of how the talent disperses across the sport, he doesn’t see as big a gap between the top-tier programs and the rest of the sport.
“I misfired on the whole conversation about NIL and transfer portal,” Meyer told Colin Cowherd on The Herd. “I thought the rich would get richer. What it’s done is make parity in college football.
“I’ve talked to many of my colleagues in the last couple weeks. You flip on UCLA and then you flip on Alabama, what’s the difference? I don’t know. One team runs the ball a little better, and that’s UCLA. It’s amazing what has really happened to the game of college football with the NIL and with the transfer portal.”
Meyer’s comments come after one of the craziest days of college football in recent memory. In fact, he said he has never seen such a wild week as upsets came throughout the day and in all parts of the country.
Georgia saw its undefeated start to the season come to an end in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry game against Auburn on Saturday. The Tigers got a walk-off field goal at Sanford Stadium to hand the Bulldogs their first loss of the year.
That night, in Provo, BYU held on to defeat Notre Dame and end the Fighting Irish’s 16-game winning streak. It meant the two longest winning streaks in college football came to an end Saturday as reigning national champion Indiana lost to Ohio State in Bloomington.
The latest AP Top 25 poll also provides a look at the parity in college football this year. Miami is now the No. 1 team in the country for the first time since 2002. BYU is up to No. 2, the Cougars’ highest ranking since their undefeated season in 1984, after getting their first-ever Top-10 home win on Saturday.
In the modern era of college football, roster costs have notably been on the rise. Some have hit the $40 million mark and the general sense is spending could increase to $50 million as soon as next season.
But there are programs doing more with less this season. For example, Kentucky is off to a 6-1 start under new head coach Will Stein and is doing so with one of the lowest roster payrolls in the SEC, as On3’s Pete Nakos detailed.
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