College football's spirit is still intact. It's the soul that needs searching | Opinion

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College football is experiencing a surreal disconnect this season, between constant discourse about the Protect College Sports Act to a 24-team playoff, and seemingly endless discussion about where some of the top players in the country might end up next year, never mind where they are now.

Yet, when games are on, things feel normal.

Contests between top programs are competitive. Stadium atmospheres are as raucous as they've ever been. Rivalries have stakes, and the game still has the disorganized, messy charm that has enamored so many college fans over the more polished (and corporate) NFL product.

So what's happening? Why does it seem like college football is a shell of itself? And why are fans still turning out in droves, despite harbingers of doom regularly trumpeting the end-times of the sport?

The problem isn't the athletes; nor is it them getting paid for their names, images and likeness (NIL); nor is it about chaotic eligibility rules. It isn't even about players transferring to new schools. It's about how people expect athletes, particularly young athletes, to act when they suddenly get free market power — something that was withheld from them for decades.

The transfer portal double standard

Take Kamario Taylor.

He has been one of the season's breakout stars in a Mississippi State program that's over 130 years old. Yet at the same time Taylor — a Macon, Mississippi native who grew up 40 minutes from the Mississippi State campus — says he bleeds maroon and white, college pundits are projecting out his next destination. Indeed, one of the biggest proponents of the Protect College Sports Act outside of Washington D.C., Nick Saban himself, talked on "College GameDay" about how coaches should be doing everything they can to pull Taylor into the portal.

Which, by the way, is tampering.

The portal isn't perfect, by any means. It has created a bizarre vacuum where coaches are forced to act as car salesmen to their own players. But to blame the players for going about their careers in the way that is best for them with the resources available to them is to look down our noses at athletes who are also at risk of being replaced by the same portal that is giving them that freedom.

One would think Taylor bringing a program such as Mississippi State to the forefront would be a net positive: What's a better college sports story than a local kid coming in and taking a proud program to heights it hasn't seen since 2014? But in the entertainment industry, Taylor being with the Bulldogs is bad for business. Underdogs are no longer welcomed. Instead, propping up the high earners is of paramount importance.

That doesn't mean Taylor's way of being is objectively correct. Transferring makes sense for plenty of players. Nico Iamaleava is thriving in his second year at UCLA under a new coach; Darian Mensah is showing out at his third program and his biggest stop yet in Miami, and Trinidad Chambliss is one of the country's top quarterbacks at Ole Miss after turning down the opportunity to rejoin Lane Kiffin at LSU.

But the top names in the sport aren't all transfers. Jadan Baugh has emerged as a bona fide superstar for Florida in his third season, finally breaking into the sport's zeitgeist after rushing for over 1,000 yards last year. Keelon Russell looks primed for a bright career at Alabama. And Jeremiah Smith looks every bit the best player in the country as he continues to personify scarlet and grey in Columbus, where he'll exit Ohio State with an argument as Wide Receiver U's best ever.

Going by what's on the field

None of this is even to mention the most important part: the sport itself.

The games haven't failed to deliver. There was the knock 'em down drag 'em out fight between Texas and Ohio State, in which the Longhorns mounted an epic comeback to beat the Buckeyes in a top-five showdown. There was also the Kiffin Bowl, in which Ole Miss exacted some small measure of revenge upon LSU for poaching Lane Kiffin by winning in thrilling fashion, staving off a Tigers comeback. We've even seen Miami and Indiana sweat out Friday night primetime conference games against Wake Forest and Northwestern, respectively.

The product is still the same as ever, and the ratings, while they shouldn't be used as the end-all be-all, reflect that. At least in the marquee slots. Texas and Tennessee in Week 4 was ESPN and ABC's best rated noon game since 2016. Ohio State-Texas was ESPN's most-watched regular season game since Michigan-Ohio State in 2016. And LSU-Ole Miss had nearly 11 million viewers itself. Yet despite that success, nation-wide interest has taken a hit. Front Office Sports posted on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Sept. 30 that despite the games in major time slots doing well, viewership across all networks for the first month is down 11% in 2025.

University sports have intrinsic interest. Students want to watch them and alumni want to support them. But for fans outside of that, interest has to be drummed up by coverage. And when coverage is more committed to the noise around the sport in addition to several proven breadwinners, interest naturally wanes in games outside of the ones with the most pomp and circumstance. But in true Principal Skinner fashion, the ones letting the sport down instead clench their first and say "it's the children (the players) who are wrong."

Yet the players continue to deliver, even in those less-covered games. Oklahoma State stunned Oregon after losing to Tulsa the week before. Massachusetts is 4-0 after not winning a single game last season, including a huge win against Rutgers and might make its first bowl game as an FBS team. And Billy Napier is very quietly 4-0 at James Madison with two more James Madison coaches thriving: UCLA's Bob Chesney and, of course, Curt Cignetti at Indiana. There are wonderful things to see in the sport, for those who care to look.

When games themselves are on, the other stuff tends to melt away. The players are the players instead of pieces to build segments around.

What are we protecting college sports from?

The undercurrent of all of this is the Protect College Sports Act. Saban and Colorado coach Deion Sanders made ads supporting it this season, while Sen. Ted Cuz (R-Texas) went on "College GameDay" to stump for it when the show was in Austin for Texas-Ohio State.

It feels like the business of college football has superseded the game. Pregame shows have pivoted to arbitrary discussions about who has the better wins, whether some losses are better than some wins, should games be looked at equally and of course what teams need to do to get to the ever-important College Football Playoff (now that bowl games outside the CFP hold no real value in the national landscape outside of fun curiosities such as the Pop-Tart Bowl).

Without getting too watery-eyed with nostalgia, it's what made Lee Corso so special on Saturday mornings. He has always loved college football for what it is: messy, chaotic football that sometimes veers into the stupid. It's still that, if we watch the product on the field.

It's the stuff around it that has made it so maddening.

College football is a mansion built on a foundation that has shifted off-kilter. The onus isn't on those driving by and admiring it to fix it. It's on the adults in the room. And that has not been done well to this point. But the attention needs to be turned inward. Players don't need to make less money. They don't need to be locked into the school they commit to when they're 17 years old. And they don't need to be told where they need to go to maximize their career prospects.

In that same vein, fans should be able to just be fans. Debate the rankings, tout their favorite players for the Heisman Trophy. Don't force fans to confront whether their local superstar "should" move on, and where. Don't downplay teams' success by moving the goalposts on what constitutes a "good" win. And cut the segments debating whether an SEC schedule or a Big Ten schedule is tougher. Good teams win. Sometimes it's that simple.

College football doesn't need fixing. It doesn't need protecting. It just needs realignment (no, not the conferences kind). In the end, this is all entertainment, and entertainers get compensated. So, rather than constantly worrying about arbitrary things way over the average fan's head, it's worth stopping and considering: "Am I having fun?"

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: College football's spirit is still intact. It's the soul that needs searching | Opinion

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