Conference realignment, College Football Playoff expansion, name-image-likeness market freedoms and unlimited transfers have altered college football more in the last four years than at any time in its history. The introduction of direct payments from schools to athletes in 2025 will mark another revolutionary change, and collateral damage from the combined upheaval has the potential to affect every key stakeholder of the sport. Advertisement Coaches manage surging stress levels as their postseason preparation conflicts with traditional high school recruiting and navigating the transfer portal.
Athletes weigh the benefits of staying with their team throughout the postseason against the risk of shrinking their future opportunities by not hitting the market sooner. Fans have taken on increased costs from supporting collectives to extra postseason travels. It’s taxing to everyone involved.
“The unregulated nature of the transfer portal, the timing of the transfer portal, the unstructured NIL and payments to players are really having a detrimental impact on the entire sport,” said Bowl Season executive director Nick Carparelli. “We’re seeing players opt out of the regular season. We’re seeing players opt out of the Playoff, impact players.
Something has to change.” The answer is simple: College football needs a new calendar to make a great game better and save it from itself. But how does it get there? Here is my proposal to normalize college football’s in-season .