Nick Saban having to stand in front of Congress begging for order in this sport we love, and I cannot help but think back to the 1979 Sugar Bowl when we stuffed Penn State and Bear Bryant just looked at the reporters and said "we just played football." That was it. No NIL agents calling during halftime. No portal poaching your backup qarterback after spring practice. Coach Bryant built dynasties out of boys who wanted to wear the crimson and earn their stripes, not kids shopping for the highest bidder like they are picking out a used car.
The fact that our own Coach Saban, the man who won six national titles at Alabama, has to go to Washington D.C. to beg politicians to save a game that used to be about pride and tradition tells you everything about where we are headed. I remember watching the 1992 team beat Miami in the Sugar Bowl and thinking this is what college football is supposed to be. Guys who bled for the same jersey for four years. Now we have Colorado bringing in 43 transfers and Oklahoma State grabbing 50 like they are building a fantasy roster on a PlayStation.
You watch these summer recruiting rankings and all anybody talks about is who has the most five-stars and who flipped who from which program. Nobody talks about the walk-on from Gadsden who became a starter because he wanted it more. Nobody talks about the 1994 squad that went 12-1 because those boys refused to lose. This revenue sharing cap at 20 million dollars is just rearranging deck chairs on a sinking ship. The soul of this game left the building the day a kid could enter the portal before the final whistle of the season.