Mark my words: the 2026 recruiting year will be the year the dam finally breaks for the Group of Five and FCS programs, and the Washington and Lee Generals will be the prime example of how to capitalize. Everyone is so obsessed with the 50-man portal classes at Oklahoma State and the 43-man monster at Colorado that they're missing the seismic shift happening underneath. Those mega-portal hauls are creating a trickle-down effect of disgruntled high-three-star and low-four-star high school talent who see their path blocked before they even step on campus. That's our opening. While the big boys fight over the same thirty portal guys, we need to be locking down the high-character, high-academic kids who are getting pushed out of those bloated Power Four depth charts. The news about Max Markofski committing to Arizona is a perfect microcosm. A 3-star California tight end picks a Power Four school in the middle of their own massive roster turnover. How many other tight ends are in that Arizona room? How many will hit the portal in a year when they're buried? Our recruiting board needs to be filled with the names of the kids who are the second choice at these schools. We need to be the first call when a kid gets a "thanks but we're full" from a program that just took three portal players at his position. The elimination of the spring window is a godsend for us. It means these high school croots have to make a firm decision in the winter, before they can see how the portal dust settles at the big schools. If we can get them on an OV during the dead period, show them a legitimate path to playing time by their sophomore year, and structure a competitive NIL package through the Generals Collective, we can flip the script. I'm hearing noise that our staff is already pivoting to this strategy, targeting kids who have committable offers from lower-tier Power Four programs but are being asked to "wait and see" if a portal guy falls into their lap. We offer immediate certainty. That's our bag. The 247 composite might not reflect it until signing day, but I'm calling it now: our 2026 class will have a higher average player rating than any ODAC rival, and we'll land at least t...