Three years. Three years since they eliminated the spring transfer window and somehow the chaos has only gotten worse. I sit here watching Josh Brooks talk about "over a thousand nieces and nephews" and the Georgia family atmosphere, and I just have to laugh. Because this family atmosphere he's selling? It only works if the kids actulaly want to be part of a family instead of shopping for the highest bidder every December.
I remember the 1994 team when we had guys like Hines Ward and Mike Bobo who came in, sat on the bench, learned the system, and waited their turn. You earned your stripes. You built something. Now we got kids transferring after one spring practice because they didn't get the fancy NIL bag they thought they deserved. And it is not just us. You look at what Oklahoma State is doing with fifty portal guys under their new coach. Fifty. That is not building a program. That is assembling a mercenary army with no loyalty, no culture, no memory of the 1980 Georgia teams that won with guys who bled red and black.
The new NIL revenue sharing cap at 20.5 million per school? All that does is formalize what we already knew. College football is now just minor league football with academic window dressing. You think Erk Russell would recognize this sport? The man built Junkyard Dawgs with nothing but a handshake and a promise that if you worked hard, you'd play on Saturdays. Now we got high school kids committing to three different schools before signing day because the NIL numbers keep changing.
And the worst part is we are doing it too. We landed that five star tight end for 2026 and I am happy about it, sure. But I also know that kid might be gone in January if someone offers him fifty thousand more. That is not a family. That is a rental agreement. I miss when a commit meant something. When you put on that G between the hedges and felt like you were carrying on a tradition that went back to Herschel and before. Now it is just business. And business ain't what it used to be.