Nick Saban had to go to Congress to try and bring order to this mess we call college football now. That tells you everything you need to know about where this sport has gone. The man won six national titles here at Alabama and he's up there on Capitol Hill begging lawmakers to fix a system that the NCAA let spiral completely out of control. I watched this thing unravel from the inside out starting with that 2021 offseason when the floodgates opened and I knew we were in trouble.
The Protect College Sports Act sounds nice on paper but let me tell you something. When Coach Bryant was building this program in the 70s he didn't need any congressional bill to keep his players in line. He had something called accountability and loyalty. You wore the crimson jersey and you earned your spot in that lineup through blood sweat and tears in the August heat of Tuscaloosa. Now these kids are treating scholarships like hotel reservations. They check in for a semester and then they're gone to the next program offering a better NIL package.
I saw us bring in a whole new offensive line through the portal this spring and I cannot decide if that is smart rosetr management or just a symptom of the disease. Back in the 92 squad we had guys like John Copeland and Eric Curry who came in as freshmen and left as legends four years later. They built something together. They went through the grind of spring practice in the old facility when we didn't have all these fancy weight rooms and smoothie bars. They stayed because they wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves.
The transfer portal killed that. Now every December you got grown men in their mid 20s entering their names like they are shopping for a new car. Oklahoma State brought in 50 transfers this offseason. Fifty. That is not a football team that is a rental car agency. Colorado has 43 new faces and everyone is acting like Deion Sanders is a genius when really he just turned the program into a revolving door. That is not how you build a championship culture and I will die on that hill.
Coach Saban knows it too. He sees the writing on the wall. The man who built the greatest dynasty college football has ever seen is now having to ask politicians to save the game from itself. That is a sad day for anyone who loves this sport the way we used to love it. We used to worry about whether our quarterback could read a zone blitz. Now we worry about whether he will still be on the roster by October. Give me the old days every single time.