Just saw that Yahoo piece on Kiffin spending more in the portal than an entire SEC roster's value, and I had to sit down. This is what college football has become. Back in the 1980s when Coach Bryant was still patrolling the sideline, you built a program through relationships and development, not by writing checks to grown men who stay for six months and leave. Kiffin shows up at LSU, opens the checkbook, and suddenly they have a new rroster overnight. Meanwhile the rest of us are supposed to pretend this is still the same sport we grew up watching.
The worst part is Sankey sitting there arguing with the Big Ten over playoff expansion while the foundation of the game crumbles underneath him. Sixteen teams, twenty four teams, who cares when you can just buy your way into contention? We used to settle things on the field in November, not in some NIL auction house in April. The SEC used to mean something because of the blood sweat and tears guys put in during two a days in August. Now it means whoever has the deepest pockets in the portal window. Coach Stallings would take one look at this mess and go back to coaching high school ball.