Is it parity or just inconsistency that has leveled the playing field in College Football?

The inconsistency is largely due to depth being eroded. Top recruiting teams used to be able to absorb attrition with less impact.

If NIL guardrails and spending caps would be imposed, you would see more teams revert back to signing and developing more high school players and paying them a certain amount rather than looking for one, maybe two year portal players and paying them obscene amounts.

It’s inconsistency caused by parity caused by NIL.

If left as is, at some point the market is going to return to the haves/have nots.

I think it’s not as bad as it’s going to get.

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To me it seems teams are just very inconsistent in their performances week to week.

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That's because millionaire kids are running the show. If they feel like practicing and playing to win, they do. And, if they feel like partying and playing video games, they do (or transfer somewhere they can).

The portal has leveled the playing field tremendously. Teams can not stack blue-chips three deep at every position any more. It has become very easy for ANY team to fix a huge roster gap with enough money thrown at key players (especially QBs). Even starters are subject to transfer for the right money. No roster is safe. Every player is up for grabs every year.

Team cohesion has also been eroded as 30-40+% of the roster is replaced every year with seasoned upperclassmen newcomers, many of them for just one year who maybe haven't bought completely into the system. That has to eat away at the morale of the bench players who wait their turn for 2-3 years, only to be bumped by some hot-shot transfer.

NFL-style contracts are desperately needed. This massive turnover of players at every school every year is out of control and is killing the game. it's turning into minor league baseball where you have no idea who will be on the team year-to-year.

the parity is due to a mediocre, if not downright terrible, product. The level of college football being played on the field is abysmal compared to the past, aside from depth. The only players worth taking in the portal are ones who were worth spending time on developing pre NIL. Now they bounce around without every reaching full potential while they learn new systems, cultures and strength and conditioning programs, for better or worse.

The clear and obvious result is a landscape that has underdeveloped, underachieving, likely more injury prone players with a steep drop-off on backups. The end product results in mayhem and teams finishing a season with rosters duck taped and zip tied together, but that mayhem is a result of everybody being worse, not better. So, turns out that parity does not equal high level, finely tuned machine-type teams.

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It’s inconsistency caused by parity caused by NIL.

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The cause is the portal not NIL. If the portal didnt exist, players are staying at the school they signed with. Even with the offer of more money elsewhere, having to sit out a year for each transfer would kill 90% of these transfers.

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Is it parity or just inconsistency that has leveled the playing field in College Football?

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The onfield play has definitely diminished. Even the top teams have nowhere near the high level O line play from just a few years ago. There’s no way for the team to gel like they would if they’d been together for at least two or more years. I’ve already said, NONE of these teams are realistic competition for the top dogs from 5 years ago.

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If NIL guardrails and spending caps would be imposed, you would see more teams revert back to signing and developing more high school players and paying them a certain amount rather than looking for one, maybe two year portal players and paying them obscene amounts.

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If they'll regulate the portal, make 'em sit a year before they can transfer (no exceptions) and we'll see some stability in teams, a slowdown in the NIL arms race and see some semblance of cohesion on teams.