re: Kirby and Kiffin on roster depth

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Man those were the days weren't they? Now, instead of us getting to see all these great players sit the bench, we have to watch them play against each other. Sure do miss the old days.....(eyeroll)

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The Uber talented underclassmen still played young. Most of the other top talent of the era developed their raw talent into NFL potential, a stronger work ethic, dedication toward team goals, college degrees and grew a bit of humility and school pride along the way. Yes, most of us miss the "old days."

We are in the entitled mercenary age. It is much less fun in many respects from a college sports fan perspective.

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Hoarding talent. Playing keep away from other programs.

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I mean imagine most great teams in the past would have sig more depth.

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This probably peaked in the 2018-2021 years when Bama, LSU, Clemson, and UGA had historically great teams consecutively.

In 1995, the year of everyone’s beloved 1995 Nebraska, only 14 players from teams in the final AP top ten poll were selected in the first 100 picks the following spring. Only four were first rounders. The 2019 top ten had 45 players selected in the first 100. A ridiculous 20 were first rounders.

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It could be equally said that we are in the age of entitled fans and coaches. After all, they facilitate everything the players are able to do due to an obsession with winning and fat contracts.

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Both sides have a point. Fans and coaches have gotten more entitled in the chase for titles, with massive coach contracts and buyouts proving it. Schools fire guys after a couple mediocre seasons and owe them $20-60+ million to walk away, all because boosters and fans treat every year like a natty-or-bust crisis. That's real.

But the "entitled mercenary" shift with players feels different in kind, not just degree. Pre-NIL/portal, the system was explicitly built around amateurism and some pretense of loyalty to the school and education. Players were "student-athletes," and the product sold itself on regional rivalries, tradition, and kids playing for the name on the front of the jersey. Now it's closer to a semi-pro free agency league where top guys treat programs like one-year gigs for the bag. Portal entries have spiked, NIL collectives act as de facto payrolls, and loyalty is optional. We've seen players flip for bigger deals even after signing big extensions, which creates roster chaos that fans then complain about.

The old system had built-in guardrails (eligibility rules, transfer penalties) that aligned incentives toward team-building and school affinity. NIL + unlimited portal removed many of those, turning athletes into free agents while schools/coaches still bear most of the institutional and fan accountability. It's not symmetrical.

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The sport is healthier than ever with talented players dispersed over more rosters which draws more interest.

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Except that is not what's happening. Only 75 teams sent players into the NFL via the Draft this past year. That's the fewest teams we have seen since 1938. Talent was actually more evenly spread around in the 1960s and 1970s, back when the NCAA controlled who and who didn't appear on television. NIL is destroying schools with less money and the transfer portal is destroying schools who are not in P4 conferences.

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Yes, buying them Dodge Chargers was exhausting.

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Ah, yes. Because Derrick Henry is a Top 10 All-Time RB because he got a free Dodge Charger back in 2013.

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The Uber talented underclassmen

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They were taxi drivers too ???? Wow..college players back in the day were real go-getters !

“THE SYSTEM IS SUPPOSED TO BE RIGGED FOR MEEEEE!” -Kirby

Roll,
I hear what you’re saying and less teams having players drafted is an interesting stat but ultimately that’s a so what stat. Why fans bring up the NFL while talking about college football is a poor habit. There are tons of great college players who never see the NFL so draft picks don’t really say much. It’s still better to have more competitive teams than having Bama, UGA, and Ohio St having double digit picks while the next tier has 2.

This thing will work itself out. We are simply at the early stages of NIL so we’ll see a lot of new things the next 10 years. But seeing schools like Indiana, Vandy, SMU, GT, Virginia, Iowa, and others finishing ranked shows that things are changing. And as the player talent continues to be bought and transfer more fanbases will have hope to pull an Indiana. America doesn’t want dynasties, they want competitive games which no longer mean Bama-UGA matchups. The Natty between 2 non SEC schools drew 30 million which was the most in a decade (also non SEC teams). This is why the playoffs are being expanded - simple math. While we all love our southern rivalry games every weekend the rest of the country wants to see their teams as well.

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TigerScorpion

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Scorpion must translate to retard in coonass lingo.

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I hear what you’re saying and less teams having players drafted is an interesting stat but ultimately that’s a so what stat. Why fans bring up the NFL while talking about college football is a poor habit.

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It really isn't. It's indicative of a trend, especially once you combine it with the fact that 48% of all players taken in the 2026 NFL Draft were transfers. How many of those players would have been playing at Southern Miss, Boise State, Toledo, California, Washington State, Oregon State, etc. all four years had it not been for the portal and NIL?

Look beyond what this is doing to Alabama and start looking at what it's doing to college football as a whole. As an Alabama fan, I can handle not being a dynasty. I did that for the first 20 years of my life. What I care about is the overall health of the sport and I'm just not feeling that right now. How many fans actually talk about recruiting anymore? How many fans actually talk about spring football anymore? Those used to be very big topics of conversation on this board not even five years ago. Now they have gone the way of the Dodo.

Yeah, having a good recruiting class is still preferable to signing a bunch of also rans, but most fans don't care as much about Signing Day anymore because there's no guarantee those blue chippers the team signs in December/February will still be with the team at the end of the next season.

People will argue, "Yeah...well interest has never been higher." Yeah, that's true. Because people like watching something that is novel or different. When a sport dies, viewership is usually the last thing to go.