Transfer portal College Football Playoff Edit via Liam McGuire
By Matt Yoder on

If you’re a sports fan, you may be unaware of a very important fact: the College Football Playoff semifinals start tonight.

There are several reasons for why the actual CFP has fallen off the radar for sports fans. Week 18 of the NFL season and the first week of the NFL playoffs always present huge storylines, let alone the coaching carousel that is already underway. Then there’s the fact that the College Football Playoff had the spotlight to itself around the New Year’s Day holiday, which has historically been dedicated to the sport. Even the NBA has snuck into the headlines with the first blockbuster trade of the season, with Trae Young being dealt from the Hawks to the Wizards.

Miami and Ole Miss square off on Thursday night at the Fiesta Bowl while Indiana will play Oregon in an all-Big Ten affair at the Peach Bowl. But unless you’ve been following each program closely, you likely haven’t heard too much in the way of actual previews or analysis about the games.

Perhaps the biggest reason as to why the College Football Playoff semifinals have gone missing from our collective consciousness? Transfer portal and NIL drama are sucking up all the oxygen in and around college football.

Much of the consternation in college football over the current calendar is related to the timing of the transfer portal opening in early January. It’s why Lane Kiffin felt the need to controversially bail on Ole Miss and move to LSU with his team still very much alive in the national championship hunt. It’s why players on playoff teams are entering the portal before their season is done. And it’s why so many headlines and social media chatter is being dedicated to what will happen next season before this season is done.

The top ranked Indiana Hoosiers are a perfect example. Perhaps after their Rose Bowl thumping of Alabama, everyone has assumed that their job is done even though they have two more games to win before they can claim a national championship. But the focus right now is at least being shared between what Indiana is doing in the transfer portal for next season and Mark Cuban stepping up to fund NIL efforts and finishing the job for this season.

Of course, that’s nothing compared to the drama at Ole Miss, where the transfer portal isn’t just about Rebels players but coaches. The shadowy figure of Lane Kiffin is still looming large over the Ole Miss playoff run. And as Jimbo Fisher pointed out in a scathing condemnation of Kiffin’s behavior, the drama around which assistants will and won’t coach Ole Miss in the semifinals is likely because Kiffin thought his former team would lose to Georgia and be done with their season. On top of that, the future of star quarterback Trinidad Chambliss was a huge question mark before he finally “agreed a new deal” with Ole Miss if he is granted eligibility to play next season.

Look around college football and so many headlines and social media conversations are geared towards what is happening in the transfer portal and not whether Oregon can avenge their loss to Indiana or whether Miami can physically dominate Ole Miss the way they did Ohio State.

Washington quarterback Demond Williams has caused a firestorm for breaking an agreement with his current school to potentially take more money from elsewhere.

Ohio State has lost several former four and five star recruits to the portal after their surprising quarterfinal exit to the Hurricanes.

Texas Tech landed top portal quarterback Brendan Sorsby with a $5 million offer.

New Penn State coach Matt Campbell has taken a huge chunk of his former Iowa State team with him to Happy Valley.

All of this transfer portal news is a boom for recruiting sites and others that make player movement part of the core of their coverage. But mainstream outlets are also forced to balance out their CFP output with daily updates, portal trackers, and headlines.

With the transfer portal only open from January 2-16, the college football world has no choice but to try to spin all the plates at once and keep track of all the news. Not only is it insane for the schools and programs to try to balance, especially those still competing for a title, but it’s insane for the health of the overall sport and keeping the focus where it should be.

The transfer portal will open and shut entirely within the College Football Playoff. Could you imagine a universe where NFL free agency kicks off the day after the Divisional Round and shuts down a few days before the Super Bowl? Could you imagine the NBA holding its draft during the middle of the NBA Finals? It would be ludicrous decision making that no sane person would ever sign off on — not just because it’s a nonsensical way to run a sport, but because it would take the attention off of its actual championship.

We are human beings. We are naturally inclined to be sucked in by drama. And the transfer portal fulfills all of our primal needs. The flips, the mysteries, the betrayals, the shocks, the surprises. It fulfills our natural thirst for intrigue and excitement in a way that breaking down Miami’s pass rush against the Ole Miss OL simply can’t. And the fact that it’s a true wild west experience with no rules, guardrails, or boundaries makes it all the more tantalizing.

College football has never been more popular as a sport across the nation in spite of so many unforced errors and own goals. Nobody in their right mind would want to divert attention away from crowning a champion during what should be the pinnacle of the sport and the entire reason for its existence. And yet, that’s exactly how college football is currently operating.

The simple fix, as suggested by Oregon coach Dan Lanning, is to move the College Football Playoff earlier so that it ends on New Year’s Day and the portal can be a true offseason activity. That way, the hearts and minds of the college football universe don’t have to be so divided and we can actually celebrate a national champion for one season before actually moving on to the next. Of course, since that seems like the right and easy thing to do, don’t hold your breath waiting on it to actually happen.

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