Teams have been completely rebuilt (and ravaged) in record time since the introduction of the transfer portal.
NIL has also come along and, again, completely changed the landscape of college football and transformed roster management for coaches and staffs.
Opponents of the transfer portal (and the one-time free transfer rule) believed that it would create a free agency of sorts in college football. NIL then came along and complicated things a bit more.
Lane Kiffin shared today that what college coaches are seeing today is absolutely free agency, just on a different scale with some different parameters than you see in professional sports.
"I don't think people really say it this way, but let's not make the mistake, we have free agency in college football, and a lot of times the kid is going to go where he gets paid the most."
"No one else is saying that, maybe, but kids come and say 'This is what I'm getting here for NIL.' So it is what it is, but free agency has been created in college football, except that you can't lock people into a contract and they can go at any time."
"It's the new world that we're in and sometimes they want to come to you and say 'I can get this kind of money if I go there," so this is just a whole new thing to deal with."
A lot of coaches believe that the free agency that has been created is really hurting high school recruiting the most.
Hear Kiffin's full thoughts in the clip.