While most of the unintended consequences of the free transfer are not a surprise, I am surprised that the portal has seemingly made it more difficult to build depth at the top recruiting programs. Players who would typically wait 1-2 years to take over a starting position are transferring to get early playing time. With the expansion of the playoffs, more teams will be in “contention” for a shot at the championship. This should also help spread out the talent across the top 20-25 teams who are favored to get in. I fully expect Bama, UGA, OSU to stay at the top of the rankings. However, I could see one or all of the following unexpected things happening due to the recent changes:
1) An increase in playoff upsets due to injuries and lack of depth at the top of the NCAA
2) More parity in the NCAA based on talent disparity from first to second team at key positions
3) Team continuity and prioritization of recruiting (Dabo’s strategy) could keep players on campus longer resulting in quality depth
The NIL and portal does represent more parity unless you are one of a few schools with what seems like an endless NIL budget. I am not talking about the aTm's of the world who simply want to buy a team. I am talking about UGA, Bama, Ohio S and maybe USC who will use NIL in a smart way. Pay current players to stick around so they have depth, pay a few top end transfers out of the portal to supplement your roster and be competitive with a few five star players. Add this to the normal top tier recruiting and you will see the machine we saw last night on the field.
So the average teams will be more competitive and the top few teams will essentially be invincible.
That was my first take as well. Now we are seeing perceived 2nd tier schools land players, using NIL, because they can offer more, to that level of player, than top schools. No one has endless resources.
If I have already paid 30 starters what can I offer player 31 and is it more than school X who views player 31 as the #1 option for them.
The player can also play 1 year, prove themself, and transfer to that top program a year later for more NIL.