Ferentz talks evolved college football landscape: "It's kind of a free-for-all"

It was somewhat of a broadly-scoped answer, but a real one nonetheless when Kirk Ferentz fielded a question about the evolving landscape of college football at Big Ten Media Days.

Between the expanded College Football Playoff, the chaotic nature of the Transfer Portal or the wild world of NIL opportunities, the sport is drastically different than it was even three years ago, let alone pre-pandemic.

"We just don't have structure right now in college football, unfortunately," Ferentz said. "This is all new territory. We've got a lot of work to do to harness all this stuff, and that's an issue."

Ferentz is right. The lack of structure, whether by direct fault of the NCAA or otherwise, is the largest problem in college football.

While there are certainly detractors of every change that has come to the sport in the past few years, for the most part, the changes are for the betterment of players and the profitability of the sport (see CFP expansion).

But because the changes concerning NIL were forced upon the NCAA by the U.S. government, the time it takes to make such a drastic change make sense wasn't afforded, and the sport has suffered. However, in the time since, not much has been done to combat the chaotic and negative impacts NIL and the Transfer Portal have caused.

"The other issue that's not here right now is transparency. Last winter time during the free agency period, you don't know what a team's offering somebody else."

Calling the Transfer Portal free agency isn't a senior moment from Iowa's coach entering his 26th season with the program either. It's a practical explanation as many players do go where they will earn the most, but without any regulation to disclose what payments are given, or any standard market, a free agent free-for-all is exactly the right way to frame it.

"It's kind of a free-for-all. Right now, it's sustainable. But it's not over a long period. I strongly believe that."

In the most optimistic scope of the current reality, something has to give eventually. With more money than ever being exchanged at the top of the college football mountain, eventually, there has to be some regulation to govern the chaos properly.

The problem is that no one knows what that regulation is. And it's not Ferentz's job, or any other head coach for that matter, to come up with the solution. It's their job to get the best players possible and win games, which was hard enough before players could be legally paid and jump shit at a moment's notice.

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