There are plenty of things about college football that do not make the most sense. Silly traditions, ridiculous rivalries, and wild tailgates all go into what makes the sport special. After all, the country went crazy over an edible mascot in an otherwise regular bowl game a few weeks ago.
While unorthodox traditions are a foundation of college football in some regards, it seems that some of the chaos has leaked into other aspects of the sport. This is no clearer than when looking at the sport’s calendar. It is confusing, broken, and hurtful to many different aspects of recruiting, coaching, and more.
There used to be a clear separation of seasons in college football. One season would end with a champion being crowned, and more than a month later, National Signing Day would occur. On that day, high school prospects would announce where they intended to play, and they would report to school at some point that summer, before fall classes.
However, as the sport evolved, it became evident that the calendar needed a shift. That led to an early signing period, which allowed prospects to announce their intentions earlier, and gave the football programs more flexibility and allowing them to plan for the future effectively.
The sport’s evolution certainly did not stop at adding an early signing day. The playoffs were created, NIL has arrived, the transfer portal runs the day, and plenty of other changes have swept across the sport. Unfortunately, the timing and the calendar of the sport has not evolved as fast as the other factors have.
The first example of this can be demonstrated by the situation that took place at Texas this season. Maalik Murphy entered the 2023 season as the backup quarterback for the Longhorns. He beat out the highly touted Arch Manning to secure the second-string position behind Quinn Ewers. Texas got off to a great start, defeating Alabama on the road and putting themselves into the national conversation. Midway through the season, however, Ewers was injured and forced to miss a few games. Who was there to fill in and keep the Longhorns’ title hopes alive? Maalik Murphy. He guided them to victories over Kansas State and BYU. At that point, Ewers was able to return, and Texas would make the College Football Playoff.
On December 4th, the NCAA transfer portal opened. Players flooded their names into it at record pace this season. The ability to be eligible right away, NIL, and more have all led to an increase in transfers. However, the current structure allows players to enter that portal well before the current season has officially ended. Players entering the portal that early means that spots are being filled elsewhere. Murphy, who would liked to have stayed with his team for the playoffs, was forced to enter the portal early and leave his team, fearing that spots would fill elsewhere. A player who played a critical role in getting his team to the playoffs, but likely needed to transfer to get an opportunity to play in the next season had to leave before he got to finish a magical year with his current team. That is a prime example of the broken system. Murphy transferred to Duke, and Ewers quarterbacked Texas in a loss to Washington in the Sugar Bowl and playoff semi-final.
The next example of the broken calendar involves coaching changes. It has long been true that coaches leave for different opportunities after the season. Some coaches are fired before the season ends or shortly after the regular season. That creates urgency to make the next hire, and often times teams make that decision during the week of conference championship games or shortly thereafter. Why is it so urgent? Plenty has to do with the aforementioned transfer portal opening on December 4th. Recruiting is year-round now, and programs know that they need to have their coach hired as quickly as possible to get a head start. That impacts significantly the program and players that are left behind at the previous destination. Think about UL when Billy Napier left. It was announced right before the Sun Belt Championship against App State. Napier was determined to stay for that game, and he did. However, he had to get started on recruiting at Florida and was not able to stay for the bowl game. The most significant season in Cajuns football history had to be finished with an interim coach.
These issues all have layers to them. There are no easy fixes that all of a sudden make everything work perfectly. For example, one of the reasons that the portal dates are positioned as such is because it gives players an opportunity to get enrolled in spring classes and start their new school on time. Ahh, yes, college football players are still students who are working towards a degree. What a concept!
With all that being said, there are real opportunities to improve the calendar and restore some separation between seasons. All in all, I think that is the main goal here. We need to be able to separate the ending of one season with the beginning of the next. While classes are and should still be a priority for these student-athletes, I believe the flexibility of online classes, partial semester offerings and other different ways to take college courses should be able to help. The transfer portal should not open at least until the playoff games are beginning, and I think it should remain open for a week after the national championship game. I would also like to see rules in place about when a school can contact a coach of another institution. The NFL has rules in place similar to this, and they seem effective.
All-in-all, college sports are changing every day. It is time we reacted with calendar changes that make more sense in today’s college football climate.