Through the recent additions of the transfer portal and the adoption of Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals, college football players have felt more freedom than ever before, and it has been for the better.
On July 1, 2021, the NCAA officially implemented NIL deals, altering the course of college football forever. NIL deals were the NCAA’s solution to a debate that has existed since the beginning of serious collegiate athletics: should college athletes be paid? NIL deals permit college football players to profit from sponsorships, endorsements and appearances in various forms of media. Through NIL deals, college athletes have begun prioritizing themselves, their achievements and their money.
Just before the 2025 college football season, Tennessee quarterback Nico Iamaleava left the program for UCLA. Iamaleava’s reason for leaving Tennessee: the Volunteers could not match the money that he was after. The Knoxville-based program claimed that Iamaleava was searching for a payout of up to $4 million, a large difference from what the Volunteers were ready to pay him, $2.4 million.
Similarly, following a program-best 11-1 season at Ole Miss, Head Coach Lane Kiffin departed the Rebels program to take up the recently-vacated head coaching position at conference rivals, LSU. Kiffin is set to become one of college football’s highest-paid coaches in history. Kiffin will also become the second-highest-paid coach currently, second only to former Alabama colleague Kirby Smart, who currently serves as head coach for the Georgia Bulldogs.
Kiffin’s contract is expected to total approximately $91 million, with Kiffin taking home about $13 million of that per year. Ole Miss reportedly offered Lane Kiffin a similar contract, but LSU ultimately beat out Ole Miss, taking the job in Baton Rouge.
“If you look at coaches, I mean, you have to take that job for your resume alone,” Mr. Cole Eged said. “You work your whole career to get all those high-profile jobs, you have to take it.”
Meanwhile, Penn State is losing recruits by the day as they choose to follow Head Coach James Franklin to Virginia Tech, earning the Hokies one of the top recruiting classes in the nation. Furthermore, on Dec. 2, five-star recruit and star quarterback Jared Curtis announced his flip from Georgia to Vanderbilt. With every hour that passes, more recruits are flipping their commitments and more players are entering the transfer portal, putting further doubt into the minds of coaches and admissions officers across the country.
As the NCAA opens the door to more freedoms and opportunities for college football players, such as NIL deals and the transfer portal, athletes are taking those opportunities and running with them. College football players now have free rein over their careers. With these cards on the table, college football players and coaches alike have left behind the tradition of loyalty to pursue opportunities that benefit them instead.
“Until it is written down on paper, until you sign your name to an actual letter of intent, I think that you do not owe those universities any loyalty at all until you are there,” Eged said. “The minute that you commit to another university, they are just going to find the next guy. It is a business, and that is the nature of the game.”
So is loyalty gone in the world of college football? Well, not directly. As college football transitions into a state of business and opportunities open up, players and coaches are going to take them in the interest of loyalty to their own careers, not to the teams that shaped them.