MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Once the legal wrangling over paying players finally got settled last summer, there was hope that college football might finally stumble into something resembling stability. Or at least find its footing for a couple of months.
It was too much to ask, at least right away.
Among the headlines over the past few months: lawsuits over eligibility, bickering about the transfer portal, stalled congressional legislation, fights about outside investment into conferences, the future of the College Football Playoff and, of course, the decades-old dilemma over coaches leaving programs for huge amounts of money the players still will never see.
The sport’s problems popped up almost every week over a wild season, on and off the field, that ends Monday when Indiana meets Miami, which itself navigated the chaos to produce the most unlikely of title games.
“This is messy, in part, because there’s a lot, and it’s happening very quickly, and people are trying to find clarity within it,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said.
At the core of the mess is the lawsuit settlement approved by a federal judge allowing schools to pay up to $20.5 million to their players. Also, the ways that schools try to work around that salary cap by offering deals from third parties closely affiliated with the athletic programs.
All that money chips away at even the biggest schools’ athletic budgets and impacts where their donors’ dollars go. Figuring out how to fill the gap has been at the core of most of the issues upending college sports this season.
The ripple effect of outside investment in schools
One part of that discussion has been efforts to bring private investors into college sports.
This played out most dramatically in the Big Ten Conference, where Michigan and Southern California objected to a plan to create a new business that pooled the league’s media rights through 2036. The deal called for bringing in an investment to the tune of $2.4 billion from an arm of the University of California pension fund.
With Michigan alleging the conference tried to strong-arm the school into agreeing —and the conference denying that — the deal is tabled for now.
In the meantime, the Big 12 Conference is looking at a similar arrangement and the University of Utah made a splash with a deal that could inject up to $500 million from a private equity firm into its athletic department.
Transfer portal looks more like a free-for-all
The NCAA eliminated one of the two windows for football players to enter the transfer portal, but any thought that that would change anything was quickly dismissed.
The portal opened Jan. 2 — in the middle of the playoffs — and some 3,000 players at the game’s top level climbed in. Baker said he was encouraged that the number was 23% lower than the year before. Still, some of the headlines were bracing.
Washington quarterback Demond Williams Jr. initially said he was looking to transfer and turn his back on a reported $4 million NIL deal. After Washington objected, Williams changed his mind and said he’d stay with the Huskies.
Quarterback Brendan Sorsby won the award for biggest NIL splash, with Texas Tech outbidding LSU, then buying digital billboard space in Times Square to announce the transfer, worth a reported $5 million to $6 million.
Some of this, of course, bothered the new regulatory agency, the College Sports Commission, which sent out a warning to athletic directors stating the money they’re spending on NIL needs to be dedicated to concrete advertising efforts — not just “warehoused” for future use — and needs to be cleared by them before it becomes valid.
Congress look to make its mark, but legislation stalls
The lawsuit settlement came with the hope that Congress would enshrine some of its provisions, along with a few other elements, into a new, comprehensive law.
House sponsors of the so-called SCORE Act thought they had momentum, but their latest attempt to pass it came to a halt in December, with members of both parties finding flaws.
Among the hang-ups: the NCAA’s push for a limited antitrust exemption that would protect it from lawsuits regarding eligibility rules — an area not covered by the lawsuit.
At last count, the NCAA said 49 eligibility lawsuits had been filed. Baker estimated that each case that goes to trial costs the organization between $5 million and $10 million in legal fees.
Skeptics, such as Texas Tech billionaire regent and booster Cody Campbell, say they can understand why some lawmakers are reluctant.
“I don’t think many people who’ve been following sports for any amount of time think the NCAA is the right entity to be giving a huge additional amount of power to. That just doesn’t make sense based on history,” he said.
Coaching moves cost millions
One of the core arguments both for paying players and loosening restrictions on their transfers has been that their coaches have been making millions while coming and going as they please for decades.
If 2025 proved anything, it’s that that part of the equation hasn’t changed.
There were 32 coaching changes this season in top-level football, including 17 in the four biggest conferences. Some of the financials involved were astronomical.
Penn State could have been on the hook for as much as $45 million after firing James Franklin (that number was reduced to $9 million after Franklin landed at Virginia Tech.) LSU owes Brian Kelly $54 million after firing him in October.
The college watchdog Knight Commission calculated $225 million in buyouts for this season alone.
That didn’t count the most awkward coaching move of the season — Lane Kiffin’s departure from playoff-bound Ole Miss to take Kelly’s old job at LSU.
Future of the playoff still in limbo
The College Football Playoff generated controversy when Miami — behind Notre Dame the entire season in the rankings — suddenly leapfrogged the Fighting Irish to grab the final spot in the 12-team bracket.
Miami made it all the way to Monday night’s final, but there’s more off-the-field drama in store right afterward. ESPN, which televises the games, gave conference commissioners and presidents until Friday to determine whether to keep the tournament at 12 teams or expand to 16 or even higher.
The two key decision makers, the Big Ten and Southeastern conferences, have been at odds on this — an unsurprising development in an industry struggling to get everyone on the same page.
“It’s a lot of long meetings, and long conversations,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said. “And every year we come up with these solutions, and then the next year we have to make three more adjustments.”
Moore’s firing, gambling and CSC contract
Other headlines: Michigan coach Sherrone Moore’s firing and arrest after school officials learned of his extramarital affair with a staffer. … Refusal of some Power Four schools to sign a “participation agreement” sent out by the CSC after some state attorneys general criticized the contract for having a no-litigation clause. … Gambling scandals and arrests, mostly involving basketball, that push the NCAA to double down on calls to eliminate prop betting. … The deaths of Roy Kramer and Chuck Neinas, two trailblazing administrators who, in many ways, set the framework for today’s game.
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