College football has a big problem. Well, to be more precise, college football has many big problems, but that calendar is one of the biggest. The football calendar and the academic calendar are horribly misaligned, forcing the transfer portal to open after the regular season and putting players like Penn State backup quarterback Beau Pribula in an impossible situation.
Pribula helped the Nittany Lions qualify for the 12-team College Football Playoff, which begins this weekend, well into the transfer portal cycle, yet he and the team are being punished for it. With Drew Allar returning to Penn State next season, Pribula has to go elsewhere to find a starting job, but if he waits until his team’s season comes to an end then there may not be any starting spots left open. So, to look out for his best interest, Pribula had to leave Penn State before the start of the CFP and miss out on a chance at a national championship, hurting his, now-former, team in the process.
Amidst all these tectonic changes to the sport, the NCAA has largely been asleep at the wheel, leaving every decision to the courts and grasping onto every bit of power it still can. That power is gradually being chipped away by lawsuits and the ever-expanding power conferences, and the lack of direction is hurting the sport and the players who make it a profitable product.
The NCAA has given the teams in the playoff an additional portal window for five days after they’re eliminated, but for a quarterback, that’s not a viable option. Pribula isn’t the only player in this position, just the most high-profile one, and James Franklin used this situation as an opportunity to call for more radical change, a change that could finally improve the sport and the decision-making at the top.
"Beau Pribula did not want to leave our program... To have a transfer portal/free agency going on right in the middle of the playoffs... We need somebody running college football."
— FOX College Football (@CFBONFOX) December 16, 2024
James Franklin calls for a CFB Commissioner after backup QB leaves during playoffs ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/SRRdeIMHc0
A college football commissioner, as Franklin called for, could make decisions in the best interest of the sport and its athletes, instead of the best interest of the power-hungry organization that is still in control. The transfer portal is a good thing, but the calendar is a disaster. A commissioner could find a solution to prevent the Pribula situation from happening again because this time it’s a backup quarterback, but as the playoff continues to expand, a starter will inevitably face the same crossroads, and what happens then? Let’s hope we never find out.