Sean Dengler.

College football is a mess. Talent is not worse, but something about the game feels off with where the sport is heading. The façade of being on scholarship was all which mattered did not make sense in comparison to when coaches started making lucrative salaries and athletic conferences began signing rich media rights deals. Being compensated for their time made sense, but the way they are being paid feels like the Wild West. With schools bidding on players, other athletes sitting out mid-season to transfer to a new team the next season, and athletes feeling like mercenaries, hopping from one team to the next.

NIL was supposed to have the athletes starring in a local car dealership advertisement. What has happened from the fan’s perspective is it feels like it has become easier to buy the best team. Using merit to succeed has fallen to the wayside while money solves the problems. This has left an unregulated, gross feeling hovering above college football. Change needs to come where athletes are paid their worth, but they also do not feel like mercenaries. The bond between players and fans from building a program instead of buying one is falling to the wayside.

The loss of regionalism in athletic conferences has also created friction. The Big Ten and the SEC started this trouble, but the ACC and Big 12 have also pushed to reach coast to coast while destroying a historic conference, PAC-12, in the process. If our grandparents’ generation found out the Hawkeyes were playing at Rutgers, and the Cyclones were playing at the University of Central Florida, they would roll over in their grave twofold.

This loss of regionalism and the mercenary aspect show the fractures Americans see in their society. Like the rest of society, and what has changed from the past is capital is king. College football has become about the bottom line. Athletes are quick to change their situation if met with a tiny bit of friction while universities sell out their fanbases to join conferences which make zero regional or numerical sense.

“Not falling behind” is the excuse given for why these decisions are being made. Change must happen because it is a different world. Society has seen this type of comment before in other parts of society. When it comes to agriculture, it was “go big or go home.” This has led to rural towns hollowing out, medical clinics closing, and churches and schools consolidating. This has all come in the name of “change was needed.” The only ones benefiting from the change are those hoarding the capital at the expense of the loss of the collectiveness everyone else enjoys from college football.

College football is also following the rest of the American economy where it forms a free market ensuring fair competition, minus athletes getting paid but this would work under the right conditions, to where a lot of markets like college football are less regulated and the one with the most capital has the best chance at succeeding. Whether having college football like this be the best for society does not matter because this is how the “market” is supposed to be. The big get bigger, the smaller get smaller, and those in the middle continue to hollow out.

Whether college sports, agriculture, or other parts of society, this is the current path. Until Americans decide to make markets about fair competition and not one decided by the few at the top, this problem will keep existing throughout society. The mess college football is in is a symptom of this bigger problem. To change, we all will need to fight for a better, more fair American society.

Sean Dengler is a writer, comedian, now-retired beginning farmer, and host of the Pandaring Talk podcast who grew up on a farm between Traer and Dysart. You can reach him at sean.h.dengler@gmail.com.