Kirk Herbstreit is not one to mince words, and his latest take is lighting up the college football conversation. The respected ESPN analyst sees serious warning signs ahead, pinpointing one of the sport’s most pressing issues: the rapidly shifting landscape inside college football locker rooms. With the transfer portal swinging open and NIL deals driving would-be stars from school to school, Herbstreit sees a real risk of these team cultures breaking down unless something fundamental changes.
The core of Herbstreit’s concern is about stability—or, more accurately, the lack of it. Every offseason, rosters look more and more like revolving doors, with top players chasing better opportunities or bigger paydays elsewhere. It’s a situation that’s worrying plenty of coaches, too. The constant churn means that building and maintaining team chemistry is more challenging than ever. Herbstreit believes we could reach a tipping point, where the foundation of college football’s locker rooms simply can’t withstand this relentless turnstile. And the consensus among coaches seems to be that he’s on to something.
Pittsburgh head coach Pat Narduzzi didn’t shy away from the topic either. He admitted that the framework—or lack thereof—for regulating these changes is shaky at best. “I hate to say, I don’t have faith because you have to have faith for anything to work. So, I have a lot of faith going in, but I’ll let you know in a year. You know, the NCAA couldn’t control it in the past. There’s no control right now. So it’s got to be better than nothing, right?” Narduzzi’s words echo the uncertainty that many coaches are feeling as they try to keep their programs on stable ground in the midst of this flux.
Wake Forest’s Jake Dickert offered up another comparison that gets right to the heart of it. He likened the current landscape to the differences between Major League Baseball and the NFL. Dickert laid it out: “We’ve got to decide if we want Major League Baseball or if we want the NFL. Major League Baseball has some teams with $250 million [payrolls] and some teams playing Moneyball at $40 million. Or do we want a hard salary cap like the NFL, and who’s doing the best with their resources? You know, the NFL doesn’t have GoFundMe for free agents, right? They don’t; they play with a certain set of rules.” It’s a pointed question that spotlights the lack of consistency in how teams can operate right now.
All of this is happening as college football leaders look for solutions—especially in the wake of the NCAA vs. House settlement. There’s real energy around finding ways to stabilize the sport and restore some level of control, but it’s too early to know if these moves will be enough.
At the heart of Herbstreit’s “warning” is a pretty simple premise. If things keep trending in this direction, and if team chemistry and the spirit of college football keep getting chipped away by free agency-style movement, the very identity of the sport could be at stake. Coaches, analysts, and fans alike are watching closely to see whether the next round of changes can put the brakes on the chaos or if college football will need to brace for more foundational shifts ahead.
