What Will College Football Look Like in 5 Years?

[allstar34]

With everything changing so fast in college football right now, I’m curious where y’all think the sport is headed over the next 5 years.
Between NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, and the expanded playoff, it already feels like a completely different game than it was even 3–4 years ago. So what does 2030-ish college football actually look like?
A few things I’ve been thinking about:

• Do we end up with 2–3 “super conferences” that basically separate from everyone else?
• Will NIL turn into more structured contracts and commitments for a certain amount of years?
• Does the transfer portal get regulated more, or does it become full-on free agency every year?
• How much does the expanded playoff change the regular season? Does it make big games less meaningful or even more important?
• Are we heading toward players being classified as employees?

From a Tennessee perspective, it feels like programs with strong fan bases and money should be in a good spot… but it also feels like the gap between the top and everyone else could get even bigger.
Curious what y’all think. Better for the sport? Worse? Or just different?
And most importantly… where do the Vols fit into all of it?

I have lost a tremendous amount of fanaticism towards the sports world as a whole; but I still love seeing the Vols take the field. I just can't seem to be attached to the sport like I was pre-covid era. I hope it comes back; but it's more of a "It's Saturday, lets catch the game" instead of following all of our recruits and deep diving into everything Vols. Everything just seems temporary these days.

 

[lastlapuncle]

It will lik.e football-slow spring for you?

 

[Volador]

What Will College Football Look Like in 5 Years?​

Well, this is my guess as to what a NCAA football will look like in 5 years. Heck, I'll go so far as to say as this is what an NCAA football will look like in 10 years. Anyone else here that brave to stand with me??

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[KHVol]

Only one super conference, comprised solely by schools with the most cubic dollars for NIL. Schools will be
chasing Texas, Texas A&M and Oklahoma because of their oil money…. Possibly a couple of Northeast teams because of the number of Fortune 500 companies and high earners domiciled there.

Players are already employees, it just hasn’t been challenged in court yet. They are given a “work schedule”, told what to do, how to do it, when to do it, have “employer”provided tools, are given discipline, provided transportation to many of the worksites…. And… the wear their “employers uniform”. In any other industry, they would be held to be employees.