My Two Cents: Only NCAA Can Ruin Perfectly Good Thing With Never-Ending Incompetence

Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula entered the transfer portal Sunday just days before the Nittany Lions' playoff game. Why is the portal even open now? Once again, the NCAA knows how to destroy a perfectly good thing with their rampant incompetence.

Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula (9) gets tackled during a game with Ohio State in November. / Adam Cairns/Columbus Dispatch / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The 12-team College Football Playoff with early-round matchups played on campus is the best thing that's ever happened to the college game. We only had to wait a century for it to happen. It's the postseason done right — finally.

There are several tweaks that are still needed, of course, but the foundation is set for all the ''March Madness-like'' drama the sport has craved for decades. But they could never quite pull that off, first with a foolish bowl system with multiple mythical national champions, and then two-team and four-team brackets that just weren't ever quite enough.

This is perfect, or at least will be in a few other iterations.

So, of course, its takes a worthless and incompetent agency like the NCAA to screw it all up. We've seen it coming for years, their inability to run what should be a great organization, but now it's blowing up in their face — and our faces — and it's only going to get worse.

The problem with the NCAA — or anyone who needs to make the rules in any business — is that when they aren't smart enough to get it right the first time, they mess it up so bad and wind up screwing the actual golden goose they're trying to create.

That's what the NCAA is doing right now, and on the eve of this first-ever 12-team playoff this weekend, it's rearing its ugly head already.

.They're just so stupid, setting up rules and timelines that are so misguided.

On Sunday, Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula announced he was quitting on his teammates and entering the transfer portal, just five days before the Nittany Lions take on SMU in the first round of the CFP. The redshirt sophomore backup, a Pennsylvania native who's been at Penn State for three years, said ''the current NCAA postseason model creates a challenge for student-athletes. The overlapping CFB playoff and transfer portal timeline has forced me into an impossible situation.''

pic.twitter.com/3BYi7jtG2m

— Beau Pribula (@beauprib) December 16, 2024

He's right. This is the NCAA's doing. Sure, Pribula has the right to enter the portal and he's looking out for himself, which he's entitled to do. But it's still not right. Not right now. The timing is terrible.

And you would think the NCAA would know that. But they don't.

Multiple problems converging

This atrocious behavior in college football actually has been going on for months. College sports has changed dramatically in the past few years with the advent of the wild wild west transfer portal and a no hold's barred Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) that is nothing more than a glorified name for ''pay to play.''

For decades, the NCAA and major-college athletic departments made billions of dollars off the sweat of college players who got scholarships, some shoes and clothes and a few free meals. The NCAA fought change in court relentlessly — and almost never won.

The NCAA finally gave up after years of courtroom losses and let people transfer to other schools whenever they wanted, which is ridiculous. We all know that's not good for the game. Good for the kids in the short-term, maybe, but not in the long-term, not without rules.

There are literally no rules now.

Same with NIL. There are no rules or limits to that either. There is no loyalty any more. It's why a high school quarterback (Bryce Underwood) can be committed to LSU for months but sign with Michigan on National Signing day instead because they created a $10 million-plus NIL deal for him.

The NCAA totally allows that these days, and this is the same organization that used to suspend guys for getting a free cheeseburger or posing in a charity calendar. Players can name their price these days, and the market for quarterbacks has exploded into a million-dollar industry. That's why Penn State's Pribula entered the portal — even at the worst possible time. Instead of preparing for the playoffs, he and his representatives are negotiating deals for his next stop.

Again, he has that right. But why now? This should not be happening DURING the playoffs. Setting the opening of the transfer portal for Dec. 9 opens a huge Pandora's box. This isn't supposed to happen in the playoffs. And bowl games are completely irrelevant now, so we're seeing hundreds of players entering the portal and opting out of games. It was so bad for Marshall — losing more than three dozen players — that they had to cancel on playing in the Independence Bowl.

It's the tip of the iceberg. It started last year, really. Remember the Florida State-Georgia bowl game? FSU had 20-plus players opt out. Georgia had a full roster and won 63-3 in the Orange Bowl. It was an embarrassment to the game. Even Georgia coach Kirby Smart admitted that things like this shouldn't happen.

Portal, NIL regulations a must

Here's another NCAA faux pas. The have a silly football rule where you can play up to four games a season and not lose a year of eligibility. That's stupid too, because several teams — including Indiana, UNLV and others — had players quit right in the middle of the season.

There should be absolutely no reason for that to happen. Players shouldn't be quitting on their teammates in the middle of the season either.

When it comes to changing rules in the offseason, these two things need to be first priority. Change the redshirt rule immediately, so players aren't bailing in October and shoppiong their services to the next team in the middle of a season . And change the opening of the transfer portal until AFTER the playoffs.

And they need to do this in COMPLETE consultation with college coaches, athletic directors AND players. Yes, players. They need to have a seat at the table. If they had done that before, this entire transfer portal/NIL disaster would have never happened. It can all be done in a more orderly fashion.

But can we ever expect the NCAA to get this done right? The Marshall thing is bad. Pribula's exit sends the wrong message, too. But it can be so much worse.

Pribula is the backup to Drew Allar at Penn State. What if a struggling school — like USC or Florida State — offered Allar $10 million or more to transfer? What if he bailed right before Saturday's game too? That's a lot of money. A lot.

This is just a hypothetical, of course, and I'm not disparaging Allar in any way. It could be anyone. I could have used Quinn Ewars at Texas as an example, or Cade Klubnik at Clemson. The point is that all 12 teams in the playoffs should have full rosters. Pribula is just the first to walk away at the worst possible time.

There could be many more.

Look, we all love college football. Love our Saturdays, love all the traditions and pageantry. Love the games, and the rivalries.

But we can't have the NCAA ruining the best part of it on its grandest stage. We can't have guys bailing during the playoffs. The transfer portal is here to stay, and I get that. Same with NIL. But the merging of the two and unlimited free agency — and big bank deposits — creates constant turnover.

The timing of that turnover has to be fixed. It can't be right now.

College football isn't perfect, but it could be with a few fixes. These things need to be at the top of the list in the offseason, and it needs to happen.

Let me be clear one last time. I am not blaming Beau Pribula at Penn State. It's his right to chase after a lot of money. I'm also not blaming all those kids at Marshall who want to leave after their coach, Charles Huff, left for Southern Miss. It happens, too, but they also made a commitment to play football at Marshall this year — and there's still one more game to go. They should play, and then leave. That's something the NCAA could easily fix.

We went through a lot of this at Indiana last year too after Tom Allen was fired and Curt Cignetti was hired. Half of Indiana's team entered the portal, and Cignetti convinced a few to stay. But he also hit the portal hard — including bringing many of his James Madison players along with him — and built a new roster.

Indiana went on to have a magical year in 2024, going 11-1 and reaching the playoffs, and a lot of those transfers were a big reason why. That's OK, because that's the business now. But none of. them are quitting before Friday's playoff game at Notre Dame. Nor should they.

The NCAA needs to fix this. Pribula shouldn't be in this position.

It's all too bad, but it's not surprising. The NCAA has always been very good at screwing this up. They're just at it again.

And it's too bad.