Penn State QB Transfer Ahead of Playoff Shows Everything Wrong With CFB Today

The college football calendar, NIL, and the transfer portal are completely out of whack, and Penn State quarterback Beau Pribula is a perfect example.

Marc Lebryk-Imagn Images

College football and college sports overall have obviously been in a major state of flux over the last several years as the portal and NIL era - two things that often go hand in hand - continues to figure itself out.

It seems college football is stuck in a place where most people universally want players to be able to capitalize on their brand (like they were not able to do for over a century before NIL), while also agreeing the current model with no rules and no real governing body is not a sustainable model for the long-term health of the sport.

In 2024, the NCAA exists in name only with no real authority to enforce rules that are written but come with no incentive - or threat - to be followed. All of this has culminated in a situation where no one is really happy with the chaotic way business is conducted but with no real end in sight.

Nothing encapsulates the backwards, screwed up state of college football more so than a recent Penn State Nittany Lions transfer portal addition. PSU backup quarterback Beau Pribula elected to enter his name into the portal even though his team has made the College Football Playoff, is hosting a home game against the weakest team in the first round, and has a looming matchup with a Group of 5 team in order to get into the semi finals.

In other words, Pribula's team has a legitimate chance to win the national championship, but due to the way the transfer portal schedules out in terms of openings and closings, he can't even finish off the season with his teammates.

Shortly after Pribula's announced his intentions and talked about the agony of this impossible decision, it was reported by Pete Thamel that Penn State's starter Drew Allar intends to return to school next season, meaning that Pribula's decision is likely not NIL driven and stems from a desire to play. But no matter his reasoning, no player wants to have to leave his team in the midst of a title push just so they don't get left in the cold when pursuing opportunities with teams who have already filled out their rosters by the time the season even ends.

Last season, we saw a similar result when Texas backup Maalik Murphy - who had actually started games for the Longhorns during the season while Quinn Ewers was injured - was forced into the same decision.

On top of the fact that it's simply wrong to make these kids leave their team during a playoff run, there's also the factor that the team who made the playoff is just one injury away from having to turn to their third string quarterback. This would mean that not only would the schedule be impacting player's desire to finish off the season with their teammates, but is not far away from actively deciding the way postseason games play out.

Pribula was a critical part of helping Penn State defeat Wisconsin earlier in the season when Allar went down with an injury helping to lead a comeback victory. He has also checked in on certain packages due to the threat he poses with his legs and him being lost to the portal will undoubtedly change the way the Nittany Lions game plan in the playoffs.

It's just the latest example of the desperate need reform to college football and an end to the chaotic ways business is conducted throughout the sport.