There are already over 9,000 players in the portal – basically the equivalent of ⅔ of every FBS team, or 85 full FBS teams. Works out to an average of about 13.5 players for each of the 665 NCAA football teams across all divisions. And I highly doubt it’s distributed evenly – probably not that many from each of the 240 D3 schools jumping in the portal.
Read something a few days ago that Oklahoma State had 43 players in the portal and Iowa State had 42. Even schools without coaching changes like West Virginia and Mississippi State are up near 30. And those may have gone up by now. Silly. Basically impossible for all but a few to build & sustain a program – you’re just cobbling together a team each season.
Saw earlier that there have been just 18 teams to make a bowl each of the last 3 seasons. Granted, that number’s skewed a little with some opt-outs and CFP first-round losers the last 2 years not technically making a bowl, but that’s still a pretty low number when there are still 70 or more slots in traditional, non-CFP bowl games available. Only 4 of last year’s CFP teams made it back this year. Only 7 teams have made the 24-team FCS playoffs in each of the last 3 years, and only 2 of those (Villanova & Mercer) are outside the Dakotas/Montana. And mighty South Dakota State finished tied for 6th in the MVFC after a big portal exodus.
I can’t imagine being a coach in this environment.
