Money > Program’s reputation. NIL and the portal have flipped the entire CFB scene upside down. How good is your HS commitment when there is always a danger of another program jumping in and dropping millions to flip them? And the portal? One season disaster and you see 14 of your players leaving like Thanos snapped your roster. See, Nick Saban calling it quits makes sense now. The entire debate on “SEC’s downfall” wasn’t because Saban left. It was mostly because programs with better “financial” backing were just taking the players away. Nick Saban knew what was coming, and the retirement card was the best thing he could’ve done. Maybe it’s time Kirby Smart does the same?

“I saw him all year unable to look like their vintage selves on the offensive line,” Josh Pate mentioned. Nothing has been worse than Georgia’s drop-prone offense. Yeah, they made it to the 2nd seed with the SEC win, but the direct downfall from their 2023 self to this version is quite visible. Bulldogs rushing average has fallen from 5.3 yards to just 4.1 yards this season. Following that, their total offense averaged only 6.0 yards in 2024, but in 2023, the Bulldogs were on 7.3 yards.

Even their turnover margins have been impacted. 1.0 turnovers to 1.4 this season. “They didn’t have the same kind of depth they used to have,” Pate adds. One example can be seen from the WR core. It didn’t help that Carson Beck didn’t have reliable wide receivers throughout the season. We saw the dropped passes during the Sugar Bowl. On the other hand, you have Will Howard throwing to Jeremiah Smith and Emeka Egbuka.

Even back in 2023, while having a conversation about the NIL and the portal, Smart had mentioned, “Yeah, that’s tough. We spend a lot of time on connection and having a conversation.”

However, what makes the road ahead for the Dawgs harder is the “raiding” aspect of NIL. The Wolverines didn’t think twice before throwing over $10 million on the table for Bryce Underwood. Did LSU have anything to counter that? No.

This is something even Broncos OC Dirk Koetter had pointed out. “We are losing recruits in the portal to schools that are just flat outbidding us.” Honestly, up to a certain extent, we don’t even blame the players for taking the deals. They have families as well. However, to expect that the old Nick Saban era can be recreated is a schizophrenic dream.

End of the old ways

“Nobody in college football is going to touch the Saban golden days again.” Bama’s downfall this season can be credited to a lot of factors. Was Jalen Milroe average? Yes. Was the running and the receiver room barely used? Yes. Was the play-calling horrendous? Absolutely.

However, to think that Kalen DeBoer can bring back the Saban golden days is like wishing for a golden egg-laying goose. Much like the Kirby Smart situation, Alabama has also fallen from grace thanks to the portal and NIL.

With time, if the “vintage” teams fail to adapt themselves to the changing landscape, they will not survive. Ohio State cracked it to the top because Ryan Day made perfect use of that $21 million NIL budget.

It is about time the SEC giants start changing their mindset.