College Football’s Chaotic Week: Realignment, Redshirts, and NIL

As college football heads into a pivotal weekend on the field, including a monumental SEC matchup when No. 2 Georgia visits No. 4 Alabama on Saturday night, chaos off the field has dominated discussion around the sport all week.

From conference realignment to the transfer portal to the evolving impact of NIL (name, image, and likeness), the shifting college landscape keeps leading to firsts across the sport.

Selection Service

The Pac-12 has been at the center of realignment among non-Power 4 conferences. It’s already successfully poached five schools from the Mountain West: Boise State, Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State, and most recently, Utah State. 

However, the Mountain West has notched a significant win, with six of its seven remaining football-playing members agreeing to keep the conference together, despite interest from rival leagues, according to The Athletic and other reports. The Pac-12 was said to be interested in UNLV, while Air Force had interest from the American Athletic Conference, which announced a long-term commitment from its current 15 teams this week.

That would leave both the Mountain West and Pac-12 with seven football programs, beginning in 2026. The Pac-12 needs one more member to retain its FBS status, and the Mountain West two more, as Hawaii is not a full-time member.

There’s Always Next Year

As many schools are figuring out which conference they will play in moving forward, athletes are utilizing new policies to keep their playing options open, too.

In April, the NCAA removed its one-time limit on allowing undergraduates to transfer and be immediately eligible to play the following season. Now, there is no cap. And that’s leading to several players cutting their seasons short for a variety of reasons.

UNLV quarterback Matthew Sluka is redshirting after three games due to an NIL dispute. This would have been his last year of eligibility, but now he’ll be able to transfer and play—perhaps for more money—somewhere else in 2025.

Football players can redshirt so long as they have played in less than four games that season. As most programs enter their fourth or fifth week, that opportunity is being taken advantage of.

On Wednesday, UNLV running back Michael Allen and USC defensive tackle Bear Alexander both announced decisions to sit out the remainder of the season and redshirt, due to a lack of playing time opportunities.