Returning to the Roots of College Sports: Pathways Forward
College sports once featured iconic teams of students that would return year after year to compete for glory in tournaments like March Madness and the College Football Playoff. Now, teams are sparsely populated with returning players. Prior to the start of the 2025 March Madness tournament, more than half of the players that competed in the tournament played for a different D1 team before the start of the season. Following the advent of NIL (“Name, Image, and Likeness”), and recent rule changes surrounding the transfer portal, college sports are more like a professional, free-agent market. Team loyalty and the once classic “underdog” Cinderella stories are a thing of the past.