Are you some intern working for CDC?
You’re fixated on the playoffs, which should have happened decades ago, when the bigger story is that the portal and NIL stuff has finally come home to roost. Your house is on fire and you’re worried about the fucking shrubbery out front burning down.
No longer will the fabled blue bloods be locking up 3/4-star talent 2-3 deep in their bench, when the guys who find out they might not play for a couple of years can hit the portal, start for a lesser team, and start collecting that sweet NIL money itIt away.
If you’re some decent recruit, for all of the sweet nothings whispered in your ears by the coaching staff, if you’re riding the bench out of the gate as a freshman, and you get to your sophomore year and are still behind somebody, and you realize that the world didn’t stop for you and they are recruiting hard at your position as well as hitting the portal for your position in case somebody better comes along, you will absolutely start thinking about the portal and NIL bucks elsewhere, because it’s all over your social media feeds.
The NIL and Portal are far, far more important than the playoffs. We are about to see a whole lot of mid-tier teams fielding starters that would have been riding the bench at Texas, Bama, Georgia, Oregon, Ohio State, etc. and we are about to see a lot of top-tier teams having shallow benches.