This may be one of the more interesting offseasons that we have ever seen in the “free agency” era of college football.

With NIL and the transfer portal running rampant throughout the country, the game's biggest stars are not only in the portal, but they want some big dollars involved with it. With the recent news of Alabama’s star and SEC Freshman of the year, Caleb Downs, hitting the portal, most likely not just for a better chance for a National Championship, but also for deals that could reach at least six digits, according to ON3’s NIL rankings.

But there’s a huge issue with this. This is getting way too out of control, the term commitment in the Oxford dictionary reads, “the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc.” These athletes are not dedicated to their respective program. You will see guys that will start off at the FCS level and treat it like a JUCO team so that they can gain more traction so that they have that opportunity to get not just a power five offer, but also gain the money that comes with it.

The word, “commitment”, does not even register with college football players nowadays, and you will not see a whole lot of athletes stay committed, especially if they don’t play immediately after their freshman year. However, for a guy like Caleb Downs, who despite his head coach deciding to step down and their almost entire defensive staff deciding to head to better opportunities for their career, he decides to go chase the money. He does this instead of sticking around with a legendary team with a legendary reputation all because he sees the dollar signs calling his phone elsewhere.

My issue is not always the athlete, I mean no disrespect at all to Caleb Downs, but it's obvious the word, commitment, does not always register with athletes who sign in December and February. Our only hope that we’ll see change in college football is that if there is at least a bit of regulation from these Name, Image, and Likeness deals from getting out of control, especially when you’re talking about athletes between the ages of 18 and 21.