I think January 1, 2026 will be remembered as a watershed moment in college football history for two reasons: 

It confirmed that there is a new model for championship roster construction.

It marked the end of two decades of SEC domination over the sport.

It didn’t create the new era of portal-heavy roster building and NIL which was already underway.  But it emphatically confirmed it: blue-chip-heavy rosters can be defeated by older and better-developed teams.  The three most Blue Chip rich rosters have been bounced from the playoff before the semifinals.

Indiana took Alabama to the woodshed in the Rose Bowl.  The Hoosiers were the more physical team, they bullied Alabama up and down the field.  Just wrap your mind around that. Just three years ago that would have been unimaginable. Three years ago, that would have sounded like satire. I had been thinking about this possibility for a couple weeks but had no expectation Ole Miss would also play a role in this historical narrative but they fit perfectly and add the exclamation point to the theory. 

The old blue bloods with their Blue Chip Ratios rosters are being beaten by teams built with zero-to-three-star recruits who are older, more experienced, and more developed.  These rosters are built through traditional high school recruiting plus aggressive, transfer-portal scouting at every level of the sport.  Then factor in NIL and teams that almost certainly never previously paid players, like Indiana, are suddenly able to compete with the biggest brands on the biggest stages.

Ole Miss' star QB, Trinidad Chambliss, was a zero-star high school recruit, then a three star as a transfer. He's 23 years old, and he logged three years in D2, including a championship run and starting experience.  Accumulating live-game reps is extremely valuable, he gained mental maturity and physical development at Ferris State.  Fernando Mendoza's trajectory is similar.  He was an unheralded three-star recruit, who also accumulated game reps and growth before transferring.  

The new landscape also favors coaches and staffs that are adept at identifying talent. For the last two decades it's primarily been all about fighting tooth and nail for the blue chips as designated by the recruiting industry. Those battles aren't going anywhere (recruitniks rejoice) but there's a new edge to be exploited in scouring all levels of the sport to find the next Cam Ward, Fernando Mendoza, and Trinidad Chambliss. Those are all QB's, but I could've also listed Stephen Daley, Kewan Lacy, or Tez Johnson.

We’re going back to an era where championship rosters were loaded with older players.  Think about Nebraska in the 1980s and 90s.  Indiana’s roster from top to bottom is just a lot older!  They have 22-24 year olds who have played a lot of football playing against less experienced 20-21 year olds.  Ohio State’s roster last year was also stacked with 4th and 5th year players.  Michigan the year before that.

The second point is that at long last our Northern Nightmare, two decades living under the thumb of the SEC is quite likely finally over.  Unless Ole Miss manages to win it all which can’t be ruled out entirely, but I doubt will happen.  This has been primarily triggered by over the table player payment.  While I have zero doubts Ohio State has been paying its players for several decades I’m almost certain most of the rest of the B1G was not (and it’s no surprise that for the most part Ohio State was the only nationally competitive program).  But player movement in the portal is also effecting the SEC.  They can no longer stockpile talent three and four deep on the depth chart.  Those guys are going elsewhere to gain the aforementioned snaps and experience.  This effects everyone, but it seems to hit one of the key advantages the SEC had harder.

So the SEC’s two major advantages have been removed and the national championship score is currently 2-1 in the NIL era (2022 Georgia, 2023 Michigan, 2024 Ohio State) and it might go to 3-1.  Yes, I’m being generous in awarding 2022 to the SEC.   

This will make life harder for Ohio State as well.  But the tradeoff is a richer, more interesting sport across the board.  The likes of Indiana and Ole Miss rising to the cream of the sport is undoubtedly a good thing.  Some B12 teams like Texas Tech, BYU, and Arizona State may not be far behind.

There is so much that’s wrong with college football but it’s also an incredibly exciting time.  Losing to Miami sucked but looking at the sport more broadly it's a pretty awesome time to be alive.