Last year we couldn't hear the end of the narrative that Ohio State bought a championship with their NIL payouts.  Of course, it was a large number by comparison to "no payouts" that existed prior to the NIL era, but we also know that the Buckeyes were hardly the only team paying their roster big bucks. In fact, the Buckeyes weren't the most expensive roster in college football (see Oregon or Texas).

Didn't matter, the narrative was set, and Joe Q. Public loves to repeat a narrative. 

Fast forward to this year.  Now the narrative has shifted to another bogeyman.  The "old" college football roster.  Especially with Indiana's meteoric rise to #1.  There must be a reason that this is happening.  It couldn't be good coaching and good players, there must be something else.  Eureka!!! They are playing football with grown men, while the other teams are trotting out a bunch of boys.

Well, I am generally not someone who simply ingests and regurgitates a narrative.  I prefer to actually look into things before I repeat them or engage in the conversation at large.

So, here is what I have found with a little digging.

The combination of Covid and NIL have shifted college sports rosters to allow for more seasoned players to stay in college vs. moving on.  So rosters have definitely been older in the past few seasons, and pretty predictably the winners of national championships in recent history have been older teams.

I looked at the past 5 champions and their opponents to see how many upper classmen (Juniors, Seniors, Graduates) were on those rosters.  Here are the raw numbers.

2021 UGA vs Bama - 41 upper classmen vs. 40 upper classmen

2022 UGA vs TCU - 36 upper classmen vs. 60 upper classmen

2023 scUM vs UW - 75 upper classmen vs 40 upper classmen

2024 OSU vs ND - 63 upper classmen vs 52 upper classmen

2025 IU vs UMiami - 46 upper classmen vs 39 upper classmen