Senior Bowl summit consensus: Transfer portal, NIL need significant changes

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They came from Pennsylvania, Texas and opposite sides of the state of Alabama.

Two are in their 40s. One is 50, and one is 70.

But the four head coaches who were at the Senior Bowl Summit here in front of 2,000 at the historic Saenger Theatre Tuesday night — Alabama’s Nick Saban, 70, Penn State’s James Franklin, 50, Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, 47, and Auburn’s Bryan Harsin, 45 — were in agreement throughout the night. They do not like where things are going in this new age of college football.

At least the Senior Bowl college football all-star and NFL draft showcase game, which kicks off at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at Hancock Whitney Statdium on the NFL Network, is basically the same as it has been here since it started in 1951.

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Saban, a defensive backs coach at heart, used to rail against the no-huddle offense. He demanded that offenses should not be allowed to snap the ball until 10 seconds elapsed on the 25-second play clock to help defenses get set. That rule idea was tabled in 2014, and Saban was forced to join them and hired Lane Kiffin to revolutionize his offense.

Ah, the 10-second rule. Those were such simpler times for Saban and other coaches amid today’s frenetically constant NCAA portal transfers along with money circulating to players like cryptocurrency with the new Name, Image and Likeness rules.

Conceptually, the portal and NIL make sense at face value — or made sense on paper. But both have been fraught with unintended consequences.

"Is this really what we want college football to be? I’m all for players making money," said Saban, who was the highest paid college football coach in the