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  By Dane Miller, SuperWest Sports

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Like it or not, the transfer portal has changed College Football. The restrictions that kept players rooted at one school have been relaxed, allowing roster movement that was unheard of just a few seasons ago.

The updated rules provide opportunities for athletes to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness, turning the system into a laissez-faire model that feels like the Wild West.

The new system is a fair way for players to get the money they deserve in a free market environment that doesn’t confine them to one team.

The old heads cry about how the portal and NIL have somehow changed the sanctity of college football while ignoring the free-market principles that benefit the players themselves.

Basic market principles dictate the price of a high-impact athlete like Addison, and wealthy donors and successful businesses are willing to fit the bill.

That’s what free markets do: make people money.

Anyone whining about the new free agency of recruiting can reminisce about the “old days” to a continually thinning crowd. The portal and NIL are here to stay.

The result keeps top-level talent in college, increasing the quality of the product, and probably creating more parity across the landscape.

Just a week or two ago, Nick Saban snapped at Jimbo Fisher for his recruiting methods at Texas A&M, clearly threatened by the Aggies’ use of NIL money to recruit.

Nobody wants to see Alabama continue to dominate on the recruiting trail and on the field, and the new portal and NIL regulations should help distribute talent to more schools.

If Saban is scared, that’s a good sign.

A small town like Boulder and other schools in small markets simply won’t have the capital in place to attract high-impact players. At least not at the start.

The markets in those areas aren’t able to compete with the businesses in major metropolitans like Los Angeles, where a couple of million dollars for an NIL deal is more readily available—and well worth the cost to get an exceptional player on the roster.

That’s why you see schools like USC benefiting and Colorado faltering. It’s a free market where money talks. And it’s awfully quiet in some places.

The good thing is there are plenty of wealthy individuals willing to pay to attract talent. It’s just up to those businesses, donors, and collectives to make the offers and pull the deals together.