With the expansion of the College Football Playoff, there will be 47 bowl games in the 2024 season. To reach bowl eligibility, a team must go 6-6, an opportunity presented to teams that can avoid a losing regular season. However, in the era of NIL and looser transfer portal rules, non-College Football Playoff teams have routinely become decimated by departures from players eyeing lucrative prospects from different schools. On Saturday, the transfer portal hit one school so severely that they had to withdraw from postseason consideration.
Following a 10-3 season and a berth in the Independence Bowl, the Marshall Thundering Herd will not play against the Army Black Knights later this month. Since winning the Sun Belt Championship last weekend, Marshall has lost nearly 30 players to the portal. With Marshall bowing out, college football fans flooded Twitter in frustration over the current state of the sport.
College Football Fans Dumbfounded With Bowl Game Opt-Out
According to Unnecessary Roughness on Twitter:
After winning the Sun Belt Championship, Marshall withdrew from the Independence Bowl vs. the Army due to a substantial number of players in the transfer portal.
A sad end to a terrific season.
On Saturday, the Marshall Thundering Herd withdrew from the Independence Bowl, with the Louisiana Tech Bulldogs taking their place. Like most non-College Football Playoff schools, Marshall has had a heavy turnout for the transfer portal since the end of the regular season. They have lost 25 players, including quarterbacks Braylon Braxton, Stone Earle, and Cole Pennington. They also lost leading rusher A.J. Turner and three top wide receivers. Meanwhile, head coach Charles Huff left the program, taking the Southern Mississippi vacancy.
Marshall’s bowl game withdrawal is just the latest fallout of the NCAA letting NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal run unchecked. Last season, Florida State football missed the College Football Playoff, with a significant portion of their roster entering the transfer portal, leading to an embarrassing 63.3 loss. Nevertheless, with Marshall’s opt-out, college football fans are disgraced with the evolution of the sport:
Welp, we’re witnessing the result of NIL + transfer portal, can the NCAA PLEASE do something to fix this?
A solution could be to make players commit to a school for 2 years minimum, not just 1 so they can leave whenever they want.
This is ridiculous and ruining sports. 😭
— Mister 49er (@Mister49ers) December 14, 2024
Imagine having a spot on this roster, winning a conference title, and then being told you don't get to play in your bowl game because your teammates all decided to transfer.
— Ethan Foster 🏴☠️ (@ethanfoster64) December 14, 2024
Simple solution: Don’t open the portal until after bowl season.
— Brent Phillips (@BrentRPhillips) December 14, 2024
And so it begins…. The decline snd eventual extinction of the Meaningless Bowls
— Jennifer McCreath (@Jenn_McCreath) December 14, 2024
Marshall university is full of cowards at all levels
Oh you know you’re going to lose so you just quit the game? Look at FSUs season this year to see how that works out
— #18 Army Barstool (@ArmyBarstool) December 14, 2024
What does this say about the bowl selection process of the top AAC team having to play against cast offs.
— Bryan De La Rosa (@BD_monster) December 14, 2024
Transfer portal made a mockery of college football.
— Johnny Nitro (@Johnny_Nitrogen) December 14, 2024
Marshall should be put on a bowl ban for 5 years for this.
— Bob Greenburg (@BobGreenburg) December 14, 2024
Remember when playing for a post season game was one of the main goals for CFB teams. Love what we are teaching our young people & then we wonder why so many fail as adults. Back to watching Army / Navy real hero student athletes. Bet they don’t opt out of their commitments.
— Jay Burleson (@jburleson33) December 14, 2024
I HATE THE PORTAL
— MommaT (@nannyTT) December 14, 2024
More College Football News by Gridiron Heroics
On Saturday, Ohio State Buckeyes quarterback Devin Brown (33) warms up before an NCAA Division I football game against the Marshall University Thundering Herd at Ohio Stadium.
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1 Comment
Pennington l, Braxton, Earl, and everyone else that enter the portal is absolutely 💯losers! Chad must be disappointed that his son is a loser! I hope they lose every game they play in. May there be a big lineman waiting on the WR that ends there career in college football.