I posted earlier about the “old days,” when at Oregon, we almost always developed our own QBs. Today, no program can afford to wait to grow its own.

I can be slow to the party, but with NIL and revenue sharing, the quarterback has become the pinnacle of the true free-agent market. The transfer portal is where many of these players will make more money than many will earn the rest of their lives.

The pay curve is steep. At a top program, a backup earns around $1 million, and a highly recruited backup gets closer to $1.5-2 million (reportedly, Dylan gets $2 million). A starter makes $3–4 million, and elite transfers get $5–6.5 million (Dante $5 million).

And the crazy thing is, when we look at the massive amount of money involved in CFB, they’re worth it – even worth the risk. It finally occurred to me that a talented backup QB can no longer afford to 'wait his turn.' Every season he sits can cost him millions, and his value drops.

I have to remind myself that most of these kids making $1–3 million per year will never take a snap in the NFL. For them, this is payday (and this is true of all other positions... the numbers are just lower).

There’s always been a transactional relationship in CFB between the institution and the players and coaches. But it’s now finally occurred to me that it is almost entirely transactional… and on steroids. Both the kids and the coaches have understandably entered the mercenary-portal.

As I said, I can be a bit slow to the party. But it finally occurred to me today that the old path in CFB of truly developing QBs died a quiet death.

Too bad most of those kids will have little to no education or self discipline ine the matters of money management.

Many are doomed to struggle with that when "student athlete" begins to fade in the rear view mirror.

Good insight, Desert Duck. I am like you - just don't get or enjoy this new age of CFB. Raiola getting paid $2M is insame and borderline criminal, judging from his performance so far. What happened to common sense nowadays?

By the same token, cudos to AS Jr for sticking around so far. For that he deserves to get a chance to play and show what he can or can't do. If he can't deliever, the fault is more on the coaches for failing to develop him. Like you said, that's simply not their focus any more. Why do the hard work when someone else can buy your players and you can buy anyone's players?

Edited 5 hours ago5 hr by DuckFan93

I don't think developing QBs has died. I do think that development of QBs has largely been offloaded to other programs (like lower tier P4 or G6) and the richer programs take them through the transfer portal in year 3+.

3 hours ago, kirklandduck said:

I don't think developing QBs has died. I do think that development of QBs has largely been offloaded to other programs (like lower tier P4 or G6) and the richer programs take them through the transfer portal in year 3+.

Good point. So those programs kind of become like Minor League Baseball teams, but for college football. All of those programs are our feeder schools.

13 minutes ago, Desert Duck said:

Good point. So those programs kind of become like Minor League Baseball teams, but for college football. All of those programs are our feeder schools.

Pretty much. Of course top tier teams will still recruit a blue chip QB each year simply because other recruits (WRs, RBs, etc.) will follow and build the recruiting class. If they develop into a solid starter, great! If not, an experienced incoming transfer takes over.

I don't disagree.

Charles has been talking for a couple years about OBD being better off going to the portal for its QB rather than trying to grow them.

Given this new landscape, are star HS QBs now better off going to second-tier programs with good OC and QB coaching in place in order to get playing time and development in hopes of transferring to a top-tier program? Seems like this is becoming the more common pattern...

30 minutes ago, bbmichaels said:

I don't disagree.

Charles has been talking for a couple years about OBD being better off going to the portal for its QB rather than trying to grow them.

Given this new landscape, are star HS QBs now better off going to second-tier programs with good OC and QB coaching in place in order to get playing time and development in hopes of transferring to a top-tier program? Seems like this is becoming the more common pattern...

I dont think the big time college coaches have enough time to coach the fundamentals. You either have those down or you dont. Spring and summer football are about conditioning and repetitions.