Brian Kelly reveals how NIL, transfer portal impact parity in college football: 'It hasn't hurt the game'
· Yahoo Sports
In Week 7, five of the top seven teams in the AP Top 25 lost. Two more Top-10 teams went down in Week 8 as parity remains a trend across college football this season, thanks in large part to NIL and the transfer portal.
Former Notre Dame and LSU coach Brian Kelly doesn’t think things will change as the sport goes through the modern era. He said that’s not a bad thing, though, despite some off-field questions about the new landscape.
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Because players can move around via the transfer portal, while also earning money through NIL and revenue-sharing, Kelly said that disperses talent across the sport. As a result, rosters get better because programs can improve quicker and athletes can head to new situations.
“College football now has become such that each and every week, the margin for victory is not great,” Kelly said Tuesday on Inside College Football. “But more importantly, the talent has evened out. There’s no longer a 55-7 game all of a sudden halfway through the season.
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“The talent level, NIL, transfer portal, all of those things have made a difference. And it hasn’t hurt the game. Now, there are things that we’ve got to clean up with it. But, man, football is really good right now.”
Inside college football’s parity in 2026
Heading into Week 9, the last Saturday in October, just three undefeated teams are left standing: Miami, Utah and UCLA. The Hurricanes narrowly avoided their first loss of the season during that historically crazy Week 7 slate as they held on to beat Florida State in double overtime.
That was the same week Georgia, Notre Dame, Indiana and Texas all went down in the latest example of parity in college football A week later, BYU suffered its first loss of the year in double overtime against UCF while Ole Miss fell to Texas in a close one on the road.
There are also some teams putting together surprise seasons after quickly infusing talent. UCLA is one of them as the Bruins sit at No. 7 in the AP Top 25. Kentucky is another at 7-1 under first-year head coach Will Stein, and the Wildcats aren’t doing it with one of the bigger payrolls.
The close margins between teams shows things have gone differently than some thought they would in the NIL era. Rather than the bigger programs getting better, the playing field appears to be getting more even.