The Rebuild Revolution: How the Transfer Portal Killed Traditional Team Building

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College football revenue isn't just about winning games anymore—it's about winning the media game.

Virginia Tech AD Whit Babcock's 54-slide presentation to the Board of Trustees reveals the brutal math behind modern college athletics: Notre Dame operates on a $215M budget, the Big 12 will catch the ACC by 2030, and every linear TV appearance is worth $560K in year one alone. The three critical levers schools must pull are on-field performance (6 wins gets you nothing, 9 wins nets $1.7M from the ACC's success initiative), strategic non-conference scheduling that drives viewership, and maximizing standalone game value through smart tune-in campaigns. When ABC or ESPN broadcasts average 1.82M incremental viewers worth $1.61M over five years per game, athletic departments must treat media strategy as seriously as X's and O's. Click here for Babcock’s slide presentation.

Every Saturday becomes a million-dollar decision.

The NCAA just handed Michigan a $20+ million reality check that proves sign-stealing doesn't pay…or does it?

The governing body slammed the Wolverines with massive fines stemming from lost postseason football revenue over the next two seasons, all connected to the Connor Stalions sign-stealing scandal that rocked college football. Former head coach Jim Harbaugh gets hit with a brutal 10-year show-cause penalty, while Stalions faces an eight-year ban from the sport. Current coach Sherrone Moore won't escape either—he's looking at a two-year show-cause order plus a three-game suspension that includes missing the Big Ten opener against Nebraska in 2026. However, he'll still be on the sidelines for the massive Week 2 showdown against Oklahoma.

When the dust settles, Michigan just learned that championship-level cheating comes with championship-level consequences. LINK

Please note: Our 2025 Pre-Season Hot Seat Rankings will be released on Tuesday. Stay tuned.

DEEP DIVE

G.J. Kinne's Texas State Transformation Goes Deeper Than Preseason Predictions

While most analysts recognized Texas State as preseason Sun Belt favorites, what they missed is the deeper transformation Kinne is building—one that goes far beyond predictions and win totals.

Here's what the rankings don't capture about this program's trajectory.

The Foundation Nobody Talks About

Texas State had never won a bowl game as an FBS program before Kinne arrived.

Not once in 12 years.

Quarterback was a revolving door before McCloud—a reality that made his arrival all the more pivotal in solidifying the offense and raising the program's ceiling.

The Statistical Story That Reveals Everything

Texas State entered 2024 with sky-high expectations as Sun Belt favorites. While they came up just short of a conference title, the program's trajectory remains upward.

The numbers tell the real story:

In wins:

• 523.4 yards per game

• 7.1 yards per play

In losses:

• 402.6 yards per game

• 5.5 yards per play

When Kinne's system operates correctly, Texas State is unstoppable.

The Cultural Design That Changes Everything

After losing quarterback Jordan McCloud to graduation, Kinne added three experienced transfers without entering an NIL bidding war.

"This is an open competition," Kinne explained. "This is an opportunity to come prove yourself."

While Texas State athletes do benefit from NIL, several quarterback transfers chose the program for its culture and opportunity—not money.

That's not just roster management—that's cultural design.

What This Means

Despite the hype, Kinne's approach hasn't yet produced a conference championship. The program's progress is real, but sustained success—and fulfillment of championship expectations—is still the challenge ahead.

But here's the key insight: The 1.637 hot seat rating doesn't just indicate job security. It suggests a transformation in progress that goes beyond conventional metrics.

The bottom line: Kinne isn't just building a team that can meet preseason expectations—he's building sustainable excellence that will outlast any single season's predictions.

Check out our in-depth analysis of Texas State.

Marshall Football's Ultimate Experiment: Tony Gibson's Impossible Challenge

Marshall football has no idea what they're doing in 2025.

And that might be exactly what makes them terrifying.

While everyone obsesses over Alabama's quarterback battle, the most fascinating story in college football is unfolding in Huntington, West Virginia. Tony Gibson just walked into the most impossible coaching situation in America: a championship program that lost 36 players to the transfer portal in 72 hours.

Here's what Gibson inherited:

• A Sun Belt Championship team

• Zero returning quarterbacks

• 17 of 22 starters from the title game are gone

• A roster so decimated that they couldn't play their bowl game

Here's what he did about it: 

Gibson signed 62 new players in four months. According to Rivals, it's the No. 2 transfer class in FBS. He didn't just replace bodies—he upgraded talent at every position.

Lost three starting quarterbacks? Brought in Carlos Del Rio-Wilson and Zion Turner, both with FBS starting experience. Need an offensive coordinator? Hired Rod Smith from Jacksonville State, whose 2024 offense ranked No. 12 nationally in scoring.

The genius move everyone's missing: 

Smith's Jacksonville State offense was built on running the ball (No. 3 nationally) and developing quarterbacks fast. Perfect for Marshall's situation.

Why this could work: 

Nobody knows what to expect from Marshall. How do you scout a team when half the roster has never played together? How do you game-plan against an offense when the quarterback competition is wide open?

You can't.

Gibson isn't rebuilding—he's creating something entirely new. Every player on this roster chose Marshall specifically because of Tony Gibson. That's not inherited doubt. That's manufactured belief.

The schedule reveals everything: 

Marshall opens at Georgia. Most programs would call that a nightmare. Gibson calls it a measuring stick. No expectations, maximum opportunity to see what his experiment looks like against elite competition.

The bottom line: 

Gibson just signed up for college football's ultimate experiment: Can you build a championship program from scratch in one offseason?

He's either about to become a genius or a cautionary tale.

There's no middle ground.

Want more? Check out our in-depth analysis of the 2025 Marshall program.

The Transfer Portal Just Killed Traditional College Football Rebuilding

Here's what everyone missed about the Southern Miss hire.

Charles Huff didn't just take a new coaching job. He copy-pasted an entire championship program from Marshall to Hattiesburg. Most coaching changes involve one person switching schools and gradually building a team over multiple years. This is entirely different. This is importing proven success wholesale.

The old rebuilding model is dead.

The Numbers Tell the Brutal Story

Marshall went 10-3 and won the Sun Belt championship.

Their quarterback, Braylon Braxton, threw 19 touchdowns with only 2 interceptions while leading a championship offense. Their system worked at the highest level against the same conference competition Southern Miss faces. Meanwhile, Southern Miss went 1-11 with quarterbacks who combined for 7 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

Same conference, completely different results.

The Copy-Paste Strategy in Action

Now Braxton is Southern Miss's quarterback.

Along with him came receivers Carl Chester and Josh Moten, plus defensive coordinator Jason Semore and special teams coordinator Johnathan Galante. These aren't just transfers. These are proven championship contributors who already know Huff's systems and have already dominated Sun Belt competition together.

Don't recruit and develop.

Why This Changes Everything

The transfer portal allows smart programs to skip the traditional rebuild cycle entirely.

Old model: Hire a coach, recruit high school players, install new systems, hope for improvement in year 3-4. New model: Import championship coach, championship players, championship systems, and compete immediately. Southern Miss didn't hire a coach. They acquired a championship program and changed the uniforms.

Expect bowl eligibility in year 1.

More on Southern Miss here.

Why Dan Mullen's "Blow It Up" Strategy At UNLV Will Change How College Football Teams Are Built

Most coaches inherit a successful program and play it safe.

Dan Mullen inherited an 11-3 UNLV team that just made their first Mountain West Championship Game. His response? He brought in 20+ Power Four transfers and essentially replaced the entire roster.

Here's why this "nuclear option" approach is either genius or insane:

The Old Way: Gradual Improvement

• Keep successful players

• Make small tweaks to systems

• Build chemistry slowly over years

• Hope momentum continues

Mullen's Way: Complete Transformation

• Replace 75% of the roster with elite transfers

• Create competition at every position

• Install new culture from day one

• Demand immediate excellence

The quarterback room tells the story perfectly.

Instead of rolling with returning senior Cameron Friel, Mullen added Anthony Colandrea (Virginia) and Alex Orji (Michigan). Three quarterbacks are fighting for one job. Most coaches avoid that chaos.

Mullen created it on purpose.

Why This Works:

When Jake Pope (Alabama/Georgia transfer) says, "Guys jelled really fast. I like the culture we have created," that's not luck. It's systematic culture building that Mullen perfected at Mississippi State and Florida.

The betting market agrees: UNLV's win total is set at 8.5 games—the highest in program history.

The Real Test:

How does a roster of mostly transfers handle adversity? Can players who barely know each other develop championship-level trust in one season?

We're about to find out.

UNLV paid Mullen $17.5 million to prove that talent + competition + culture beat continuity. If it works, every mid-major program will copy this blueprint.

If it fails, it becomes a cautionary tale about changing too much too fast.

Either way, college football just got a lot more interesting.

 We take a deeper dive into UNLV here.

THAT’S A WRAP

The old playbook is officially dead.

This week, we dissected four revolutionary approaches to team building in the transfer portal era:

• Kinne's culture-first model at Texas State,

• Gibson's 62-player experiment at Marshall,

• Huff's copy-paste championship strategy at Southern Miss, and

• Mullen's nuclear option at UNLV.

Each coach is betting their career on a completely different philosophy, but they're all asking the same question: Why wait three years to compete when you can import success immediately? The results will either validate the new model or serve as cautionary tales for programs tempted to abandon traditional rebuilding.

Tuesday brings our most anticipated release of the year: The 2025 Pre-Season Coaches Hot Seat Rankings Special Edition.