Lincoln Riley Says Most Transfers In College Football Are Due To Money

The December 2024 transfer portal window has been frustrating, to say the least, for college football coaches, players and fans. Five-star players who were hyped by teams and coaches just a year ago routinely enter the portal every year, with some playing for three different programs in three different years.

Sometimes it’s over playing time, or bad fit with coaches or schemes. But according to USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley, more often than not, all it comes down to is money.

Riley was at his media availability on Wednesday and answered a question by beat reporter Luca Evans about the portal and decision-making by both sides being based on money.

“Yeah, I mean they have on both sides,” Riley said. “I’ve told you guys every school has your budget and this is what we got to spend. And you’ve gotta decide, you know, it’s tough because we’re not completely professional when a lot of these guys were signed it wasn’t in a professional manner, it was sitting in their living rooms, like relationships, you know it was program, it was academics, it was development, it was all those things.

That’s what’s made it tough for everybody involved, players, coaches, schools, everybody.”

USC Trojans head coach Lincoln Riley. (Photo by James Black/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Lincoln Riley Explains Problems With Roster Building In The NIL Era

Roster building in the NIL era is wildly different than in years past, Riley acknowledged, and nobody really knows how to manage it all. 

“I don’t think any of us could have predicted, I guess, just how quickly it has changed, how fundamentally it has changed,” Riley said. “I think the whole college football world is trying to adapt right now, which is, honestly, I think for everybody a little difficult to keep up with.”

“Are we adapting? Certainly,” Riley continued. “Are some of the decisions we made a few years ago — would we have made those in this current climate? No, we definitely would have done different things.”

“Now, you overpay for the wrong person,” he acknowledged, “it affects every other one on the roster.”

As if there were any doubt, we’ve officially entered the professional era of college football. Teams have to evaluate roster needs against budget, deal with dozens of players leaving every year if they can get better offers, then negotiate to keep certain players at their programs and hope they develop.

It’s a mess, and it’s only getting worse every year. Nobody’s to blame here, but it’s an unsustainable problem. Professionals have contracts, providing teams more certainty. But college athletes now have unrestricted transfers. Something’s going to have to give.