JB Talking Sports

College football is at a crossroads.

For decades, the sport thrived because it was built on tradition, rivalries, school pride, and the unique connection between players, universities, and fan bases. Today, however, the game is changing at a pace that threatens its very foundation.

Let me be clear: I believe players should be able to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness. If a coach, university, television network, or apparel company can make millions from college football, players deserve an opportunity to benefit as well.

But what we have now isn't a system.

It's chaos.

The transfer portal has essentially created unrestricted free agency. NIL has become recruiting inducement in many cases. Rosters are rebuilt every offseason. Coaches are forced to spend as much time retaining their own players as they do recruiting new ones. Fans struggle to form connections with athletes who may be gone a year later.

What college football desperately needs is leadership.

The sport needs a commissioner.

Not a conference commissioner. Not another committee. One commissioner with the authority to establish and enforce rules that apply across the sport.

A commissioner could help create:

• Standardized transfer windows

• Clear NIL regulations

• Revenue-sharing guidelines

• Contract structures for players

• Competitive balance measures

• Uniform eligibility standards

• Enforcement mechanisms with real consequences

Most importantly, college football needs a collective bargaining agreement between the athletes and the institutions. The reality is that players are no longer operating in the same environment that existed ten years ago. The rules must evolve to reflect that reality while still protecting the traditions that make college football special.

Without structure, the gap between the richest programs and everyone else will continue to grow. Smaller schools will become little more than developmental programs for larger schools. Rivalries, loyalty, and continuity will continue to erode.

As for who should lead it?

I believe Nick Saban would be an outstanding choice.

He understands the old model. He understands the new model. He commands respect from coaches, administrators, television executives, and players alike. More importantly, he's one of the few voices in the sport who has consistently spoken about preserving college football while adapting to change.

The goal shouldn't be to turn back the clock.

The goal should be to save college football from becoming something its fans no longer recognize.

Because if we don't establish leadership and structure soon, NIL and the transfer portal won't destroy the game overnight.

They'll slowly change it into something entirely different.

And that would be a loss for everyone who loves college football.

My top SEC quarterbacks heading into 2026 season

Baby girl said “ what is the sign for? We don’t have a dog.” Lol

Here is Jim Baxter’s first Big Board Assessment for the Best Players Available in the 2026 NFL Draft — based on talent ceiling, positional value, production, and NFL readiness. I leaned into a classic football-mind approach: who projects to dominate on Sundays, not just who had the best college stats.

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Jim Baxter’s Top Players – 2026 NFL Draft 🏈

Tier 1 – Franchise Cornerstones ⭐

Fernando Mendoza (QB, Indiana)

Why #1: Franchise quarterbacks change everything. Mendoza has elite processing speed, arm strength, and pocket command. He looks like a 10-year starter the moment he walks into an NFL facility. Raiders will be grateful to oick him No.1 overall.

Caleb Downs (S, Ohio State)

Why #2: The most instinctive defensive player in the class. Plays fast, diagnoses faster. Reminds scouts of elite hybrid safeties who can erase mistakes across the field. I love this kid.. He is the best defensive mind in the draft. Would love to see my Steelers get him, but that ain’t gonna happen. He won’t be available if I were the Dallas Cowboys I would try to get him a number 10 if he’s there.

Rueben Bain Jr. (EDGE, Miami)

Why #3: NFL body, NFL motor, NFL production. Bain has the burst and power to become a double-digit sack player early in his career.

Jeremiyah Love (RB, Notre Dame)

Why #4: Complete running back. Vision, speed, hands, toughness. Every era still has room for a back who can control the tempo of a game.

Francis Mauigoa
(OT, Miami)

Why #5: Premium position, elite size and athleticism. Protecting the quarterback never goes out of style.

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Tier 2 – Impact Starters Early 🔥

Carnell Tate (WR, Ohio State)

Polished route runner with reliable hands. NFL-ready skill set.

David Bailey (EDGE, Texas Tech)

Explosive pass rusher who wins one-on-one battles consistently. I’m thinking the Jets get him a number two.

Makai Lemon (WR, USC)

Smooth separator who creates problems for defensive backs at every level.

Dillon Thieneman (S, Oregon)

Ballhawk instincts. Always around the football.

Arvell Reese (LB, Ohio State)

Modern linebacker build with sideline-to-sideline speed. Jess should probably take this guy at number two, but more than likely, we’ll go with David Bailey from Texas Tech.

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Tier 3 – High Upside First-Round Talent 📈

Omar Cooper Jr. (WR, Indiana)

Big target with strong hands and red-zone value.

Sonny Styles (LB, Ohio State)

Versatile defender who can cover, blitz, and play downhill.

Jordyn Tyson (WR, Arizona State)

Deep threat ability that stretches defenses vertically.

Mansoor Delane (CB, LSU)

Physical press corner who matches up well with bigger receivers.

https://jamesbaxtersite.wordpress.com/2026/02/11/novue-review-brother/

NOVUE REVIEW: BROTHER I watched Brother tonight, and it was one of those films that should have worked. The premise is strong: the death of a troubled, abusive sibling pulls a fractured family back to their childhood ho…

Some sports stories hurt more than others—and this one really does.

Legendary American skier Lindsey Vonn saw her Olympic comeback end in the most brutal way imaginable, crashing early in the women’s downhill at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics and undergoing surgery to stabilize a leg fracture. That alone is heartbreaking. What makes it tragic is the context: this was a comeback built on courage, grit, and pure love of competition. She wasn’t chasing nostalgia—she was chasing the mountain again, fully aware of the risks, competing on a previously torn ACL, daring to believe one more time.

Sports aren’t just about medals. They’re about moments like this—when an athlete refuses to let age, injury, or fear write the final chapter. Vonn didn’t fail Sunday. She showed us what resilience actually looks like. The crash ends the run, but it doesn’t touch the legacy. If anything, it adds another layer to it.

College football has officially entered the era of roster management — and the transfer portal is now just as important as high school recruiting.

Programs that adapt thrive.
Programs that don’t fall behind.

Nowhere is that more obvious in the SEC than with Lane Kiffin.

While some coaches once treated the portal as a backup plan, Kiffin embraced it as a primary weapon — and now the results are reshaping the conference.

The Transfer Portal = Instant Impact

The old model of waiting years for recruits to develop is fading fast.

The portal allows teams to:

• Fill immediate roster holes
• Add proven, game-ready players
• Replace departures quickly
• Compete every season instead of rebuilding

In today’s college football, speed matters.

And Kiffin has mastered it.

From Ole Miss to the Top of the Portal Rankings

After turning the Ole Miss Rebels into one of the most portal-savvy programs in the nation, Kiffin has taken it even further.

Now, he’s leading the charge at LSU Tigers — and currently holds the number one transfer portal class in the country.

That’s not just impressive.

That’s a statement.

It shows just how powerful the portal has become when paired with:

• Strong NIL resources
• Clear opportunity to play
• A coach who knows how to recruit veterans

Instead of waiting on freshmen, LSU is loading up on experienced SEC-ready talent.

The Ripple Effect Across the SEC

The success of portal-heavy roster building is forcing the entire Southeastern Conference to adapt.

Coaches now realize:

If you’re not aggressive in the portal, you’re falling behind. Case in point, Clemson and Dabo Swinney. Look how far the Tigrrs have fallen because Debo has been unwilling to embrace the portal.

Expect:

✔ Faster rebuilds
✔ More roster turnover
✔ Bigger NIL-driven moves
✔ Immediate pressure to win

The SEC is becoming a hybrid of recruiting and free agency — and Kiffin is once again ahead of the curve.

The New Reality of College Football

High school recruiting will always matter.

But the transfer portal is now the great equalizer — and often the difference between good teams and championship contenders.

Lane Kiffin saw it coming.
He embraced it early.
And now he’s dominating it.

Whether fans love it or hate it, this is the future of college football.

And the SEC is being reshaped in real time.

After a tumultuous 2025 season that ended with a franchise-worst 3–14 record, the Las Vegas Raiders enter a pivotal offseason. The organization is on the brink of combining two seismic decisions — naming a new head coach and drafting the next potential face of the franchise — that could define a new era in Raider Nation. 

Multiple reliable sources report that Klint Kubiak, currently the offensive coordinator of the Seattle Seahawks, is expected to become the Raiders’ next head coach after Super Bowl LX concludes. He has interviewed twice with Las Vegas and is widely considered the favorite to land the job, with both local and national outlets indicating a deal is close to being finalized. 

Kubiak, 38, is not your typical first-time head coach. He comes from a strong coaching lineage — the son of former Super Bowl-winning head coach Gary Kubiak — and has built a reputation as an innovative offensive mind, particularly in quarterback development and RPO-heavy systems that emphasize play-action and creative passing concepts. 

In Las Vegas’ case, Kubiak’s appeal isn’t just about offensive creativity — it’s about alignment with the team’s future QB. With the Raiders holding the No. 1 pick in the 2026 NFL Draft and heavy expectations to select Fernando Mendoza — the Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback from Indiana — the head coaching hire doubles as a quarterback development decision. 

NFL analysts who have considered the potential fit see considerable synergy between Mendoza’s style of play and Kubiak’s offensive philosophy. Mendoza’s comfort in shotgun, quick reads, and an RPO-friendly attack could mesh well with the Raiders’ plans to build an offense around speed, rhythm passing, and Y-doctrine elements rather than conservative pro-style drops. 

One former NFL quarterback publicly praised the hypothetical pairing, calling it “the perfect head coach to develop Fernando Mendoza,” noting that weapons like tight end Brock Bowers and running back Ashton Jeanty — still core pieces on the roster — could thrive alongside a rookie quarterback and creative play-caller. 

What This Hire Would Mean for Raiders Football

1. A Clear Offensive Identity
The Raiders enter 2026 with one of the league’s most open offensive questions. Kubiak’s expected arrival suggests the franchise wants to adopt a modern, quarterback-friendly system from Day 1 — one that prioritizes building around Mendoza rather than asking him to conform to a rigid structure. 

2. A Development-First Era
Recent Raiders head coaching cycles have been short-lived; the team fired Pete Carroll after just one season. Bringing in a younger offensive coach like Kubiak — someone who has worked under high-caliber staff and has a background in nurturing quarterbacks — signals a shift toward long-term development rather than quick fixes. 

3. A New Culture With A Fresh Vision
Hiring a head coach who has never led a franchise before always carries risk — especially for a team hungry for stability. Yet, the upside is clear: Kubiak combines cutting-edge offensive acumen with a reputation for quarterback trust and adaptability. If he can marry that with the Raiders’ young talent and a rebuilt offensive line, the results could elevate Las Vegas back into postseason contention within a few years. 

A Draft That Could Define the Franchise

Ultimately, the Raiders’ 2026 draft will be remembered for two intertwined decisions:
• Who leads the team as head coach?
• Who leads the offense at quarterback?

If Klint Kubiak is indeed confirmed as head coach and the Raiders select Fernando Mendoza No. 1 overall, Las Vegas will be staking its future on youth, offensive innovation, and continuity. That’s a dramatic swing away from the team’s direction in recent years and could legitimately mark the beginning of a new Raiders identity — one built around dynamic offense and sustained development rather than one-year gambles. 

College football is at a tipping point — and everyone can feel it.

The transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) were created to empower athletes. And in many ways, they have. Players finally have freedom of movement and the ability to profit from their talent, something that should have happened long ago.

But without structure?

The sport is slowly drifting toward chaos.

Right now, college football operates in a gray area — part amateur, part professional — with no real system to balance player rights, program stability, and competitive fairness. Schools are losing rosters overnight. Coaches are re-recruiting their own teams every offseason. Boosters are essentially bidding for players. And fans are watching their favorite athletes jump ship year after year.

This is why college football desperately needs a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

A CBA would bring order where there is currently none.

Through a formal agreement between players and governing bodies like National Collegiate Athletic Association, the sport could establish:

• Clear NIL standards and limits
• Transfer portal windows that actually make sense
• Contract-like commitments for players receiving major NIL deals
• Revenue-sharing models that benefit athletes fairly
• Roster stability that protects programs and fans

Right now, NIL is the Wild West.

Some players make millions. Others get nothing. Deals are often tied to transferring, not performance or brand value. Schools with richer collectives have massive advantages, creating an uneven playing field that feels more like free agency than college sports.

And the portal?

It’s become a revolving door.

Instead of development, patience, and team culture, the system rewards instant movement. One bad season, one depth chart change, and players are gone — sometimes multiple times in a career.

A CBA wouldn’t take away player freedom.

It would protect it.

It would ensure athletes are compensated fairly while also setting reasonable boundaries so the sport can function as a competition — not an auction.

Other major sports leagues thrive because of collective bargaining. It creates balance, fairness, and long-term stability.

College football can’t keep pretending it’s different.

The money is too big.
The stakes are too high.
And the current system is unsustainable.

Without a CBA, the portal will keep spiraling, NIL will keep inflating, and the gap between the haves and have-nots will keep growing.

If college football wants to preserve what makes the sport special — rivalries, loyalty, development, and true competition — it’s time to bring structure to the new era.

Freedom with no framework leads to disorder.

And right now, college football is feeling the effects.

https://www.tmz.com/2026/01/30/college-football-coaching-legend-lou-holtz-receiving-hospice-care-reports/

College Football Legend Lou Holtz In Hospice Care, Reports Lou Holtz, is reportedly facing his toughest battle yet.