In just the span of the last few years the landscape of college athletics has dramatically changed, impacting football more than any other sport.

Letter of intent day for high school recruits once was the most significant milestone of the year when it came to building a football program. The players who signed on would for the most part be with your team the next four or five years. True, some would transfer but this was rare, as at the time transfers to another school were required to sit out one year. Players did not receive compensation, at least within the rules.

Now players are paid and permitted to transfer without penalty. Many shop their wares on an annual basis, some playing for as many as four schools during their college career. The professionalism of college athletes, commonly referred to as NIL, has had a huge disparate impact across college football. The elite programs have major sources of funds from which to pay highly skilled players. Occasionally a second tier program like Texas Tech has a billionaire oil and gas executive donating huge sums to their NIL fund to acquire good players, helping the Red Raiders become a Top ten team in 2025. Most other programs are not as fortunate.

Teams which are successful under this new process are able to retain most of their quality players, establish some continuity from year to year, and bring in transfers in order to fill in areas where they have roster weaknesses.

What does not appear to be a blueprint of success is bringing in 50, 60 or 70 new players to essentially construct a team from scratch. Bill Belichick won six Super Bowls in the NFL but when he tried that approach at North Carolina it has been a colossal failure.

At West Virginia the results have been similar. The Mountaineer roster consist of 41 seniors, and it is to be expected that many more will head out the door to greener pastures. So it is likely by necessity the roster for next season will need to be constructed in the same manner, risking similar results.

This is not to suggest that winning is not possible. Vanderbilt lost two thirds of their games the past 10 seasons, and Virginia had losing season the last six years, but both are winning in 2025. Let’s take a close look at how those success stories have played out and learn from them. WVU should consider hiring a general manager for the football program as many other Power Four schools have done to help navigate these changes.

THIS SATURDAY. The Mountaineers travel to Orlando for a Saturday afternoon matchup at Central Florida. The Knights have struggled thus far in losing all three conference games, but unlike WVU they have been competitive in all their losses and should hit the win column here.

CENTRAL FLORIDA 27, WEST VIRGINIA 13.