OTF Premium Recent Texas departures are a part of college football's volatile roster building process

[Steamboat Willie]

53 minutes ago, NothinButDaHorns34 said:

College football has become a business with NIL. If you aren’t producing like you are getting compensated then things don’t add up for the school to pay you that much. Texas has the money if they really want to keep the guys that are leaving, But chose to go a different route, Simple. 

At this point the NIL/portal landscape looks less like recruiting and more like a swap meet with Wi-Fi. Outside of a very small circle of guys who are functionally untouchable, almost everyone is available if the timing and the check clear. Agents aren’t “gauging interest” anymore — they’re circulating price lists. Personnel departments aren’t scouting in the traditional sense; they’re filtering options.

And the agent world? Let’s call it wildly inconsistent. Some operate like professionals. Others are still playing fantasy GM, floating numbers that have no connection to on-field production and hoping one school panics. The market does correct eventually, but not before a lot of absurd asks get laughed out of the room.

So when a solid-but-not-irreplaceable veteran walks, it’s rarely a meltdown. It’s arithmetic. A number came across the table that didn’t align with long-term priorities, so the staff reallocates and keeps moving. That money doesn’t disappear — it just gets reassigned to a different profile they believe offers more upside.

At the end of the day the question is simple: do you double down on what you already have, or do you repurpose that same budget into something you think can move the needle more? That choice isn’t personal, sentimental, or dramatic. It’s roster math.