Eli Drinkwitz and coaches across the nation juggle a lot in the midst of bowl prep

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

In the 2025 college football world, bowl season is now closely intertwined with the offseason.

As teams across the country prepare for their final games of the year, head coaches also have to worry about the teams of the future. During that bowl preparation, those coaches are juggling transfer portal conversations, early signing days, NIL deals, the coaching carousel, their athletes' final exams and a whole lot more.

It's made it nearly impossible to simply focus on coming out with a win in your bowl game, as this time of year feels more and more like free agency, with rosters in flux and teams being rebuilt.

"Obviously the bowl games being delayed as long as they are creates a little bit of angst for players. If they already have their minds made up that they want to transfer, so that's a little bit challenging," Mizzou football coach Eli Drinkwitz said.

That's the reason that around 10 programs around the nation decided to opt out of bowl season, altogether, so that they could focus on the concerns of the offseason.

Although opting out was never going to be the move that Coach Eli and his team made, he understand why other head coaches have chosen to do it. He added that now only having one transfer portal window has added to the stress of this pressure-filled month. The portal will open up for players on Jan. 2 and then remain open for 15 days. However, after that, it will slam shut, with no opportunity for teams to make additions for the rest of the season.

"I think the biggest challenge with the January-only portal is that you're going to have one crack at the egg. Once you get your roster set, it's set. There's no way to fix it, you know? So, it'll be interesting to see how everybody approaches spring football now moving forward with, you know, you got 105 guys and somebody gets injured, there's no going in the portal to find somebody. So, we'll see how that all plays out. Again, what we're being asked to do every day is a brand new," Drinkwitz said.

But, the college football calendar is just one of the many issues that is facing college football, at the moment.

Before the Tigers left Jacksonville, Coach Drinkwitz had a meeting with local media members and tackled all the issues that is 'hurting' college football, head-on.

In short, the leader of Mizzou football feels like there needs to be some sort of governing body or some set of rules that programs need to be following in the face of all the changes the sport has seen over the years. College football has come close to governance, with the proposed College Sports Commission Participation agreement, which would provide some oversight and rules in the wake of the House v. NCAA settlement. However, not every school in the country has put pen to paper on that agreement.

"There's a lot of coaches discussing it and and frustrated, in my opinion. I understand the national sentiment, because of the salary ranges of head coaches, that it feels like we're complaining. But we're really not. We're trying to sound warning bells. That's what I believe we're all trying to do is that there's a warning that that the system that we're in is really sick right now. College football is sick and...it's just showing signs of this thing really cracking moving forward. We need to get something under control," Drinkwitz said. "You know, the SCORE Act was something that that it looked like it was going to be a step in a direction. There is no perfect solution, but we have to get some sort of steps moving in that direction. I think we're all weighted with bated breath trying to wait on what's going to happen with this fifth-year lawsuit in Nashville, where you could have a flurry of of fifth year guys now be ineligible and that would just throw a completely new wrinkle in the system. You know, tampering is at the highest levels. There is no such thing as tampering. It's just because there's nobody's been punished for tampering. Everybody on my roster is being called. I had a dad call me and say that, and I called the head coaches at their schools that this schools, that this school and this school called and they are offering this much money and, you know... you're putting a lot of pressure on young men. You know, we're paying them as 1099 employees, a lot of money. We're not offering any type of retirement. We're not offering any type of health benefits. You know, and we've worked around a system and tried to create that as the system, instead of creating a functioning way of moving forward and making sure that it works for everybody. Whether that's collective bargaining, whether that's making them employees, whether that's anti-trust legislation that protects everybody, you know, the commissioner or the the SEC or the NCAA from lawsuits. Something needs to be done. Because, again, TV viewership may be at an all time high and that's awesome and gambling on sports may be at an all time high and that's great. I got no problem with that. But, what about the well-being of the student athlete? What about graduation rate? What about tax implications? What about handling and understanding financial literacy? What is their life going to look like after five years of college athletics? Is [their life] going to be better because they participated in college athletics, or could they be in a tougher situation? You know, a lot of us got into college athletics because we wanted to help young men grow and develop and I think we're still doing that mission. But, it's getting really hard because you used to talk about...Coach Saban used to talk about all the time creating value for yourself and when he talked about it, he wasn't just talking about value for the NFL. He was talking about creating value for yourself with a college degree and we've lost that aspect of it. These guys are going to create tremendous value for themselves playing the game of football and that's awesome. I love that these guys are getting paid. I love that last week these guys with their own money went out and bought gifts for Coyote Hill. I love that. That's awesome. But, my job also is to look at them in three or four years down the road and how many of them are in a better position because they've played football? If they've transferred four times and, you know, that's just the system that we've created. Not all freedom is good freedom."

Drinkwitz wants to make it clear that his concerns about the state of college football are not just self-serving. In fact, it's more about the well-being of his student-athletes.

"A lot of us got into college athletics because we wanted to help young men grow and develop," he said. "What about graduation rates? What about tax implications? What about handling and understanding financial literacy? What is their life going to look like after five years of college athletics? Is it going to be better because they participated in college athletics? Or could they be in a tougher situation?" 

Through all the madness, Mizzou will kickoff its game against No. 19 Virginia on Saturday, Dec. 27 at 6:30 p.m. CT. You can watch the game on KMIZ.

Watch ABC 17 Sports Director Nathalie Jones' full story on the state of college football on the ABC 17 SportsZone 'Road to Jacksonville' special on a special edition of ABC 17 News at 6:30 p.m.