College Football

Oregon OC blames LeBron James for college football 'superteams'

Updated Dec. 13, 2022 10:44 a.m. ET

College football's landscape is rapidly changing.

The emergence of NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals has now put player empowerment at the forefront of the sport, and as a result, coaching, recruiting and the transfer portal have undergone major overhauls.

The transfer portal has likely seen the largest shift. Players jump from program to program, and the termination of a prior rule that required players to sit out one year following a transfer has significantly increased them. Nebraska, USC, South Carolina, Oklahoma – all have transfer QBs at the helm of their offenses, and that's just the surface of teams with new-look rosters.

But not everyone supports the makeover college football has undergone.

"This generation of kids, they saw LeBron [James] take his talents to Miami," Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said, via Sports Illustrated. "They wanna be on a 'superteam.'"

Blaming James for the influx of "superteams" in another sport may seem like a stretch, and in "Undisputed" host Skip Bayless' mind, it's completely off-course – especially if NIL is being wrapped into it.

"NIL is the greatest thing to happen to college football, or college anything," Bayless said Wednesday. "Because for years and years, the coaches and the administration took advantage of these kids. Especially in the violent game of pro football, because you're going to die for the cause … and get your knees wrecked and you can't play pro football trying to win games for a college that's not paying you any more than room, board and tuition. … I had no problem with LeBron leaving Cleveland."

Division II Hall of Fame inductee Shannon Sharpe sided with his cohost on the issue.

"These guys might not make it in [the pros]," he said. "But they might have the opportunity to have a couple of hundred thousand dollars to springboard them … and hold them over until they can go out into the real world.

"I don't have a problem with [players transferring], because coaches have been doing it for the longest time. Brian Kelly's done it twice: Remember he left Cincinnati right before the bowl game, and Florida beat the brakes off of them in the bowl game. Then he did again, went to LSU, and left Notre Dame high-and-dry!"

Fox Sports college football analyst Joel Klatt didn't concur with Dillingham either.

LeBron to Miami created culture shift in college superteams

Joel Klatt joins Colin Cowherd to discuss Oregon OC Kenny Dillingham's comments blaming "superteams" on LeBron James' move to Miami.

"I think that's a stretch," he said regarding the comment. "I don't think that we can sit here and blame LeBron when that's more of a cultural shift. … In our culture, we navigate where we're most comfortable. … We get into new cycles that only benefit our new frame of mind. It's our entire culture.

"And the transfer portal, where is a kid supposed to go? Where it's most difficult? That doesn't [make sense]. Us becoming rigid in our own silos doesn't make culture better."