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UNIVERSITY PARK -- College football is screaming for leadership.
In the past couple of weeks, you've heard from the likes of James Franklin and Pat Kraft that "tampering is rampant," and "it's the wild, wild West."
It really wasn't that long ago that teams accepted bowl bids in late November or early December and then all but drew their shades until reporting to the bowl site.
Now, with the addition of the transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image and Likeness), not to mention a December signing day that previously didn't exist, coaches' heads are spinning.
Agents can legally contact players and their families, compounding the chaos.
Two weeks ago, Kraft and Franklin were in Las Vegas for an awards banquet with Olu Fashanu when an agent emailed a list of players he was shopping.
One happened to be a Penn State player who wasn't even in the portal, practically giving Kraft whiplash.
"They are putting the student-athletes in a really tough spot," he said. "I had a conversation with someone the other day, and they said, 'Listen, the rules that are being made are actually hurting the people that follow the rules.'''
Kenny Sanders and Alan Zemaitis, both of Penn State's personnel department, have heard rumors of high six-figure offers to recruits and/or transfers.
"We want players that want traditional things -- get a great education, come to a place where you can win a national championship and develop," Sanders said. "A couple dollars isn't going to lead to a lasting NFL career. Is NIL a factor? Absolutely. But at the end of the day, we're not going to bring in a player that is only driven by NIL. It doesn't make sense."
Everyone is looking for a better deal - either in playing status or NIL payments through collectives (that the programs and coaches pretty much run).
"There are agendas in every direction," Franklin said. "Agents, coaches, calling parents, calling high school coaches of your current team, it is rampant. All the reasons why we've had all these rules in place that now are not being enforced."
He added, "I think you're going to see more and more coaches leaving college football."
Of course, nobody feels sorry for coaches making $8 million annually, nor should they, but many of these people have invested their lives into the college game and represent the biggest brands in the sport.
Be it Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, Kirby Smart, Jim Harbaugh, Ryan Day. Google any of them, and they have a strong opinion on the state of college football.
UCLA coach Chip Kelly made news the other day when he said, "Football should be separate from the other sports, and we need to have a conference commissioner."
Kelly said just because UCLA is joining the Big Ten doesn't mean the Bruins' basketball and softball teams shouldn't still be playing Arizona.
He proposed a 64-team football conference for Power-5 teams and the same for the Group of 5.
But that still wouldn't solve the tampering and NIL offers through whatever channels. The nation's top-ranked recruit, Florida receiver Jeremiah Smith, did not commit until 9 p.m. Wednesday -- to Ohio State -- because he and his family were still sorting out NIL offers from Miami, Florida and Florida State.
Most other commitments were finalized 12 hours earlier.
Speaking of Florida State, no doubt it was snubbed by the CFP braintrust, which was unfortunate, but at the same time there's no question the Seminoles -- without their starting quarterback, who was injured late in the year -- are not as good as the other four teams in the field.
Now Florida State reportedly may sue the ACC to bolt the conference without mortgaging its future.
Next year will help solve the issue with the beginning of the 12-team playoff, which will give Penn State a better chance of crashing the party, even if it once again loses its biggest games.
The rising stakes are all the more reason the sport will need better leadership to govern all of its moving parts.
"The issue is, I don't know how to pull it back," Franklin said. "I think that's the challenge for the NCAA. I think that's the challenge for commissioners ... They're the only ones that have the power to do it right now."
Franklin said commissioners should gather, "lock the door ... and like literally A through Z, let's come up with a new model for college football because I don't think this is sustainable."
Kraft said Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti is working with NCAA president Charlie Baker, who took over last year after serving as the governor of Massachusetts.
"Sometimes it's nice to have an outside set of eyes on some of the issues that we have been ingrained with forever," Kraft said. "I think Gov. Baker is trying his hardest to figure it out. We have to work with them (NCAA). Tony has done a really good job of working behind the scenes with the other commissioners. I think it's not as easy to solve, but we know we have to fix it … There's just so many layers to it, though, and that becomes an inherent challenge."
Meanwhile, this great sport is crying out for help.
Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.