Washington's Jedd Fisch Says OSU-Oregon Shows Value Of '$20 Million Rosters'

There are two sides to the debate over whether NIL and the transfer portal have helped or hurt the middle class of college football teams. On the one hand, there's Matt Rhule, head coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, who says that surprising upsets will become more common as programs like Vanderbilt poach recruits they didn't use to get.

READ: Matt Rhule Explains Why Alabama-Vanderbilt Type Upsets Will Become More Common

On the other hand, there's Washington Huskies head coach Jedd Fisch, who believes the "level playing field" won't come until there are limits to what teams can spend and similarly compensated rosters across Power 4 programs.

"The new world order of college football will allow us to be able to spend what other programs are spending, and when you have that opportunity it's going to be a much more of a level playing field than what it is right now in college football," Fisch said. "We all saw what the Ohio State-Oregon game looked like, and that was a battle of two $20 million rosters. I think what we're going to see is more battles of comparable compensated rosters and that will make it really cool to see what football looks like."

EUGENE, OREGON - OCTOBER 12: Quarterback Dillon Gabriel #8 of the Oregon Ducks runs for a touchdown against the Ohio State Buckeyes during the second half  at Autzen Stadium on October 12, 2024 in Eugene, Oregon.  (Photo by Tom Hauck/Getty Images)

Ohio State-Oregon An Expensive Matchup, But Fisch Has Plenty Of Issues At UW

It's unclear if Fisch was referring to the actual dollar value spent on their rosters by each of Ohio State and Oregon, or to the amount of money teams will be able to distribute with revenue sharing in future seasons. Regardless, it's obvious that both the Buckeyes and Ducks were able to direct a massive amount of NIL funding to improve their rosters this offseason.

Will Howard and Dillon Gabriel were arguably the two most coveted transfer portal quarterbacks after the 2023 season, and sure enough, both have proven to be worth the money. While Fisch is right to bemoan the roster improvements that top NIL distribution allows, if the 2024 college football season has shown anything, it's that upsets are possible from even the most unlikely sources.

If teams are smart with their spending, roster construction and game planning, the gap between big programs and mid-tier ones is smaller than it's ever been. The new revenue distribution rules will close that gap even further; when spending can be directly controlled by the schools, money might be a less significant factor in determining where top transfers wind up.

Ohio State and Oregon are likely two of the best three teams in college football this year, and not by accident. The first step for UW to return to its National Championship game highs though, isn't to worry about what those schools are doing, it's to not give up 40 points to Iowa.