The divide in college football between the haves and have nots is about to become uncrossable. The elites no longer have to put any effort into recruiting. With NIL and the portal they can cherry-pick a few five stars for signing day and then sit back and observe the players the other teams scouted, recruited, signed, and put in a lot of money and effort training. They get to see which ones can hack it at the D1 level and then come in and offer more money than the other school can possibly match and steal them away. Now the small school is short their best players and out all the time, money, and effort on developing them. After a few years of this the fans of the small school are going to give up when they realize their school has no chance of ever competing for anything meaningful. They'll find other things to spend their time and money on.