Adam Breneman on the Transfer Portal, NIL, & Why the College Football Playoff Format Is Broken

Summary

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Tranquilo Sports Talk

Episode: Adam Breneman on the Transfer Portal, NIL, & Why the College Football Playoff Format Is Broken
Date: March 10, 2026
Host: Stay Tranquilo Network
Guest: Adam Breneman (former Penn State/UMass player, coach, broadcaster)

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Episode Overview

This episode features a lively barbershop-style discussion with Adam Breneman, diving into three pressing issues in college football: the chaos and impact of the transfer portal, the role of NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) on the college game, and why the current College Football Playoff (CFP) format is broken. Delivering sharp Miami flavor, bold takes, and real talk, the crew explores how these evolving factors are reshaping the sport, from player movement to the meaning of bowl games.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Adam Breneman’s Background and Journey (01:06–03:05)

• Penn State Roots and Early Success: Adam recounts his journey: “Played at Penn State...one of the top recruits...when you’re 16, 17, 18 and everyone tells you how great you are, you think you got it all figured out.” (01:57, Breneman)
• Facing Adversity: After setbacks, he transferred to UMass and later coached at Arizona State under Herm Edwards. “We all got fired at ASU. And then I, like anyone does, pivoted to media.” (02:21, Breneman)
• Broadcasting Move: He’s now a prominent college football broadcaster, having even called FIU games — “It’s been a fun journey since then...I called an FIU game this year...but no, Willie Simmons doing a great job there.” (02:52, Breneman)

The Transfer Portal: Boon or Chaos? (03:05–05:01)

• The Portal’s Positive Impact:
  “...the portal has been a good thing for college football and a good thing for the players. Think about some of these guys who had challenging careers and got another shot at making their career great.” (03:31, Breneman)
• Need for Tweaks:
  “We've gone too far in the direction of the players. Now we have guys...at seven different schools over seven years. It’s not good for anybody.” (03:40, Breneman)
• A Balanced Fix:
  Both host and Breneman agree a one-time free transfer, with grad exceptions, strikes a better balance: “...keep the players allowed to transfer one time, but bring it back to the middle...should have to sit out some kind of penalty.” (03:54, Breneman) “If you want to transfer again, it goes back to...you got to wait a year.” (04:14, Host)

NIL’s Effect on the Game (05:01–05:46)

• The Good Side of NIL:
  “...because of NIL, you have these guys staying a little bit longer in school. So what we’re watching on Saturdays is a better product.” (05:21, Breneman)
• Retaining Talent and Parity:
  “You have guys like Dante Moore who could go to the NFL...but he decides to stay...make $6 million. So as a college football fan, the product’s even better.” (05:08, Breneman)
• Competitive Balance:
  “...parity makes it even more competitive. That’s why you have schools like Texas Tech and Indiana...winning the national championship and some powerhouses struggling...” (05:39, Breneman)
• Notable Quote (with Miami twist):
  “As Dolphins fans, we like to think that Dante Moore went back to school because he didn’t want to be a Jet.” (05:46, Dolphins Fan) “That’s probably why. $6 million in Oregon to go be a Jet. I’m picking Oregon every time.” (05:51, Breneman)

The (Broken) College Football Playoff Format (06:00–08:44)

• Notre Dame “Snub” Controversy:
  “I got a serious issue with what happened to Notre Dame...if you’re going to have them in the playoff for the...rankings leading up to the finals...then just booting them out...it’s just absurd.” (06:13–06:40, Breneman)
• Call for Reform:
  “I think I'd be a fan of maybe going to 16, expanding a little bit. I’m not a fan of 20-plus teams in the playoff.” (06:55, Breneman)
• Preserving the Value of Every Game:
  “...the reason college football has better TV ratings than the NBA Finals...is because every single game in college football matters.” (06:58, Breneman) “When you create more of something, you dilute the value...You don’t want to make the games less important by allowing 35 teams in the playoff.” (07:22, Breneman)

Group of Five (G5) and Bowl Game Evolution (07:36–10:38)

• Group of Five Teams in the CFP:
  Host: “There’s a big conversation around the G5 spot...it opens the door for FIU.” (07:54, Host) “I’ve said for a while that I think there should be a group of five playoff...I got a lot of hate for that on social media...but more football for the group of five is better. I’d be a fan of putting one team in the...12-team playoff and the rest have a playoff.” (08:03–08:36, Breneman)
• Double Playoff System:
  “...let them compete in the big dance with the top teams and then also have a group of five system that works.” (08:44, Breneman)
• Bowl Games Losing Significance:
  “...bowls used to matter more, no doubt...now...because of the playoffs...and the NIL stuff and the transfer portal...you’ve got a bunch of people opting out...That’s like the one thing that I miss the most...” (09:27, Host) “...those bowl games are important, man. And I really think there’s no one — if you really think the players don’t want to win those games, you haven’t been in a locker room...conference championships still matter, bowl games still matter.” (10:09, Breneman)
• Scheduling Frustration:
  “How do we make sure...the time to the national championship game isn’t two months?...January 25th is, like, the national championship in 27. I think that’s insane.” (10:38–10:46, Host and Breneman)

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Memorable Quotes

• “We all got fired at ASU. And then I, like anyone does, pivots to media.” — Adam Breneman (02:21)
• “There’s no reason a player should be having at seven different schools over seven years. It’s not good for anybody.” — Adam Breneman (03:40)
• “$6 million in Oregon to go be a Jet. I’m picking Oregon every time.” — Adam Breneman (05:51)
• “Every single game in college football matters...If you lose one...it impacts your entire season.” — Adam Breneman (06:58)
• “Letting [G5] compete in the big dance with the top teams and then also having a group of five system that works.” — Adam Breneman (08:44)
• “Those bowl games are important, man...conference championships still matter, bowl games still matter.” — Adam Breneman (10:09)

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Notable Timestamps

• 01:06: Episode introduction and Adam Breneman’s Miami shoutout
• 01:57: Adam’s journey from Penn State standout to broadcaster
• 03:31: The pros and cons of the transfer portal
• 05:01: NIL’s impact on player retention and game quality
• 06:13: Critique of the College Football Playoff selection process
• 06:58: Why every regular season college football game matters
• 07:54: Debating G5 access to the playoff & separate playoff ideas
• 09:27: Discussion on bowl games losing their luster
• 10:38: Frustration with late national championship scheduling

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Episode Tone & Style

• Barbershop Energy: Unfiltered, friendly, and steeped in Miami sports culture.
• Balanced Analysis: Both critical and appreciative of change; driven by insider knowledge and fan perspective.
• Miami Flair: Local references, Dolphins jabs, and FIU love woven throughout.

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TL;DR

Adam Breneman unpacks why the transfer portal and NIL have both improved and complicated college football, calls out the CFP for inconsistency and dilution, and longs for the days when bowl games truly mattered. The hosts riff on solutions that keep both tradition and evolution in mind—all in the confident, community-focused style that defines Miami sports talk.

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Transcript

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[Host]

All right, all right, all right. We are here live in San Fran, and we are joined by Adam Brennaman. How you doing, my man?

[Adam Brennaman]

Doing good. Thanks for having me, guys. I love this setup. One of the best setups I've seen right here with the Miami setup.

[Host]

Yeah, yeah. And listen, like I told you before, we're only talking FIU today. All right, let's go.

[Adam Brennaman]

Fiu, man. FIU football.

[Host]

Oh, give. Give us a pause up.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah. What is that? I don't know what that was. Is that.

[Host]

Is that.

[Adam Brennaman]

What's that? You. All three of them did the. Paul,

[Host]

let me see, let me see. There are only three of us here. But no, listen, like, thank you for joining us. And, you know, 22 is that I'm a big FI guy, yada, yada. My brother went to Penn State.

[Adam Brennaman]

Oh, cool.

[Host]

So I kind of. Kind of want to talk a little bit about that, your, you know, playing career and obviously, you know, what happened with you and what led you to essentially joining the broadcast space. Tell us a little bit, A little bit about it.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah. So played at Penn State, as you said, was one of the top recruits in the high school coming out, went to Penn State. You know, when you're 16, 17, 18 years old, and everyone tell you, tells you how great you are, you think you got it all figured out, like, life's going to be really easy. But, you know, had some adversity in my career. Went to UMass, sat through Penn State, had a lot of success there. Spent some time coaching at Arizona State. Was the tight ends coach there for Herm Edwards, Antonio Pierce and those guys at asu. Marvin Lewis was on staff. We all got fired at asu. And then I, like anyone does, pivots the media.

[Host]

Yeah,

[Adam Brennaman]

yeah, no doubt. Yeah. We had Jaden. I mean that when I was at asu, we had a. We had a star studded roster. We had Jaden Daniels, Ricky Piersall, Rashad White, Johnny Wilson, Jalen Conyers, all these guys that played in the NFL. They all transferred to other schools and had success other places anyway, but got in the media and it's been a fun journey since then. And I built a following and do broadcasting. As I said, I called an FIU game this year, which I don't. Don't remember a lot about it, but no, no, Willie Simmons doing a great job there. So I do want to say that in case FIU fans come at me, but yeah, it's been a fun.

[Host]

I'm gonna send them after you. All right. I'm gonna, I'm gonna clip this and I'm gonna send them out. I actually want to ask because obviously, like you mentioned, the transfer, the transfer portal, it's. It is. It really has become really crazy. What are your thoughts about it? Like, do you think. Do you think it's good or do you think it's like it needs tweaking? Like, what do you think about it? Like, I have my, my thoughts in terms of, like, where it's the good and the bad. Everything's got pros and cons, but yeah,

[Adam Brennaman]

the portal has been a good thing for college football and a good thing for the players. Think about some of these guys who had challenging careers in college and got the chance to transfer and get another, another shot at making their career great. I mean, to ask a high school kid to make the right decision every time when he's 17 years old to pick the right school. Yeah, it's challenging, but when we have. We've gone too far in the direction of the players. Now we have guys. There's no reason a player should be having. At seven different schools over seven years. It's not good for anybody. Yeah. So I'd be a fan of bringing, of keeping the portal. Keep the players allowed, being allowed to transfer one time, but bring it back to the middle a little bit where these players can't just transfer three times with no penalty. You should be. You should have to sit out some kind of penalty. But I'm a fan of kind of the freedom We've given players, players in college sports.

[Host]

It's. It's kind of like. Like one of the best, I guess, like, fixes that I've seen is that, yeah, like, you get one unlimited transfer, and then if you want to transfer again, it goes back to. You got the wait a year.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah. Unless you're a graduate. Unless you're a graduate and you can accept just like the old rules. So I'd be a fan of that.

[Host]

I think it works. And then like, you see stuff like. Like everything. Funny enough with Miami, with getting Mensa. Right. Like, that was, you know, he essentially signed with Duke.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah.

[Host]

And then he's like, now he's like, nope, you know, I'm heading to Miami. So, like, it's a lot of craziness. There's. It is a lot of good. And it's really.

[Adam Brennaman]

It's.

[Host]

It's made college football, like the parody in the league, way more competitive. I mean, the fact that you have Indiana winning the national championship right now, like, things like that are really good for the sport. But I do think, like, it's like toeing the line of, like, getting. It can go down a dangerous path.

[Adam Brennaman]

Well, you also have some of the benefits of NIL and the portal where the sport of college football, the product on the field has gotten better because you have guys like Dante Moore who could go to the NFL and be probably a top two round draft pick, but he decides to stay in College for one more year, make $6 million. But as a college football fan, the product's even better on the field. Yeah. Because now Dante Moore is in school one more year. So because of nil, you have these guys staying a little bit longer in school. So what we're watching on Saturdays is a better product. So those guys get to develop. It's more competitive. And then the parody, as you mentioned, makes it even more competitive. That's why you have schools like Texas Tech and Indiana who traditionally have not been in there winning the national championship and making the cops playoff and some of the powerhouses struggling to be. To be good year for year.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Dolphins Fan]

As Dolphins fans, we like to think that Dante Moore went back to school because he didn't want to be a Jet.

[Adam Brennaman]

No doubt. No, I mean, that's. That's probably why. 6 million in Oregon to go be a Jet. I'm picking Oregon every time.

[Host]

100%.

[Dolphins Fan]

Well, you kind of touched on the playoffs. I want to get your thoughts about kind of the. The playoff layout altogether. I kind of think Notre Dame got screwed not because of Miami because of Alabama. Yeah, but talk about the format and then talk about the, you know, the results. Obviously Miami losing Indiana.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah, I got it. I got a serious issue with what happened to Notre Dame. Not because of that. I'm necessarily convicted that they should have been in the playoff. But if you're going to have them in the playoff for the. All the rankings leading up to the

[Host]

finals,

[Adam Brennaman]

it's just absurd. I'm like, I'm not even saying they should have been in over Miami or Alabama. I just mean like the whole system of the playoff ranking show and then like the last one just booting them out of playoff. Yeah.

[Dolphins Fan]

You said they deserve it all year.

[Adam Brennaman]

Crazy. And now you're saying they don't. Yeah. So it's. Yeah, I'm not a fan of that. I will say. I mean, I think I'd be a fan of maybe going to 16, expanding a little bit. I'm not a fan of getting to 20 plus teams in the playoff.

[Host]

I think we don't need Mars Madness for sure.

[Adam Brennaman]

But think about this. One of the reasons that college football is such a powerful sport, the reason that college football has better TV ratings than the NBA Finals. So a college football game between Alabama and Auburn will have better ratings than a five, than game five of the NBA Finals. The reason is because every single game in college football matters. It makes a difference. If you lose one of those games, it impacts your entire season. Yeah. And I'm a fan of expansion, but at some point, what happens when you create more of something, you delete, you dilute the value of everything else and everything else is less valuable. So you don't want to make the games less important by allowing 35 teams in the country a playoff where then if you lose week four, week five, week six, you're like, man, we can still make the playoff.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah. I've kind of sticking with the playoffs. Obviously, it's a big, Really a big conversation around the G5 spot. Right. Or like the, you know, the automatic. Obviously I'm biased. I love the G5 spot because in the sense of like one day, you know, it opens the door for FIU to get in there.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah.

[Host]

What do you think about it? Do you think they should or do you think that? Well, especially if they expand, I guess they'll still keep it, but.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah.

[Host]

What are your thoughts on that?

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah, I'm, I've said for a while that I think there should be a group of five playoff, like and kind of like have them compete with each other. I got a lot of a Lot of hate for that on social media, fans saying like people don't like that.

[Host]

My dad was probably in your mental.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah, people were killing me for it. And I guess maybe the thing I didn't consider was like this, the ability for a group of five team to compete at the highest level. Like yeah, it's just really having two different leagues at that point. But I do think that more football for the group of five is better and give them a chance. So you know, I'd be a fan of putting one team in the, in the, in the 12 team playoff and the rest of them have a playoff. I don't know what it looks like, man.

[Host]

I kind of like that.

[Adam Brennaman]

I would be a fan of letting them compete in the big dance with the top teams and then also having a group of five system that. That works.

[Host]

Yeah. Because like if you look at it, and I get the argument also. Right. But you look at, at, you know, the JME Oregon game wasn't really close. They still dropped 34 points on Oregon and next week Texas Tech dropped zero.

[Adam Brennaman]

You know, I think we can all agree that we don't need two of them in the playoff though.

[Host]

Yes. And listen, you can blame the ACC for that one. You can blame them for that. But I actually like that because I do think that a G5 Versa should have a representative in the concert world playoffs. They're all division one, you know what I mean? But I like the idea of, you know, kind of having another G5 playoff too. Like almost like the nil or not nil. What's the one in March Madness? That's technically the second NIT.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah.

[Host]

And a bunch of P4 teams playing that too. You know what I mean? So I think that's thing but also like one of the things that I miss about college football in the sense of it's still there, but balls used to matter more, no doubt. And I miss and like they still matter to teams like fiu. Right. Like I went to, went to the first Responders bowl in Dallas and it was. They're always a blast and they're always awesome. But like I feel like because of the playoffs and because the nil stuff and the transportal, obviously you've got a bunch of people opting out and then you have people that, you know, don't want to get hurt in these games. That's like the one thing that I miss the most of. Like, you know, even if you didn't make the playoffs or at the time the BCS take four, those games still matter to Almost everybody.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah, no doubt. And you got to think about the development of the players, giving them more opportunities to have practice and to have reps. Those bowl games are important, man. And I really think there's no one. If you really think that the players don't want to win those games, you haven't been in awkward. Like, everyone wants to win. Conference championships still matter. Bowl games still matter. I just think it's a matter of figuring out the scheduling more than anything else, like, keeping the bowl games. But how do we. How do we make sure that the last game of the regular season isn't, and then the time to the national championship game isn't. Two months.

[Host]

Yeah.

[Adam Brennaman]

It's just way too long to get to that point.

[Host]

Then they push it back even further this year.

[Adam Brennaman]

Like, January 25th is, like, the national championship in 27.

[Host]

I think that's insane.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah. Wow. So not a fan of it.

[Host]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Adam Brennaman]

Yeah.

[Dolphins Fan]

I think what makes, like, March Madness so special is, like, every game could be your last. So I think you're right about the whole, like, no one cared if it was the Rose Bowl, Orange Bowl, Tostitos Bowl. When you growing up, watching Vince Young running into the end zone version, it was all awesome. And you knew this game, whoever lost was done, and whoever won was the winner. But, yeah, I definitely think they kind of ruined the kind of, like, specialness of the bowl games.

[Host]

Oh, man. Well, Adam, this is awesome. This is great. Thank you for joining us.

[Adam Brennaman]

Thanks for having me, guys. Appreciate it.

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