It's no secret that college football has seen its fair share of parity over the past few years.

A sport that was once dominated by the SEC, more specifically Alabama, has become completely wide open in terms of legitimate championship contenders.

It all culminated in a team like Indiana, one of the worst programs in college football history, completing a 16-0 dream season with a national championship just last year.

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Now in 2026, the parity has reached an all-time high, with no truly dominant team standing out eight weeks into the season.

Many fans and pundits alike have attributed this to the advent of NIL, and their reasoning is fairly sound.

Of course, the proliferation of talent would become "flatter" when every program is allowed to legally pay money for players.

Not everyone is on board with this theory, though, and one of the voices leading the charge in the opposite direction is none other than "The Film Guy," Brooks Austin.

In an exclusive interview with OutKick, Austin reasoned that it's actually the transfer portal, and not NIL, that is the cause for all this chaos in the ranks of CFB.

"Everybody blames it on NIL," he explains. "I think it has far more to do with freedom of movement. The portal has changed this more than anything else."

As Austin puts it, teams like Bama and Georgia can no longer stack talent and stick it on the proverbial shelf for three years.

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"Georgia can pay their backup just as much as Wake Forest can pay him to be a starter... so when a backup defensive tackle has been sitting on the bench for 2 years, he wants to play."

Money is a factor, according to Austin, but it has just as much to do with the disappearance of depth as it does with overall funding.

"I think NIL has certainly created some of this parity and created opportunities for dispersion of talent," he says. "But I think a lot of it also has to do with the fact that we're actually able to transfer, we're able to go."

A perfect example is when the aforementioned Bulldogs and Crimson Tide met in the 2025 SEC Championship Game.

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"I remember last year in the SEC championship game, Georgia's down several starters on the offensive line, and Alabama is down several starters on their defensive line," Austin recalls. "I remember that same situation happening in 2022 before the portal got absolutely rampant and Georgia loses the starting left tackle and it's like, OK, don't worry. Here's Broderick Jones. He's a former five-star and he hasn't been playing at all, he's gonna go block Will Anderson for four quarters."

"And, you know, Broderick. I don't know if he stays around for 2 years to sit on the bench nowadays, right?"

A combination of NIL and the transfer portal is certainly proving to be the great equalizer in college football, but it's fairly clear one has a lot more to do with it than the other.

The Florida Gators are still orange and blue. The Georgia Bulldogs are still red and black.

Other than that? Nothing will be recognizable in today's annual SEC rivalry game. And I mean nothing.

For starters, the game won't be in Jacksonville for the first time in three decades. It won't return to Duval until 2028 due to stadium renovations. Today, it'll be at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, in Atlanta. Next year, it'll be in Tampa.

The name of the game itself has also undergone major changes. For years, it was known as "The World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party." Fans still affectionately call it that even though the NCAA changed it ... for obvious reasons.

This year, arguably the SEC's biggest rivalry game outside of LSU-'Bama will be known as — and I hope you're sitting down for this — the "Invesco QQQ Atlanta Gridiron Classic."

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Rolls right off the tongue!

So, yeah — a lot has changed. None of it is particularly good. Perhaps the most contentious change at the moment? The roof at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which will be closed this afternoon despite glorious weather conditions in Atlanta.

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Fans from both teams — divided on just about everything else — were firmly united in this one.

They hate it:

Neutral site games STINK

I could go on and on. Nobody is happy right now. Again, both these fanbases hate each other, but they've found some real common ground when it comes to this year's game.

I'm with them, by the way. Frankly, I think this game should be in Athens, and I think next year's game should be in Gainesville before it returns to Jacksonville in 2028. That seemed like a no-brainer to me.

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But the schools decided to play it at a neutral site because, I assume, corporate checks hit the bank account a little differently. Those are important in today's NIL world, you know?

Personally, I think neutral site games in college football are just awful. They stink. The best thing college football has going for it is the campus atmosphere. That's why we love it, right? It's what makes College GameDay and Big Noon Kickoff great. It's why the college football playoff is great — at least for the first round.

But over the past decade or so, there's been this shift to neutral site games. You see it all the time in the season-openers. There's just no juice. No spark. It doesn't quite hit the same.

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And don't get me started on the international games. Throw those in the trash can and toss the bag into a landfill. There is nothing worse than an international college football game. Nothing.

Give me a break.

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Anyway, happy Florida-Georgia day to all who celebrate!

No need for sunglasses in Atlanta this afternoon.

ATLANTA - There is obviously a different feel to the annual "World’s Largest Cocktail Party" this year thanks to the showdown between Florida and Georgia being played inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium, compared to its usual home in Jacksonville.

Between the normal tailgate experiences that take place over the 24 hours to kickoff and the overwhelming feel of tradition for this showdown that happens on a yearly basis, it's actually the fans who are feeling a bit underwhelmed by the game being played in Atlanta this season.

Thanks to ongoing renovations at EverBank Stadium, which is home to the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars, this highly-contested game is calling Atlanta and Tampa home for the next two years.

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Sure, there isn’t much either team can do about its usual venue, with the game scheduled to return in three years along the Florida coast.

But fans of both teams were hoping that the opportunity to play this rivalry game in both Athens and Gainesville over these two years would have been on the table for the first time since the 1994 and 1995 seasons, which was also due to renovations in Jacksonville.

"I don't really understand it, though I know it comes down to money," Andrew, from Ocala, told OutKick. "It would have been pretty cool to make the trip to Athens and experience what it's like to play this game in a home stadium.

"Honestly, I think they fumbled an opportunity to do something different. Where the heck are we supposed to tailgate here in Atlanta? Don't get me wrong, I'm excited for the actual game, but I think we're going to be missing out on the normal tailgate fun that we usually host in Jacksonville."

Money, you say? Yes, it comes down to the almighty dollar.

The Cocktail Party was put up for bids, and money talks...

If you were under the impression that these neutral site games were going away in favor of more home-and-home series in college football, I think you're forgetting about how much each team is paid for these types of games.

When both universities put this showdown up for sale, the offers started pouring in. Sure, it helped that Atlanta is the home of the SEC Championship game (that could be ending this season), but it also came down to how much Falcons owner Arthur Blank was willing to pay each team to play this game inside Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Arthur M. Blank Sports and Entertainment, which runs multiple venues and events for the city of Atlanta, is paying each school $7.5 million to host the, while the city of Jacksonville is paying $1.5 million each over the next two years for their promised return to Florida.

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Each team also received 29,071 tickets for this game, so it should still look like the annual showdown in Jacksonville. But, obviously that would not have been the case if this was played in Gainesville, with SEC guidelines noting that each visiting school receives around 4500-6000 tickets.

Starting to see why this game was never going on-campus? It should be noted that only the home team would see the revenue generated by this game if it were to have been played in either Gainesville or Athens.

When you factor in the cost of staging a game like this, it makes more financial sense to keep it at a neutral site.

But, that doesn’t take away the frustration from some fans who made the trip to Atlanta.

"I just don't care for another game inside this darn stadium," Thomas, a Georgia fan, told OutKick. "Hell, we should just turn this into our second-home with the SEC Championship game. I guess that's actually a compliment to Kirby Smart and my Dawgs, but it would've been interesting to make a trip to Gainesville, even if I hate the Gators.

"I just hope it has the same feel as Jacksonville does every year. But yeah, I am excited to see us whoop Florida's ass, but it would’ve been nice to do it in their home stadium at least once in my lifetime under these circumstances."

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Now that the CFP is expanding, bowl sites and cities are looking for inventory

And, there will be more neutral site games to come in the future in college football.

A city like Nashville is the perfect example; it already hosted Ole Miss and Louisville to start the season. After agreeing to cancel their home-and-home series, both Georgia and Florida State agreed to play inside the Tennessee Titans' new stadium in 2029, with them preparing to take home a nice payday in the process.

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There will be others as well, as Dallas and even Las Vegas are still in the market for a neutral-site game, and both have already hosted such games in the past.

So, with the CFP on the brink of expanding to 24 teams, there could be openings across what is known as "bowl season."

"It might not be in the next two or three years, but we're already looking at potential options to potentially host games at the beginning of each season," one bowl game executive told OutKick.

"Playing more home games in an expanded playoff means lesser big-brand teams being available for our postseason matchups. We already know that adjustments are going to have to be made in some form, and I don't expect us to just disappear like some want to report. It's all about adjusting with the times, so maybe it could benefit us to open the season with our game, compared to ending it."

Today, Georgia and Florida fans gather for what should be dubbed the "World's Largest Indoor Cocktail Party' in a city well-versed in hosting big games.

There are only about five games remaining for most teams before we start to get into Bowl season and the Conference Championship games. There has been a ton of fluctuation on the Top 25 this season, with very few teams looking like a confident option to make it into the College Football Playoffs. Florida and Georgia play today, and a win here for Florida would go a long way for its case and probably hurt the Bulldogs quite a bit.

The Florida Gators are 5-2 for the season, with both losses coming in SEC games. This has been a hard team to judge this year. The Gators have had some really good games, and then a few ugly ones. Their best game came when they destroyed the Ole Miss Rebels. That was a ranked matchup, at home, and they took down the team with a solid 52-28 victory. Unfortunately for them, their success was rather short-lived.

The next week against Missouri, they lost 45-17, barely even showing up for the game. It didn’t get any better the following week as they lost that game 38-19 to South Carolina. That’s a game they will want back at the end of the year. Two weeks ago, they went into Texas and won that game 27-24. It is a bit confusing how the team could’ve beaten both Ole Miss and Texas, but lost to Missouri and South Carolina. The schedule doesn’t really get easier, either. The Gators have Georgia today, and then they face Kentucky in a couple of weeks. Plus Oklahoma, Vanderbilt, and Florida State are still on the schedule. It does seem like if they lose here but win out, there is still a case to be made for them making the College Football Playoffs, but it would be unlikely.

Georgia is one of the best teams in the country as usual, but the Bulldogs did lose the last game they played. They are 6-1 for the season, with the lone loss coming two weeks ago against Auburn. They had a bye week last week, so they’ve been stewing on it for a few weeks. This is a team that knows how to rebound from losses, but it does feel like the loss never should’ve happened in the first place. This is also the start of three straight games against ranked opponents.

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To start the year, Georgia rocked Tennessee State, then took down Western Kentucky, winning both by more than 50 points. The Bulldogs played Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Vanderbilt in the next three weeks, winning all of them by multiple scores. Against Alabama, in Alabama, the defense did everything it needed to do. The Bulldogs won 20-17 over their rivals, but that may have set up the letdown against Auburn.

Georgia and Florida should put on a good show for us. Both have been off for a week, so they could start a bit slowly. The two of them should have had plenty of time to prepare for this matchup. I don’t see this game being a high-scoring matchup. I feel like each possession will be important. Georgia doesn’t want to lose back-to-back games. Florida can’t really afford to have a third loss on its record. I’m going to take the Gators +12.5, but I do feel like this will be a bit of a nail-biter situation.

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