Urban Meyer makes surprising admission about NIL after record-setting college football Saturday

Urban Meyer joined Colin Cowherd on The Herd on Monday with a fresh weekend of evidence behind him. On Oct. 17, five of the top seven teams in the AP poll lost on the same day, a first since the AP began ranking teams in 1936.

The list started with No. 1 Georgia, beaten 27-24 by unranked Auburn on a field goal as time expired. It also included No. 6 Alabama, which lost 26-10 at No. 14 Tennessee a week after falling 20-17 at home to the Bulldogs. Across the country, No. 12 UCLA beat Wisconsin 17-7 at the Rose Bowl to stay unbeaten.

“I misfired on the whole conversation about NIL and transfer portal. I thought the rich would get richer. What it’s done is make parity in college football. I’ve talked to many of my colleagues in the last couple weeks. You flip on UCLA and then you flip on Alabama, what’s the difference? I don’t know. One team runs the ball a little better, and that’s UCLA. It’s amazing what has really happened to the game of college football with the NIL and with the transfer portal.” Meyer said, per On3.

The running game Meyer credited belongs to Wayne Knight, who followed first-year coach Bob Chesney from James Madison to UCLA through the transfer portal. Knight entered Saturday averaging 7.7 yards per carry, and the Bruins beat Wisconsin with Ty Dieffenbach, a Cal Poly transfer, making his first start at quarterback.

Dieffenbach only took over after Nico Iamaleava suffered a leg injury at Oregon that is expected to end his season.

Iamaleava’s path to Westwood ran through one of Meyer’s earlier arguments. When the quarterback left Tennessee in the spring of 2025 after the Vols reportedly refused to increase his NIL deal, Meyer used his podcast, The Triple Option, to push for buyout clauses in NIL contracts, the way coaching contracts work.

This season, Iamaleava started UCLA’s first five games, all wins, before he was hurt in Eugene. The quarterback whose exit prompted Meyer’s buyout argument ended up leading the team Meyer now uses to make his case for parity.

NEW: Urban Meyer admits he “misfired” about the impact of NIL and the transfer portal on College Football:

“I thought the rich would get richer. What it’s done is make parity in college football. I’ve talked to many of my colleagues in the last couple weeks. You flip on UCLA and then you flip on Alabama, what’s the difference? I don’t know. One team runs the ball a little better, and that’s UCLA. It’s amazing what has really happened to the game of college football with the NIL and with the transfer portal.”

(via @TheHerd)

https://t.co/IEi1SdZ6WZ

— On3 NIL (@On3NIL) October 19, 2026

How did UCLA go from 3-9 to unbeaten this quickly?

UCLA went 3-9 in 2025 and fired DeShaun Foster before hiring Chesney away from a James Madison program that reached the College Football Playoff. Before the season began, most Bruins fans would have considered a 6-6 record and a bowl game a successful first year. Chesney instead became the first coach in program history to open his tenure 5-0, a run capped by a 17-15 win at then-No. 13 Oregon on Oct. 10. The Wisconsin win made it 6-0.

Chesney’s start has drawn comparisons to Curt Cignetti, who turned Indiana from the losingest program in college football history into last season’s national champion. The Hoosiers’ 22-game winning streak ended Saturday in a 19-15 home loss to Ohio State.

Kalen DeBoer’s Alabama entered October 5-0 and ranked No. 6. Two losses later, the Crimson Tide are 5-2.

UCLA’s 2026 Big Ten slate skips Indiana, Ohio State, Washington and Penn State, while both of Alabama’s losses came against ranked SEC opponents.

Alabama hosts Texas A&M on Saturday trying to avoid a third straight loss.