College Football's Three Biggest One-Year Wonders of the NIL Era

With the influx of cash into College Football recruiting over the past five years, the top schools are strengthening their stronghold on a monopoly of the top of the sport. Still, there have been times where the underdog has made a run and gotten close to the forbidden fruit not meant for non-blue blood programs.

Unfortunately, these three schools also crashed back down to earth after unexpectedly crashing the party with surprising success. These are the biggest one-year wonders of College Football's NIL/rev-share era.

2021 Cincinatti Bearcats

In the first year of NIL, a Group of 5 program somehow made the CFP. Luke Fickell's Cincinnati Bearcats weren't a team that overhauled its roster before the season, though. Instead, they were led by fourth- and fifth-year seniors like quarterback Desmond Ridder and cornerback Coby Bryant on a run through the American Conference, then the AAC, and in wins over the Indiana Hoosiers and Notre Dame Fighting Irish in non-conference play.

In most ways, these Bearcats weren't a product of NIL, since most of the roster was recruited during the before times. Still, they may have benefited from the first year of mass player movement in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Cincinnati won nine games the following season, its last in the American, and has not won more than seven games since joining the Big 12 in 2023.

2022 TCU Horned Frogs

Jimmy Dykes was the original head coach in the NIL era to arrive and immediately change the program through the transfer portal. During his first campaign in Fort Worth, Texas, Dykes added 13 transfers and rode players like ex-Texas Longhorns tight end Jared Wiley (24 catches, 245 yards, four TDs) and ex-Colorado Buffaloes safety Mark Perry (84 tackles, two pass deflections), not to mention planned backup QB Max Duggan, who entered the fray after planned QB1, Oklahoma Sooners transfer Chandler Morris's injury, to a CFP title game appearance.

Since their 65-7 destruction at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs, the Horned Frogs haven't won more than eight games in the regular season. TCU has not stuck as a contender in the NIL era since that embarrassing national championship showing.

2024 Colorado Buffaloes

Deion Sanders' arrival in Boulder transformed how the world viewed the Colorado Buffaloes in the NIL era. After a 1-11 campaign in 2022, Colorado rolled the dice and hired Coach Prime away from the SWAC's Jackson State Tigers, hoping a coach with FCS experience would pay off with the recruits he was bringing over.

While it took a year to get going after a 4-8 record in 2023, mainly because of a combination of injuries, coaching mismatches, and abhorrent offensive line recruitment, CU finally delivered on the hype in 2024. Shedeur Sanders threw for 4,134 yards and 37 touchdowns, and Travis Hunter became a Heisman Trophy winner and the 2025 NFL draft's No. 2 overall pick. A "Prime Time" worst 3-9 finish in 2026 and a No. 24 portal class in January may mean 2024 was the peak of Deion's coaching career with the Buffs, though.