There have been a few storied programs facing early season struggles in the first few weeks of the college football season.

With NIL bigger than ever, many of those programs have either significalty improved or have taken a major hit.

College football isn’t about a player going to a program because of their coach, conference, or facilities anymore.

Oftentimes, student-athletes want the most NIL money they can get, which is why the schools with the biggest collectives have found success recently.

One of the programs struggling is Florida. They were once the definition of a powerhouse.

While the Gators had a few down years before this one, 2024 has shown some significant flaws.

If they don’t improve, Florida may not win another game in the SEC.

Their head coach, Billy Napier, has been in the spotlight during the first four weeks.

Napier had questions surrounding him before the season, but his team’s lack of success has drawn a bigger crowd.

With many comments about his future at Florida, former Alabama head coach and college football legend Nick Saban backed Napier.

During an appearance on “College Football GameDay” Saban questioned what Florida’s NIL collective looks like.

“Things change. … They should’ve taken advantage of building better facilities when Urban Meyer was there. What’s there collective been like? How have they adapted to this new model of college football? So it’s not just the coaches. When you’ve been through four coaches that haven’t had success, there’s something else that people should be looking at.”

It’s important for fans to understand what Saban is saying.

Outside of Napier, many fans have wanted their team’s head coach fired. While that’s fair in some scenarios, it’s also necessary to question how their NIL money looks.

It’s the unfortunate reality of college football in 2024. If a program doesn’t have the money to interest recruits, they’ll likely not land said player.

That doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon, making it a necessity to adapt to the times.

It’s possible that Napier and Florida have the funds to hand out big deals for players, as the Gators had a consensus top 10 recruiting class in 2024.

They also had a top-10 transfer portal class, which was likely even more expensive.

From the outside looking in, NIL doesn’t seem to be too much of an issue for Florida.

If that’s the case, then they have bigger issues on their hands.