You may count me as one American college football fan who has grown disgruntled over the personality change that has overtaken a great college sports tradition.

I refer you to the “transfer portal” that has become a major recruiting tool for football coaches from coast to coast. What the portal does in my view is turn college football into a mercenary game played by athletes looking to fatten their pro football experience and, thus, their bank accounts when they are drafted by pro teams.

We are now paying, in a manner of speaking, college students to play sports.

I’m old school in that regard. My own thought for decades has been that offering a student a full-ride scholarship and a free college education because he can play football — for example — at a high level is payment enough. Now, though, athletes can market themselves and promote their value and earn income while playing college football or baseball or basketball. For the purpose of this post, I shall limit my discussion to college football.

I don’t necessarily begrudge college coaches who know how to use the transfer portal to lure top-drawer athletes. It’s there for all to use and some programs are better equipped than others to make hay with it.

It simply seems to bring an element that wipes out loyalty for the students to the school for which they are playing and for the fans who prefer to cheer for college teams that represent their schools and the players who suit up to play for those teams.

I watched the Orange Bowl game today between the Oregon Ducks and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. Every player worth a damn for both teams seemed to be a transfer athlete from another school. I must have heard the “transfer portal” 100 times during the game.

I dislike the idea of paying college kids to play sports while attending school. The transfer portal takes us way too close to that line I hoped the higher education system never would cross.