About
College football is changing faster than it ever has — and the people who played it have plenty to say. College Football Alum is where they say it.
The game has changed more in the last five years than in the fifty before it. NIL. The transfer portal. NCAA rules rewritten season after season. And a lot of it, honestly, should have started thirty-plus years ago.
Here’s what gets me: everyone has a seat at that table now. Fans, media, judges, lawyers, politicians — every Tom, Dick and Harry gets to weigh in on where college football goes next. But nobody has shown any real interest in asking the guys who actually played. Not the ones who came up under the old system, and not the ones who’ve lived the first messy years of the new one. Think about how strange that is.
This is the answer to that. CFA is where the people who played the game do what men of character do — organize their voices, join the conversation, and look after something that matters to them.
So I’m building it — not because my opinion counts for more than anyone else’s who suited up. It doesn’t, and that’s the whole point. I respect the hell out of every guy who played, and I think giving them a place to be heard is worth doing. If you played college ball and you care what happens to this sport, I built this with you in mind.
CFA isn’t a startup with a runway. It’s a small thing trying to grow into a useful thing. Everything you’ll see on the site reflects that: real numbers, honest unlock thresholds, no fake counts, no inflated growth, no marketing copy pretending we’re bigger than we are.
If you played D1 football, you have standing to be here. If you didn’t, you’re welcome to read everything. What you can’t do is contribute — and that’s the point.
What’s live today
Right now, CFA lets verified former D1 players rate their experience across the things that actually matter. Every reviewer goes through identity verification, so the ratings you see come from people who were actually in the building.
Every FBS program has a page. As verified players come in, programs get rated by the people who played there — and aggregated scores unlock as the Gameplan progresses. Every review is tied to a verified player.
What’s coming
Program reviews are the start, not the whole thing. What’s next:
- Coach Ratings — verified players rate the coaching staff on what actually matters: development, communication, trust, and preparation for life after football.
- Pulse Polls — quick, verified-only polls on the issues reshaping the sport: NIL, the transfer portal, conference realignment, and more.
- State of the Game — a yearly benchmark of what former players think about where college football is headed.
The verified community is the foundation for all of it. This isn’t just a review site — it’s the place where the people who played the game get a real voice in where it goes.
Our mission
CFA exists because the people who played college football should have a voice in where the game goes.
Three commitments hold that together.
- Only former D1 players contribute. Every review, take, and poll on this site comes from a verified former player. That’s the credibility, and it’s the moat.
- The next generation deserves better than we got. Whatever this platform becomes, it’s built for the players coming up — not at the expense of the game, but because of it.
- Universities should be accountable to the players who played for them. What former players say about how they were treated — during eligibility and after — should be heard. It shouldn’t take a lawsuit or an act of Congress.
Editorial independence
Three things about CFA are uncompromisable: the independence policy (no pay-for-coverage, ever), the verification standard (only verified former D1 players contribute), and the voice of the platform (no buried negatives, no purchased takes).
Beyond those three, I’m honest that some long-term ideas for what CFA could become might involve revenue from entities the site also reports on — under terms I set, fully transparent, never compromising the three locks.
Why I’m doing this
Because if not me, who? I played the game. I have the standing. I have the technical skill to build it. And I have the stubbornness to keep the lights on while it figures out what it wants to become.
If it works, it works because verified former players show up and speak honestly. If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work because I couldn’t make the case. Either way — this is the thing I’m doing.
— Mason