re: Has college football basically slowly killed itself since Nebraska bolted for the Big Ten?

Pretty much. There’s several big issues that I see destroying the sport:
1. Loss of traditional rivalries: conference realignment has been cool for allowing a lot of teams to get to play others that they weren’t used to seeing, but many lost historical rivalries in the process. College football, more than almost any other sports league, is defined by its rivalries. That’s the big draw, and the following annual rivalries are all no more as a result of last decade’s realignment:
Nebraska vs Mizzou
Kansas vs Mizzou
Kansas vs Nebraska
Stanford vs USC
Texas vs Texas A&M
Pitt vs West Virginia
Notre Dame vs Michigan St
Michigan vs Michigan St

2. Rules changes meant to combat CTE Lawsuits. While many like the high flying offenses, recent versions for rules like targeting, pass interference, defensive holding, crackback blocks, etc have changed the way the game is played significantly, allowing more games to be decided based on how officials call certain penalties. Many rules create a so-called “strike zone” for where defensive players can hit a ball carrier, and the rules change year to year. Are low hits good or bad this year? What about the mid section? Leading with the shoulders? Let’s ask the refs! They’ll probably have a different answer each game.

3. Unlimited transfers without sitting out. This is just dumb. CFB now has free-agency with talent having zero patience to sit behind veteran players and learn. Was the previous rule so unfair?

4. Name image and likeness is pandora’s box and could ruin the sport. All of the corruption in college sports basically just became legal and able to happen right in the open. Program boosters essential engage in bidding wars with endorsements for legitimate products. It’s like if the NFL paid all their players $40k/year and expected everyone to make up the rest in ad deals. With unlimited transfers and the ability to cash out with endorsements, players can legally and openly be bought away from competing.

5. Cost increases. Facilities and bribes cost money. Recruitment is expensive. To make the numbers work, major CFB programs have drastically raised prices, and in doing so, made their stadium environments far more tame and corporate. See, loud, angry, passionate a-holes just don’t have as much money as corporations do to “donate” money to a university or “business expense” tickets for entertaining clients. It’s essentially money laundering and tax fraud and it’s causing a bubble in college sports ticket prices which seems to be bursting.

6. PC Cancel Culture is destroying college traditions, and not just the ones that probably needed to die like hazing and panty raids. Mascot names, school songs, live mascots, nicknames, championship winning coaches, traditions that have existed for many decades, some over a century, are being called into question by folks who DGAF about college sports to begin with. It’s why Texas won’t play “The Eyes of Texas are Upon You”, Ole Miss no longer has Colonel Reb, LSU’s live bengal Tiger no longer comes to games to glare at the opposing team coming out of their locker room, Stanford’s band is banned from nearly every stadium (often including their own), etc. This kind of silliness takes away the pageantry of the game and tends to replace it with bland corporate nothingness until every program is essentially indistinguishable from every other team. This also has the added issue of absolutely hacking off major boosters and sponsors who care about the team, while putting programs in a bind between wealthy multinational advertisers who want one thing and local large donors who want something completely different. In the end, the fans nearly always lose.

7. Championship or bust mentality. This actually goes hand-in-hand with the corporatization of the sport. The more money someone spends on something, the more they begin to look at it like an investment requiring an ROI. Paying $30/ticket might be fine for .500 ball, but if you’re paying $230/ticket, suddenly, 7-5 just ain’t cutting it. Premium prices demand premium results. As the media has focused exclusively on the playoff race, so have fans, boosters, sponsors, and players. Bowls have become almost completely meaningless, and they were already exhibition games, so that says a lot.

8. Lack of parity. It becomes abundantly clear, early on, that fewer than 20 teams have any shot at a playoff appearance in a given year, and usually no more than 3 or 4 look capable of actually winning it all. Those numbers wouldn’t be bad in a 32 team league, but there’s over 120 FBS teams. There’s just not enough attention or parity in the current system to make it interesting for the overwhelming majority of teams. People get fatigued seeing Ohio St, Clemson, and Alabama in the playoffs every year. While there’s an obvious argument to be made that other teams need to “try getting good”, CFB really does have a serious issue here of haves vs have-nots. The rules actually are against the mid-majors, who have no chance at a title even if they win all of their games for 2 years in a row. It’s blatantly unfair, and everyone can see it. Hopefully, some of the proposed post-season changes happen, and it will help to chip away at the parity issues by allowing more teams to get the attention of the post season for recruiting purposes, and spread the talent in college football out more across the board.