CNN
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Penn State University is playing its first game in the College Football Playoff in a few days and is facing an upheaval in the quarterback room due to the sport’s largely open transfer rules.

Sophomore QB Beau Pribula, the replacement for starter Drew Allar, announced Sunday night that he is entering the transfer portal and plans to leave the school he grew up rooting for, even as the Nittany Lions are in the hunt for a national championship . Pribula was stuck behind Allar, one of the most productive quarterbacks in school history, and wanted a chance to play elsewhere.

Unfortunately for Pribula, he didn’t have time to make that decision. Unlike professional sports – where there are set start dates for free agency – the transfer portal windows in college sports allow for fluid movement of athletes, and massive turnover occurs during the academic calendar’s semester breaks. That tussle coincidentally overlapped with Penn State’s push into the College Football Playoff, forcing Pribula to make a life-changing decision at a crucial time of the year.

“The current NCAA postseason model presents a challenge for student-athletes,” Pribula wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The overlapping CFB playoff and transfer portal schedules have forced me to make an impossible decision. After speaking at length with my family and coaches, it is with a heavy heart that I announce my intention to enter the transfer portal and leave the team to pursue opportunities elsewhere.”

It was a tough decision for Pribula, who grew up in Pennsylvania and said it was a dream of his to play football in Happy Valley.

Head coach James Franklin told reporters on Monday that the situation was simply unfair to both the team and Pribula.

“I can give you my word: Beau Pribula did not want to leave our program and he did not want to leave our program until the end of the season,” Franklin said. “But the way the portal is, the timing and the way our team plays — and when you play the quarterback position, those spots fill up — he felt like he was put in a situation too in which there was no longer any victory. And I agree with him.”

Franklin said the way the sport is set up right now — with the most successful teams preparing for bowl games in December and the teams stuck at home trying to rebuild by recruiting transfers – is not in the best interest of the student-athletes.

Penn State’s longtime coach said the sport may need to examine whether a commissioner or someone outside the conference system can make decisions about what is actually in the best interest of student-athletes.

“There’s just a lot of things that don’t make sense,” Franklin said of the current state of the game.

“I’m worried about college football in general right now, to be honest, and I think a lot of people are,” he added.

Pribula’s former teammates who spoke to the press on Monday wished the sophomore well and expressed confidence that he would be a success no matter where he went.

Allar shrugged off thoughts of possible negative impacts on the team while preparing for Saturday’s game against Southern Methodist University, saying there wasn’t much that could be done to change the situation.

“It’s just unfortunate that it has to be that way, because of course I know he didn’t necessarily want it that way,” Allar said. “And unfortunately that’s the situation in college football right now – there’s not much I can do about it, just really follow the rules that they’ve put in place, and unfortunately that’s how it is.

“But again, he’s going to give it his all wherever he goes and he’s going to have a really, really good year wherever he goes.”