I was trying to strike a more positive tone but since I gotta spell it out again here you go.
Yes Doug. We're all screwed. Don't worry, this phenomenon is not exclusive to just MTSU. Now, all broke bottom level G5 teams will be glorified JUCO's for the P4 and even upper G5 teams.
The days of MTSU whipping teams like Missouri, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Syracuse, etc. is over. Won't be possible when they take all our best players after each season. Think for a second about the teams that won those big games and had great seasons for us. They were full of juniors/seniors that were good players. Some really good players that went on to great NFL careers. All those kids won't be with us anymore as juniors and seniors. We won't have those older teams with talent. the Kevin Byards, Darius Harris', Richie James, etc. If these rules were in place 15 years ago imagine how many more losses we would have incurred over the years.
Hell, we can't even keep our OL/DL anymore either, much less our key skill guys. Two seasons ago our whole starting OL transferred out, then last season the whole DL left. That was in addition to some key skill guys we lost. You just cannot build a program with that kind of turmoil, as evidenced by our results recently.
Essentially, we will not be able to compete outside of CUSA/Bottom G5. We'll start every year 1-3 or 1-4 and go into the fall months trying to beat some of the worst teams in the country to barely make a bowl game, assuming the post-season structure stays as-is. Then after all that the transfer portal will open and all our best players will take cash offers to go play elsewhere. Rinse, repeat.
Sounds like fun, doesn't it?