For years, there was a running joke about the South, where college football was king, that there were three seasons, fall for when the games count, recruiting season for when the team was made and spring for when the players that didn’t cut it learned it.

Now, we have transfer season, too, which could be the true make-it-or-break-it season leading to how autumn plays out.

The way college athletes can swap teams now, being in the marketplace is critical. No coach can really count on a player sticking around for four years anymore or even for more than a whole year. They come, they play out their option, they go.

For a team like Indiana University, which just completed a 4-8 bowl-less campaign in the Big Ten, the issue is how do you get good fast? And what do you have to offer the disaffected and unhappy? Why come to Bloomington? And why, if you lived through the crazy ups and downs of the 2022 season do you stay, unless, oh maybe, if you actually showed up originally because you liked the school, the campus and picked a course of study expected to lead to a personally selected career away from the gridiron.

There will be guys leaving IU who feel they have a better chance to play somewhere else, and there will be guys coming to IU who felt the same way about where they previously played. A couple of weeks ago, before the Hoosiers played Michigan State, coach Tom Allen talked about the new way of the world.

Under the rules, someone can’t just come along and poach a player out of the blue. The player must declare an intent to transfer. Then teams can recruit them from the recently coined phrase “transfer portal.”

“We definitely have gone through that already and have a list of guys — not guys, but spots, positions that we are trying to address,” Allen said, “and so I think it’s definitely amazing how quickly it has changed to where that number grows because of guys that in the two and three spots that choose not to stay sometimes.”

Taking in transfers means beefing up talent level based on players who already have college experience.

“That’s definitely going to be something that’s going to be a huge focus,” Allen said. “We have already identified those spots, and to me, you’re going to have a base level of guys coming in and out of high school that won’t change, but the group in the middle there that you have to continue to address…that to me is critical. It’s definitely a huge focus for us, and it’s ongoing in building this program.”

Indiana won its first three games this season, all of them nonconference. It wasn’t quite as pretty a picture in Big Ten play with the Hoosiers finishing last in the East. There were gettable games that weren’t won, against Maryland, Nebraska and Rutgers.

If you are Allen, what holes do you patch? The offensive line allowed quarterbacks to be sacked and running backs to be stopped. The defense gave up too many big plays. Injuries were costly, losing stalwart defenders such as Cam Jones and Aaron Casey and top receiver Cam Camper.

And quarterback roulette really did not work. Connor Bazelak transferred from Missouri and was solid during the early going victory stretch and now plans to transfer again. Jack Tuttle appeared briefly, was injured and never resurfaced. He has already announced plans to transfer. Dexter Williams was a sparkplug the last two games until he suffered a second knee injury. However, Williams looked more like a running back than a quarterback with his style of play. When Bazelak returned to the field in the 30-16 loss to Purdue, he looked shaky, perhaps from too much bench time.

What Indiana needs is a fresh leader who combines Williams’ feet and Bazelak’s arm. Ironically, after three straight years of season-ending injuries in Bloomington, that describes Michael Penix Jr.

Penix transferred to the University of Washington, led the Huskies to a 10-2 record and threw for 4,354 yards and 29 touchdowns this fall.

There should be room in Allen’s shopping cart for the second coming of a Michael Penix Jr.

Lew Freedman writes sports columns for The Tribune. Send comments to [email protected]