@MarkKnudson41
Huge changes continue to happen in college sports. The biggest – and best – ones are coming next summer.
For now, the college football news is being dominated not by bowl preparations, postseason awards or even talk about the upcoming 12-team playoff. Right now all the “breaking news” is about those who are tossing themselves – and their immediate futures – into the Transfer Portal, which opened officially right after the regular season ended. Estimates have as many as 4,000 student athletes in the portal right now.
Much of this is obviously about the utter stupidity of having the portal open DURING the postseason. But not all.
It’s gotten so bad right now that one team, Marshall, had to withdraw from their bowl game. Too many players had already defected and they couldn’t safely play another football game.
Penn State lost their backup quarterback to the transfer portal just six days before the Nittany Lions were to host SMU in a first-round College Football Playoff game. Numerous other players from teams playing in bowls…and even in the playoff…are jumping ship daily.
“Just think about what we’re talking about, said Mississippi Head Coach Lane Kiffin, per ESPN. “The season’s not over yet, and there’s a free agency window open.
“Just think if the NFL was getting ready for the AFC, NFC playoffs, postseason, and players are in free agency already. It’s a really poor system, but we just try to manage the best we can through it, and hopefully someday it’ll get fixed.”
That someday IS on the horizon, but at the moment, it’s mind boggling that that many college students believe the school they spent so much time researching, checking out and visiting during their final days in high school…and were so certain was the best fit for them suddenly…isn’t, and that the artificial turf is soooo much greener somewhere else.
Green being the optimum word.
The vast majority of those student athletes end up in a situation that isn’t as good as the one they’re leaving behind. Some will get better opportunities. But most will languish in the portal until they end up moving down a notch or two.
The timing of a December transfer portal window stinks worse than two day old warm milk. Whomever had the idea to open the portal in December should be ashamed, fired and blackballed. The reasoning centers around the academic calendar (as if any of these folks in charge are actually worried about academics.) They’re afraid they’ll get sued again (the NCAA’s court record is worse than the Washington Generals) if they restrict the right to move during the semester break. Little thought was given to the massive disruption it’s causing.
The current Transfer Portal window is open for three weeks, December 9th through the 28th.
Once again, this is something that could have been planned for and handled a long time ago…yet remains very fixable.
So while 82 teams are preparing for postseason play, be it a bowl game or an appearance in the CFP, 82 coaching staffs have to try to keep all their players – the ones that got them there – from simply saying, “Peace, out” and leaving an unfillable hole in the current roster.
Another part of the issue is the NCAA’s looming roster reductions, and the players know that too. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule was blunt about what’s coming shortly after the regular season ended, telling media members that he expected 40-50 current Husker players to hit the portal. Those numbers are a little less mind boggling when you understand that current rosters, including walk-ons, typically number in the 120-150 range. New NCAA limits scheduled to kick in next season will reduce all rosters to a set in stone 105, period. Knowing that they may become a roster number casualty, it’s not surprising that some football players decide to jump before they’re pushed.
But they COULD wait until the spring to change schools. Nothing wrong with finishing out the school year where you began it.
There IS light at the end of the runway. Assuming a Federal Judge gives the final approval to a settlement reached between the House of Representatives and the NCAA on April 7th, starting this summer (July 1st) there will be a new and much improved system put in place that SHOULD dramatically slow down the flooding in the transfer portal. A form of revenue sharing, which includes a pseudo salary cap, will replace most of what “Name, Image and Likeness” pays student athletes at the moment. Schools will begin to play athletes directly, within a budget that’s capped at $20.5 million. Of course many schools will not be able to reach that amount of money, so they’ll have their own self-imposed cap.
The athletes on the other hand will no longer simply sign (meaningless) letters of intent and grant and aid forms, but will instead sign multi-year “contracts” with schools. Guaranteed money that replaces the ability to shop yourself to the highest bidder every off season.
This SHOULD mean far fewer players in the transfer portal every year.
The “Players rights” advocates like ESPN’s Jay Bilas may not believe it, but this IS what’s best for the student athletes. Moving sucks.
Before we get to that place of sanity, however, there remains a second window, April 16 through April 25th. That’s when things are going to get REALLY messy.
One source within the industry says he expects as many as 1,500 MORE football players to enter the portal after spring football is over. Including those already in the portal and still undecided, how many are going to find those few “improved” situations to call their new “home?”
No telling how long it takes this mess to get cleaned up…or if the current model of the NCAA is the governing body to handle it.
