Anyone who had been reading these rants for any length of time ought to understand that I have nothing but a low regard for the folks at the NCAA. Given the effectiveness and the value-added that the NCAA provides to collegiate athletics, I think many of the people drawing paychecks there are nothing more than animated suit dummies. Having said that, it is important to recognize the truth in the adage:
- Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while.
The rule makers and guardians of intercollegiate athletics have come to the conclusion that the “Transfer Portal” is out of control and needs “fixing”. Give these minor functionaries credit for seeing that there is a problem; then ask yourself if they have moved to resolve it.
The NCAA Division 1 Council approved changes to the Transfer Portal that would affect all intercollegiate sports endeavors. The headline news is that the Portal for football and for men’s and women’s basketball will be reduced from 60 days to 45 days. Be still my heart while I process the significance of such a sea change…
Other intercollegiate sports will have different “portal windows” but this is the best “resolution” that the NCAA braintrust could come up with for the most visible activities involving the Transfer Portal. Let me be brutally honest here:
- I do not care at all about college fencers who transfer from Hoity-Toity U to En Garde Tech. I suspect that few if any other folks do either.
So, the net result of the changes made by the NCAA’s aminated suit dummies who saw there was “a problem” is to collapse the time available to an athlete seeking a transfer by 25%. Please do not try to convince me that this is significant; if a college athlete – – nominally one who is intellectually worthy of being a college student – – cannot make a transfer decision in less than 6 weeks maybe they ought not be in college. The Transfer Portal has myriad “issues”, but the length of time given to the athletes to conclude their negotiations regarding where they will play next is probably about Priority 42. As is always the case when cosmetic changes are made to entities or processes that have major flaws, there are carefully worded statements by the folks making the cosmetic changes. The chair of the Division 1 Council had this to say:
“In both men’s and women’s basketball, the council determined that a 45-day window that concludes on or before May 1 best enables coaches to understand their current rosters, provides stability for student-athletes remaining at the school as they prepare for summer basketball, and encourages student-athletes who intend to transfer to do so before final exams at their current schools and summer school application deadlines at most campuses. Moving forward, we will continue to evaluate the impact of transfer windows on student-athletes, coaches and athletics programs.”
The major issue with the coupling of NIL money plus the easy/unrestrained Transfer Portal is that college sports has become a giant free agent marketplace. And the question for the fans of college sports – – you know, the ones who provide the support that translates into big time dollars for schools and conferences – – is simple:
- Assume your school does not compete well in this helter-skelter transfer portal environment, are you happy to see that your archrival has figured the system out better than your coaches/administrators have?
Here is my outline for how the Transfer Portal should operate. Remember, the athletes who are thinking of using it are adults; they are eligible to vote; they can operate motor vehicles; they can purchase firearms in most states; they can serve in the military. They are not naïve children.
- Any athlete in any sport can accept a scholarship at any school and subsequently determine that they made a bad choice. Maybe the team environment doesn’t work; maybe the academics do not work; whatever … The “first choice school” is not working and will not work. That athlete should be able to transfer to any other NCAA school that would have them as a student with no penalty or obstacle such as a period of ineligibility.
- Here is where I get stubborn … After transferring with no penalty, the athlete is in his second athletic-scholastic situation; if that one is not also to his/her liking, then maybe he/she needs to think about paying a price to try to find a third situation that works for them. Remember, they are adults; they need to make choices in their lives and live with the consequences. So, in my world construct, an athlete seeking a second transfer would need to spend one full calendar year at the “third school” before being eligible to play whatever sport they are in school to play.
- And if it happens that the third school is also somehow unsuitable for the athlete, his next transfer would incur a two-year period of ineligibility.
- And I think you see where this is going into the future…
Let me channel Rhett Butler here. Frankly, I don’t give a damn how long the transfer window is open. That is not the issue that can eat at the fundamental fabric of college athletics which is something one might suspect the NCAA would care about. But it is so convenient and so easy and so amenable to PR statements for the Division 1 Council to change the timing of the Transfer Portal that it is no surprise to me that they came to that conclusion.
Finally, let me close here with these words from the Roman poet, Horace:
“Our sires’ age was worse than our grandsires’. We their sons are more worthless than they; so, in our turn, we shall give the world a progeny yet more corrupt.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports ………
It’s not hard to fix the transfer problem if your student-athlete model says the “student” comes before the “athlete.” Transfers happen everyday with college students. Credit hours are lost in the process. …It’s a nontrivial fact in every transfer. Unless the eligibility of the “athlete” is more important in the student-athlete model than the “student” being on track to graduate.
The NCAA could (if they had at least one set of balls) make every transfer a sit out transfer. No waivers. No exceptions. Effective now. If a player gets kicked off the team by a coach to make room for another player, require the school to honor his scholarship until the “student” graduates. Don’t force him to transfer. If he transfers, he sits a year to make up those lost credit hours.
It’s not hard. If you have a reason for the model other than the PR thread that says these are students first.
Students who are unhappy with the college of their choice (self included) need to understand they will bear a cost (in time spent) in the transfer. Perhaps that will enable them to make a more measured choice in considering their next school. Whatever the reason for transferring.
Someone cares about the length of time the portal is open; otherwise the rule would not be changed. The coaches, particularly the ones who are really good at grabbing all the high school talent, want to limit the exposure of their programs to portal losses. I imagine Kirby, Nick, and Dabo wish the open time could have been shortened to 60 MINUTES or less.
Well, the NCAA just keeps on giving. They finally permitted Dez Walker to suit up for UNC…after receiving “new information” that they allege UNC did not provide previously. Let’s be clear, the “new information” was the draft of a very powerful letter prepared by the North Carolina Attorney General letting the dweebs in Indy know that the dogs were soon to be loosed if they did not allow Walker to play…strange how that works. So now I will await the next time Indy will find a way for “payback” toward UNC.
What a bunch of grunts.