"Loyalty and the Transfer Portal" article

[Virginia Redbird]

The link to this article popped up on my Facebook page as so many unsolicited things do. The article is from the Cowboy State Daily and while it focuses on the Wyoming Football program and the State of Wyoming specifically, I thought it would be an interesting read to anyone that follows college football. The past couple of years has changed college football dramatically. My own opinion is that we are only seeing the part of the iceberg that is above the surface of the water so far. The vast majority of effects are lurking below the surface yet. I thought it was totally unfair for the universities to make millions, if not billions, off the NIL of the players while they got only the scholarship. The opportunity for a quality education, if the player wishes to take advantage, is a huge benefit. Most college players will never see an NFL practice field let alone make millions of dollars. The numbers quoted for the players in the transfer portal are interesting but don't mean much this early on. Unless you are one of the top players you are probably going to wallow in the portal for some time as programs sign HS players or wait for another portal player to make his own decision on where to go. The concept of "Ride for the Brand" is probably seen as quaint to most in this current time. How much loyalty was shown to players in the past by the universities? Probably varied by coach and university program. Here in the MVFC we only have to look to the Missouri State program to find a coach who could not define loyalty if you tattooed it onto his forehead. We are in a dead period with not much happening and I thought this was one of the more interesting articles I have read about the transfer portal. I hope the young men at all the programs, FCS in particular, take advantage of the education opportunities. Not very many of them will be playing at the next level but you probably can't convince a young guy of that at 18 or 19 who had been "the" big stud on his High School team. Personally, I agree with the author but I am from a different age and will readily admit I still think the most awesome uniforms in college football are traditional Michigan and Notre Dame uniforms. Blue jerseys, gold pants, black shoes ... Michigan has the edge on the helmet but only by the smallest of margins! Even those programs had to adapt though. Just for some off-season conversation, what does everyone think? You can't fight it ... it has changed. None of us really know what the long term effects will be just yet.

Ray Hunkins: Loyalty And The “Transfer Portal”

Columnist Ray Hunkins writes: "The effect of the transfer rule is to discourage loyalty and unity in team sports and encourage, or at least allow, victimization and abuse of young athletes by the unscrupulous."

cowboystatedaily.com

Happy New Year to everyone as well 2022 has to be better than the 2021 season, right?

 

[topiarydan]

Granted while I agree there needs to be some reform on transfer portal - he does not acknowledge that over half of these players are actually encouraged to transfer by the coaching staffs. Over a quarter of all recruiting classes were leaving even before the portal - now it facilitates it. Also how can a school like Wyoming deny a kid opportunity of making $50k a year (or more in some instances) in NIL/sponsorships? The author rips a kid like Valladay who kept his commitment and played there 4 years, is 2nd all time in rushing and never fumbled. That kid was loyal - heck he could have left last year but didn't - now he has a chance of doing his grad year at a Power 5 school and make some $ and increase his draft stock and the author is going to rip him?

 

[TIMMY]

An NCAA scholarship has always been a two-way street. Yes in the past you made a 4-year commitment with a one-year penalty if you decided to transfer. But what the author forgot or may not know is scholarships are renewed on a yearly basis. Coaches can and do decide to cut players loose. And the deadline for yanking a scholarship is July 1st. A little late if you're going to try and hook up somewhere else. Coaches leave for other schools all the time contract or not. He can talk about loyalty all he wants. But loyalty is a two-way street, The teeter has tottered the other way and maybe it's a good thing.

 

[MadBird]

I'd be inclined to say if you wanna transfer, you have to sit out a year - UNLESS your coach leaves, or if you lose your schollie at the coach's discretion which he has to announce by signing day in April (the yet to be enacted MadBird's Rule).

But I also have always believed all NCAA sports should be treated the same - so I'm not sure why FB or BB should be treated differently than soccer or VBall or what have you - either all transfers have to sit out or none do.

But what we have now is nutso to me, the transfer portal. Crazy. Maybe another MadBird Rule - make the schollies a 4 year commitment or a 1 year or a 2 year or 3 year, at the discretion of the athlete and coach/school. You sign up for 4 years, if you wanna transfer, gotta sit out. Sign up for 3 years, you're free to go after your JR year. Or something like that.

 

[Virginia Redbird]

An NCAA scholarship has always been a two-way street. Yes in the past you made a 4-year commitment with a one-year penalty if you decided to transfer. But what the author forgot or may not know is scholarships are renewed on a yearly basis. Coaches can and do decide to cut players loose. And the deadline for yanking a scholarship is July 1st. A little late if you're going to try and hook up somewhere else. Coaches leave for other schools all the time contract or not. He can talk about loyalty all he wants. But loyalty is a two-way street, The teeter has tottered the other way and maybe it's a good thing.

Thanks for the info, Timmy. I did not know scholarships were a year-to-year thing. Is that accurate for all NCAA football scholarships. I remember when RichRod took over at Michigan he made no secret of going after Loyd Carr's former player's scholarships. His system was much different and he wanted to move in his players asap. It created friction early on in his tenure. RichRod was a total failure at UofM anyway but it was pretty brutal when he first arrived in Ann Arbor. I guess he did not want to wait until July for the reasons you mentioned. No doubt the schools had everything in their back pocket for a long time.

 

[TIMMY]

Thanks for the info, Timmy. I did not know scholarships were a year-to-year thing. Is that accurate for all NCAA football scholarships. I remember when RichRod took over at Michigan he made no secret of going after Loyd Carr's former player's scholarships. His system was much different and he wanted to move in his players asap. It created friction early on in his tenure. RichRod was a total failure at UofM anyway but it was pretty brutal when he first arrived in Ann Arbor. I guess he did not want to wait until July for the reasons you mentioned. No doubt the schools had everything in their back pocket for a long time.

That's what I'm thinking. Maybe it's time things evened out. As someone who likes to see ISU kids develop and move from redshirt freshman to all-conference seniors, this is brutal.
Yes all NCAA and NAIA scholarships are year to year. Most coaches like their kids and don't screw them by waiting until July 1st. In my opinion, it should be the last day of class.
I'm looking at Ridgeway going in the 4th. Would that be the case had he stayed?

 

[fourthandshort]

I'm all for loyalty, but agree with recent rule change allowing STUDENT-athletes 1 mulligan for any reason .. all sports obviously.

 

[MadBird]

Just in case anyone was thinking it was only FCS programs that are hurt by this, news for Minnesota Gophers today:

Less than week after earning offensive player of the game honors in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl for the Gophers, running back Ky Thomas announced Monday on Twitter that he has entered his name into the transfer portal.

"I want to thank my coaches, teammates and The University Of Minnesota. I have entered the transfer portal,'' Thomas tweeted.

Thomas finished his redshirt freshman season as the Gophers leading rusher, carrying 166 times for 824 yards and six touchdowns. He capped the season by rushing 21 times for 144 yards and a touchdown in Minnesota's 18-6 victory over West Virginia in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl on Tuesday in Phoenix.

Gophers leading rusher Ky Thomas enters transfer portal

The redshirt freshman led the team in rushing in 2021 and was named offensive player of the game in the Guaranteed Rate Bowl last week.

www.startribune.com

 

[Redbird222]

An NCAA scholarship has always been a two-way street. Yes in the past you made a 4-year commitment with a one-year penalty if you decided to transfer. But what the author forgot or may not know is scholarships are renewed on a yearly basis. Coaches can and do decide to cut players loose. And the deadline for yanking a scholarship is July 1st. A little late if you're going to try and hook up somewhere else. Coaches leave for other schools all the time contract or not. He can talk about loyalty all he wants. But loyalty is a two-way street, The teeter has tottered the other way and maybe it's a good thing.

Timmy

I believe this has changed over the past decade. I know my daughter received 4 year scholarship. After a little research, it looks like NCAA changed the rules in 2012 allowing multiple year scholarship. I know Pac 12 and Big 12 adapted in 2014. I saw an article saying Power 5 conferences were offering 4 scholarships in the fall of 2015. I am sure there are conferences that still offer 1 year schollys. BTW, the coach has a lot of influence on athletes with 4 year schollys by limiting playing time. On my daughter's track team and cross country team the coach simply did not let the athletes travel ... even when there were open meets or they were below the travel player limts. The athletes got the message and

1. Either transferred
2. Stayed because it was the school they wanted to be at because of education or where they were in their academic career.
A. Quit team and gave up and financial assistance
B. Gutted it out. Most likely meant a long year of practices with no competitive playing time. Seldom did it ever amounted to anything
C. Medical scholarship similar to what happen to Madison Williams