It’s the year 2022. Another season of college football has come and gone. Conference champions have already been crowned and now it’s Bowl time.
But for some of the game’s star players, playing in an additional post season game for the college they currently represent does not mean anything anymore. In fact, some players have decided to literally switch Universities right before their current team plays it’s Bowl game.
There is a bright spot to all of this, as this unique way of leaving to attend another college is known as the Transfer Portal, in which it has revolutionized the game in how colleges acquire talent.
How The Transfer Portal Works
The NCAA Transfer Portal is a tool used by players to manage the process of seeking to transfer between member colleges where student athletes may switch Universities.
Created on October 15, 2018, the portal allows athletes to enter their name online where it stores their data and willingness to transfer to another school. That school has two business days to enter the athlete’s name in the database.
Once it is in-place, coaches and staff from the other colleges are allowed to notify the athlete to set up a visit inquiring about a scholarship.
Cons
One of the perks of the Transfer Portal is the numerating amount of athletes wanting to transfer to another school and skip the current school’s Bowl game? That’s insane, because to me, if you’re staying at a University, you should have to play your Bowl game and represent your University one last time, then transfer after the National Championship game. This is part of the equation why Bowl games like the Las Vegas Bowl between the Florida Gators and the Oregon State Beavers are like preseason games for college.
Another Con of the Transfer Portal is even the fact that the star players who are fans of that team wouldn’t ever think of leaving, also could leave, and potentially take away a potential draft pick for that team. Take Syracuse football (CB) Duce Chestnut. Chestnut has had two monster seasons playing on the back end of the Orange’s 3-3-5 defense. Ever since Chestnut’s been on campus, his stock of being a 2024 draft pick for Syracuse has risen.
Then, he shockingly entered his name into the portal after the 2022 regular season. This is a big deal because we’re not talking about a bottom guy on the depth chart player here. We’re talking about an NFL caliber corner who now CUSE has to replace with a freshman transfer from Nebraska, Jaden Gould. Not saying Gould can’t be a star too, but this is going to be a lot to ask for him replacing a guy as effective as Chestnut.
Pros
A Pro of acquiring talent from the Portal is it’s basically free agency for college. If you want to build a roster of players that are just as talented as 5-star freshmen and are already in college, than it replaces having to just recruit players right out of high school. For example, Syracuse Quarterback Garrett Shrader was acquired in 2020 from Mississippi State.
Now, there were instant’s where in the 2020-21 recruiting classes, Syracuse could have replaced Eric Dungey with a 5-star freshman like D.J. Uiagalelei or Bryce Young, but those type of recruits clearly weren’t coming to Syracuse. So in this case, Cuse was smart to grab a guy like Shrader who already had SEC experience before transferring and he has turned out to be a great starter in the ACC.
Another Pro of the portal is it’s a great way for a team with a newly hired head coach to have quicker success in year 1 than waiting for year 2 or 3 when a few recruiting cycles have gone by. Take Ole Miss Football for example. After a successful 2021-22 season, the Rebels felt like they still needed a couple more immediate upgrades to key positions to make a run at chasing Bama and Georgia for a College Football Playoff spot.
Knowing that they were still recruiting at a Hugh Freeze type level at the college, Lane Kiffin decided to be bold, so he snagged 14 high quality portal kids, to include Former USC (QB) and 5-star recruit Jaxson Dart and former TCU (RB) Zach Evans.
The Rebels looked poised to shock the world and become the new kings of the SEC after a 7-0 start. They lost to LSU in Baton Rouge and only finished 8-4. The positive is, the Rebels will return a lot of starters next year and hopefully will retain Dart in order to strive for more consistency heading into the future.
My Opinion
I for the most part love the transfer portal and how it has changed the way certain schools try to go out and pick the best talent for their rosters. As previously mentioned, it has helped teams that cannot recruit the 4 or 5-star high school level talent become nationally relevant. I also think it’s cool that colleges now have two ways to acquire talent like how the pros do. Instead of the NFL draft and free agency, it’s high school recruiting vs collegiate transfer portal.
It also has its negative effects as we are seeing top players skipping Bowl games to enter the portal and look for a new start the next year. If we want to fix this problem, the NCAA should imply a rule that everybody must stay at their current Universities and represent them in their bowl games and then transfer after Bowl play is done.
We also see players who are doing this gaining a poor reputation of being entitled or ungrateful to stay at a school and commit to playing there all four years. While the transfer portal isn’t perfect, it has both positive and negative effects to the game of college football.
As we all enjoy the Bowl games over the next few weeks, I hope everyone has a nice Holiday. We will continue to see what more drama and excitement the Transfer Portal brings.
Let me know what Pros and Cons you think the Transfer Portal carries.
For another great College football story, please check out:
https://gridironheroics.com/oklahoma-state-top-5-nfl-draft-prospect-lacy/
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