NCAA’s transfer portal has become big, fat joke | Commentary

Did you hear the joke about the guy who entered the NCAA transfer portal?

So did 2,999 other guys, so they decided to enter also.

It’s a trend that has gotten so far out of control that even transfers are transferring again before they even transfer. Thank you, Dillon Gabriel.

Sports Illustrated tweeted Wednesday that a record 3,000-plus FBS and FCS players have entered the transfer portal in the past two months. This week alone, 173 players have hit the portal, according to 247 Sports.

It used to be that disgruntled players who thought they deserved more playing time or didn’t like their coach were the ones entering the transfer portal. It was designed to make less of a mess of the transfer situation as well as to help players who wanted to see greener pastures.

But just like cattle grazing, too many means overgrazing and they’ll eat up the available grasses until the only thing left is dirt. That’s partly why many players have sat in the transfer portal for nearly two cycles.

The NCAA has not made it any better. It has added more collateral to the damage, creating things like the Name, Image and Likeness caveat, as well as changing the transfer protocol to allow a one-time transfer to be eligible to play immediately at his new college of choice.

So players do not have to sit out a year and they can weigh their options when it comes to which school is offering the best chance to make big money via NIL agreements.

It’s amateur free agency, if that term even can be applied to amateur status. Or maybe it’s the amateur status that can no longer be applied to college football.

The transfer portal is now more like a swinging door. Gabriel went through the door that led him to UCLA, only to exit the other side when he heard that Oklahoma quarterback Caleb Williams was entering the portal.

Now he’s supposedly going to transfer to OU, where former UCF offensive coordinator Jeff Lebby now holds the same job. But if Williams decides to remain a Sooner, then Gabriel will more than likely say, “Later,” and pick a third transfer destination.

Starting quarterbacks aren’t even necessarily disgruntled. They’re just looking for better deals. Williams was the guy who chased Spencer Rattler out of Norman, Okla., and then Rattler decided to leave for South Carolina. Williams decided to enter the portal after head coach Lincoln Riley left for USC.

OU is trying to keep Williams, however.

Missouri record-setting quarterback Connor Bazelak is sitting in the portal, likely headed to Indiana, and quarterback Kedon Slovis of USC is headed to Pittsburgh. And it’s not just big-name QBs. Oklahoma will lose two big-time receivers in Mario Williams and Jadon Haselwood, who is committed to Arkansas.

Syracuse has Taj Harris leaving. Florida’s Jacob Copeland is out, headed for Maryland. These guys were in the BMOC crew at their erstwhile schools, but they’re looking for better situations.

There is no longer any loyalty in college football. Players are only loyal to what a school has done for them lately. Get me an NIL deal and I’m loyal to the core. Get me nothing and I’m in the portal.

Can’t blame them. The No Conscience Athletic Authority has created a monster that it needs to slay quickly. As it is, transfers can step on the field the day they step on campus and the rule-less NIL deals are going to start mimicking the sponsorships NFL players get.

And Patrick Mahomes thought Allstate was getting loose with the “Patrick Price.” NIL deals will become more crucial as they steamroll into the future.

It’s even crossed into high school recruiting, with NIL packages becoming part of the pitch. That’s supposed to be against the rules, but who’s looking?

Just ask Travis Hunter, the top high school player in the country who dissed FSU for a reportedly huge NIL incentive from BarStool Sports to attend Jackson State, where coach Deion Sanders rules the roost. If anyone were to be the first to circumvent the NIL rules while thumbing his nose at the NCAA, it most certainly would be Prime Time.

For the average high school football recruit, however, they’re not laughing at the joke. They are downright miffed at what has become of their college football dreams. With 3,000 choices sitting in the portal, why bother with recruiting unknown high school players?

Eustis quarterback Blayne Romano said it best. This is a kid who averaged throwing for 300 yards per game as a junior, but he couldn’t even get a decent recruiting sniff from a bird dog.

“The transfer portal, me and my friends talk about it a lot,” Romano said last month at the Cure Classic High School All-Star Game. “I don’t like it at all. It seems like one quarterback or player will hit some adversity at their school and they’ll immediately hit the transfer portal.

“I don’t think that’s how it should be. Players should be able to fight through adversity and play the game that you were told to play.”

Not today. Players take their ball and go home. They await the next coach to pick them up and hug them and tell them everything will be OK.

The problem, however, is that you can’t really blame the players. They’re just looking to better themselves and possibly line their pockets. Who wouldn’t do that? It’s the American way.

If there were a transfer portal for sports writers, I might even enter. Of course, my old, tired body would probably sit in there for years watching all the young pups find a home.

I’ll just concentrate on the retirement portal, if I can make it that far. Then I can sit on the porch and talk about the weather and the transfer portal and what could have been.

Hey, we can all dream, right?

Chris Hays covers high school football and college recruiting for the Sentinel. He can be reached at CHays@orlandosentinel.com.