I'm a big proponent of utilizing the transfer portal coupled with the 1 time free transfer. I think it's going to prove to be the best way to promote parity in the game. Are there negative side effects? Absolutely. There is no perfect solution. It's going to force coaches to be excellent at roster management and constantly have to recruit their own players to stay - at least the one's that still have that golden transfer ticket in their back pocket.
However
The big problem everyone readily acknowledges is the insanely high number of players that jump in the portal and end up without a spot. I was listening to a podcast this morning on my work commute that had on MPW Digital partner, Tyler Siskey, on to talk about a variety of topics, including the portal. He cited where, and I'll give @Brennon Chapman credit here too, there are currently 1,074 athletes have entered the portal and only 200 of those have received a scholarship from a new school. Thats 70% of the athletes in the portal losing the opportunity to get a college education.
Yes, the easy argument is to blame the kids for getting themselves in that situation by taking bad advice, not having a landing spot before entering the portal, etc and that's absolutely true. But why is the NCAA limiting the number of portal kids a team can take. Right now a team can only add up to 7 transfers after the initial 25 and that rule is only allowed for this year with no promise of it being extended in the future. Obviously, not extending it into the future would create even more students left out to dry. So my question is, what's the purpose of the cap? If a team has 15 guys transfer out, why can they not add 15 guys from the portal? The 85 is the 85, I get that and agree with keeping that limit in place but not allowing a team to dip into the portal to maintain the 85 is just setting this system and the students up for failure. A school could sign as many HS athletes as they needed to to get to the 85 so why not the portal? Seems like another situation in which the NCAA isn't really working for the student athlete's best interest.
I'd love to hear from someone much smarter than me that can maybe better explain why this is the way it is.
However
The big problem everyone readily acknowledges is the insanely high number of players that jump in the portal and end up without a spot. I was listening to a podcast this morning on my work commute that had on MPW Digital partner, Tyler Siskey, on to talk about a variety of topics, including the portal. He cited where, and I'll give @Brennon Chapman credit here too, there are currently 1,074 athletes have entered the portal and only 200 of those have received a scholarship from a new school. Thats 70% of the athletes in the portal losing the opportunity to get a college education.
Yes, the easy argument is to blame the kids for getting themselves in that situation by taking bad advice, not having a landing spot before entering the portal, etc and that's absolutely true. But why is the NCAA limiting the number of portal kids a team can take. Right now a team can only add up to 7 transfers after the initial 25 and that rule is only allowed for this year with no promise of it being extended in the future. Obviously, not extending it into the future would create even more students left out to dry. So my question is, what's the purpose of the cap? If a team has 15 guys transfer out, why can they not add 15 guys from the portal? The 85 is the 85, I get that and agree with keeping that limit in place but not allowing a team to dip into the portal to maintain the 85 is just setting this system and the students up for failure. A school could sign as many HS athletes as they needed to to get to the 85 so why not the portal? Seems like another situation in which the NCAA isn't really working for the student athlete's best interest.
I'd love to hear from someone much smarter than me that can maybe better explain why this is the way it is.
