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The College Football Transfer Portal is Killing the Game

The way college football is really setup now is for the best of the best to prepare for the NFL. Now that's a very very small percentage of players but in this case the tail does wag the dog. What happens to college football going forward with the musical chair portal who really knows?
 
I think guys should be free to transfer as I posted earlier. According recruiting, development and evaluating the portal may be the most important things Nebraska needs to focus on.

Based on what have read it appears Nebraska throws out a wide net, making hundreds of offers. I wonder if it would be better to focus on 75 guys and recruit them hard. Make them feel like a priority. Recruiting rankings have been pretty high but wonder if they narrowed their list of recruits if they would be able to keep more guys around.

Development wise, I would have the kids doing combine testing. The 40, agility runs, bench press etc. show them what pros are doing at their position and have them try to get to those levels. Tell them that you will do your best to help them get to pros, but let them know only 4-5 per class will make it.

The university should offer classes on offense and defensive strategies, coaching techniques, etc. why not offer a major in coaching, GM studies, working for a pro sports organization or working for athletic department in college. That way if they don’t have ability to go pro maybe they can coach work in some pro sport front office or college athletic department. This could attract some good players who know the tough odds of getting drafted.

We have so many guys transferring in and out, might as well embrace it and identify the best guys in portal and try to get them.
 
Joe Burrow could have stayed at Ohio State and never played a game. Would that have been fair to him based on his abilities? His decision to transfer paid off as he is a multi millionaire. Everyone on this board would do the same as Burrow if they were in same situation. If he didn’t transfer he would probably be selling insurance.

The whole point of college is to have fun and have the opportunity to make more money in the future. If a guy feels he is not getting an opportunity to play or show off his abilities, he should be able to transfer. Look at Vedral. While he probably doesn’t have NFL abilities, he is at least playing. He may be riding bench at UCF or Nebraska if he stayed. Probably more fun starting than being 3rd string.

Players may commit to a school but then don’t like it. If a guy commits but doesn’t make any good friends, why should he stay for 4 years. What if a guy lives in Miami is whole life and then is exposed to weather like we have in Nebraska - he may just want to leave.

Wandale wants to go pro. Had he stayed at Nebraska maybe he gets stuck playing running back averaging 3 yards a carry and being overthrown on his pass routes. He won’t get drafted with those stats. Going to Kentucky could help or further hinder his ability to go pro. We will just have to see how it pans out for him but he should have the ability to transfer.

Frost left UCF after 2 years. No one seemed to care he was breaking his contract. This was obviously a higher paying and more prestigious job. Everyone on this board would do the same if in same position. Players should get same opportunity.

If Stepp and Toudre turn out to be All-Americans we won’t complain about transfer rule.

If Nebraska starts winning again we won’t care if a guy plays one year or 4 at Nebraska.
Good post. Per the bolded, for every Joe Burrow, there are probably 5 (or more) Ronald Delancy's. Leave a school (P5, non-power 5, FCS, FBS, Div II, NAIA, whatever) and end up at a "lesser" or lower division school, mostly not their choosing but the simple fact that there "A plan" schools either filled their slots, don't want/need the transfer, or, "ahem" lied about having interest/an open slot.

I started using Twitter (never thought I would but there is just too much CFB info on there) and one of the "people" I following is the NCAA Transfer Portal (@RivalsPortal) and I just can't get over the number of announcements of players going to the portal. And, to be honest, 90% or more are 2*'s, with a few 3*'s and the real occasional 4/5* in there. And 99.99% of them I have never heard of and they are leaving schools like Western Michigan, Eastern Carolina, Murray State, etc. Today, just looking, there is a "Oregon RB going but not yet in, the portal" and a WSU guy going to Arizona. Like we all know, wayyyyyy more kids in there than slots.
 
I hear ya original OP....

And I tend to agree with a lot of your points although I personally think what is actually killing college football is there is no system that allows the lesser schools even a whif of a chance at competing against the 10 or so schools that just get richer and richer. The 4 team playoff is a joke. A startup band aid that we have never moved on from because those 10 teams or so are QUITE comfortably with it. The playing field has become more than “unfair” it has become almost physically impossible to compete on... And this frankly bores the ever lovin‘ crap out of the vast majority of sports fans. The same 10 or so teams narrowed down to 4 every year....gee how exciting and fun for the vast majority of Americans.

but be that as it may....

again...I hear ya... buuuuut

What we are facing is reality. The “player’s rights” movement it’s like a freight train. And we either jump on board and learn to adapt....or we get run over by it. Because it’s going to happen either way and regardless of our druthers.

A part of me says, you know what? Why should a school have ironclad “you can’t go anywhere else” rights to an individual that is earning that school millions of dollars. The compensation is a scholarship of course which, depending on the school, can be worth up to possibly $200K....maybe more.

Which is fine....But if a kid wants to forfeit that compensation and go elsewhere....for WHATEVER reason. What gives a school or a ham handed body like the NCAA the moral right to say...nope...you can’t?

I see both sides and struggle with this but one thing is for certain....

It’s coming....hell, it’s already here in a fashion.

And Nebraska as a football program needs to adapt to it rapidly and try to find ways to exploit the situation to our advantage.

Or we simply die out as a small market school that “used to be.”
 



I was pretty upset that Wan'Dale Robinson decided to transfer. He was a huge contributor, but it was even more than that for me. I loved his heart, and I thought he was all in. He seemed like the kind of guy that Frost could re-build the program around. And then he left. And now I hear that Luke McCaffrey may be leaving. Those are two guys I really enjoyed watching play and was proud to have on "my" team. In short, I'm pretty distraught about this.

And the Huskers aren't alone in this situation. There are many other teams with several players leaving. The attitude seems to be that, if everything doesn't go my way, I'm going to take my ball and go home.

There has long ceased to be any reason for an NFL fan to have team loyalty. The players are essentially mercenaries who go to the highest bidder. Moreover, with the exception of a team like the Packers, the team owner can simply pick up and move to a new city if he gets a better stadium deal. The St. Louis Rams fans found that out the hard way. They rooted for the team that had "St. Louis" on the jersey but found out that the Rams weren't "their" team in any real sense. And the team doesn't belong to the residents of LA, either. It belongs to Stan Kroenke, and I'm sure he'd move it to Mars if he could make more money doing so. So why should the residents of any city root for the NFL team that happens to play 50% of its games in their city? As Seinfeld once insightfully put it, you're just rooting for the laundry.

I thought college football was different. I frankly thought there was more team loyalty. Admittedly, we don't have to worry about the Huskers moving from Lincoln for a better stadium deal, but apparently we do need to worry about losing several players every year through the transfer portal. As the transfer portal grows, the team will cease to have much of its continuity from year to year as more and more players are only around for a couple of years. And if I am not following players over a multi-year career, I'm going to stop caring about them as much.

I suppose you could argue that it isn't so much that the players have less team loyalty now as it is that they can now do something about it if they are unhappy. Maybe all that's happened is that the myth of team loyalty has been destroyed. Either way, though, it makes the sport less appealing.
What about player rights?

Just a few years ago we were lamenting coaches who can up and leave. Coaches and institutions who were making millions on the backs of student athletes. How a scholarship felt like a servitude commitment. You can’t have lemonade without a few lemons.

Now I personally do not believe that about coaches, institutions or servitude commitment but you can’t have increased ”player rights” without freedom of movement.

Besides do you really want an unhappy Wandale “committed” to NU?
 
I'd say almost all universities can exist just fine without college football but college football obviously needs universites! If it reaches the point where absurd financial demands are being made by players then 80 to 90% of the schools that play now stop playing it. That might sound harsh but if kids are coming to simply to make money to play football the entire concept of a FREE education for athletic scholarships is finished. These institutions exist for several very worthwhile purposes but football isn't one of them imo.

So when financial issues become completely out of control and it's truly a mini NFL is it really worth all the problems? Yea it's worth it to ESPN other networks and many others that make a living from it. I just wonder is it really worth it to the educational institutions that deal with all the complications that are now entering in what's essentially a kids game.
 
@cthusker

love that post!

and true

and it seems we are headed that way.

The compensation comes from a valuable scholarship....Figuring in room, board, tuition, books, food, medical and all sorts of incidentals. I read somewhere that the average scholarship at a big 10 school is worth over $200 K. So I’m not sure how far that “pay for play” angle can be pushed. As they already are being paid in a sense.

Where I think the “player rights” tremendously expands is in the ability to go to any school, ANY TIME and get their scholarship.....instead of yours....without penalty.

Hell we’re seeing it now. And it’s only gonna get worse.
 



Coaches make millions and are pretty much free to follow the money wherever it might lead them. The players who make them wealthy should have the same rights. If they feel the need to transfer to another program that might improve their chances of making it to the next level, they should be allowed to go.....

Well, the coaches have a job. They're professionals. These kids are going to school. The coaches make their money because they provide wins for a team sport. This is not a pro football audition, this is frigging school and a commitment has been made by both parties. Maybe it should be a contract.
Does a star athlete build up the school's marketability and attendance some? Not sure, but if it does then does the school take a loss when a kid transfers? What are those remedies for loss? Why are there academic requirements then anyway? Apparently the education part is just fluff. Well, actually it likely is for some of these star athletes who have their work done by others anyway...lol.

The coaches are making money because they increase the kids marketability and the school's marketability and also make sure these kids have fun and get their education. They do this by enforcing rules (academic and otherwise) to ensure they are rewarded with playing time. They increase their marketability by surrounding them with the other players and structure for the kids to show those talents if they're good enough to make that money.
Further, these kids that are going to money are doing so on the backs of other kids who by and large aren't going to. Where's their money? I get it, they can make more money on the backs of more talented support casts.

What next, instead of a kid committing to a school, they just commit to playing football and are mercenaries? And with the 24th pick in the country, Nebraska picks Jim Shoe out of IMGs twin sister academy in California?

Most of these kids will get what they deserve by transferring thinking they're special as far as athletics. The same participation trophies they got by having lawnmower and helicopter parents that have crippled the education system. Hopefully they'll learn then to deal with adversity at some point. Hopefully they'll get their degree.
I'd be curious to see how many kids in the league transferred vs. those who didn’t.

College sports is definitely letting the genie out of the bottle. Hell, highschool athletics is on that trajectory with sports related transfers.

Yep, most of what I posted is tongue in cheek, has some contradictions and vitriolic statements, and is largely talking out my posterior. It felt good though.
 
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Hell, highschool athletics is on that trajectory with sports related transfers.
Already here my friend. I coached high school ball at one of the largest high schools in Virginia. Four years ago I retired.

I was baseball, but I had close relationships with all the Football coaches. Kids regularly skipped around our district by parents establishing residency so that they could play for this high school or that. Sometimes just a temporary apartment that they could legally change their address to. And the local Catholic schools constantly tried to entice players. Whoever had the hot hand at the moment and whoever the parent felt had the best opportunity of putting their kid in a power five school.....THAT was the place to be.

And I can tell you for a fact it wasn’t just football. Baseball was rampant with the same thing.

And it was high school!
 
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I guess I have totally come to terms with it after seeing the mercenary attitude of a large majority of the very talented players and their parents I came in contact with over the years.

And we are just not going to stop it.

So if that’s the case, Nebraska needs to adapt to this changing world and try to profit from it instead of sitting around complaining about it.

Because complaints are just not going to do anything except waste breath and get us farther behind.

And I’m not talking about doing anything underhanded, or even morally questionable. I’m talking about using the existing rules to our best advantage.

Nebraska is blessed because unlike other schools, we have solid financial stability and do not lack resources. We need to push some of those resources towards this aspect and become very good at it!
 
Already here my friend. I coached high school ball at one of the largest high schools in Virginia. Four years ago I retired.

I was baseball, but I had close relationships with all the Football coaches. Kids regularly skipped around our district by parents establishing residency so that they could play for this high school or that. Sometimes just a temporary apartment that they could legally change their address to. And the local Catholic schools constantly tried to entice players. Whoever had the hot hand at the moment and whoever the parent felt had the best opportunity of putting their kid in a power five school.....THAT was the place to be.

And I can tell you for a fact it wasn’t just football. Baseball was rampant with the same thing.

And it was high school!

Yeah, Texas is like that. I hadn't thought about baseball as much. Makes sense.
 



If 2020 hasn’t taught us all to reevaluate life I guess there’s no hope.. if all of college football went away tomorrow it would suck but there is much more to life than who might be the backup center or Wan’Dale Robinson coming back to Be trotted out as a running back and Significantly hampering his dream of NFL.
I Watch less and less college ball every year but kids changing schools has little to do with it. Perhaps it’s a derivative of other much more concerning problems in college football.
Not sure how fans can sit here and complain about an Alabama “running kids off” if they don’t cut the mustered so they can redistribute that scholarship elsewhere and then complain some more when Nebraska’s roster gets churned. If Nebraska can’t replace Wan’Dale Robinson, that’s Nebraska’s problem (and perhaps the NCAA/ESPN... for creating this mess) but it is not Wan’Dale Robinson’s.
 

Most college players won't go to the NFL - no matter how hard they compete and how much perseverance they show. Look at Farniok - he was dropping down the depth chart and wasn't going to see much playing time. Why should he be stuck at Neb riding the pine when he can go somewhere else and get some playing time. You're only in college for a brief period of time - why waste it practicing without seeing time on game day. While it's tough for the coaches (and some fans), it makes a lot of sense (in some cases) for the kids.
 

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