The College Football Transfer Portal is Killing the Game

[cthusker]

What we're seeing in college football is just a mirror image of everything else we see in society today.

 

[Kobayashi Maru]

When kids don’t play much or don’t get to use their talents how they want and the team is losing, it’s a bad combo. Of course they are going to feel like they are valued fairly low. They see greener grass and opportunities to go to the NFL, win championships, or maybe just contribute. They don’t have many years, so I don’t begrudge them for moving on. We’ve definitely taken some hits, but we’ve also benefited from the portal.

 

[jmatlock]

Funny that Alabama doesn’t have a transfer portal problem Guess the kids enjoy winning national championships every other year whether they play or not

 

[Husker In Oklahoma]

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.....

Should it be with no penalty, no sit out one year? I don’t have a problem with anyone leaving, for whatever reason, but they must sit out a year. It’s a train wreck without that rule.

 

[Greatest Fan of All]

The game was killed, for all but about 10 teams, by the title IX scholarship limits.

 

[Flat Water]

Looking back at Nebraska football over the years, can you imagine how different things might have been had we had the transfer portal? Would Brook Berringer have entered the transfer portal, knowing that he would be second string his senior year? Would Eric Crouch have not just briefly left the team but instead entered the transfer portal rather than face the prospect of playing behind Bobby Newcombe?

The transfer portal is not good for the sport. I'm not saying that no one should ever be able to leave a team, but they should at least have to sit out a year except in unusual circumstances (e.g., perhaps there could be an exception for coaching changes). Making transfers too easy destroys the concept of team, and it will ultimately lead to a loss of fan interest if there is massive player turnover every year and it starts to feel like there's no player continuity from one year to the next. This will not end well.

 

[EastOfEden]

We complain about the transfer portal. I don't read much about the guys on top complaining about it. Nor do I read much about the guys in the middle complaining about it.

In fact, some of the guys in those categories are reputed to encourage some of the players to leave and even make calls for them. I appreciate that the portal is a little different.

Other than Joe Burrow, I don't recall a transfer that did really well after the transfer, because the good ones stayed at the good schools. I'm sure there were some. but the ones I recall doing really well were those who had exhausted their eligibility at a school (Russel Wilson, e.g.)

We just seem to have a whole lot of not so good ones.

 

[Frosty1980]

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 think Nebraska already has a seat at the table. Win loss record isn’t going to be a factor when the super conference happens. Nebraska will be part of that and it will happen.

 

[RedStones]

Great thread. Lots of pros and cons to consider. I tend to dislike the portal because I believe making a commitment should mean something. At the same time these kids only have 4 to 5 years to audition for their dream of making it to the NFL so I can understand why some leave.

My first instinct when seeing all these transfers was to assume there's a problem with Frost and the program that's driving them away but it's bigger than that. It's becoming clear that transfers are going to be a normal thing going forward and each one will be for different personal reasons that can't be easily blamed on any one thing.