The Portal

For a few years, I kept hearing about transfers and college sports and the creation/evolution/existence of “the portal”. The Transfer Portal permits athletes to change programs with limited restrictions, though still more restricted than normal college students on scholarship–and certainly more restricted than college coaches leaving for greener pastures.

Like other sports fans, I had mixed feelings–while it brought the team you root for talent, it meant that most broadcasts spent inordinate time discussing previous schools and rumors of future transfers and certainly increased all the talk of tampering behind the scenes by boosters and travel-ball coaches. I read the constant complaints by current coaches and the stories about the Portal driving experienced coaches into retirement. And then…I became an NCAA coach and now get a first-hand perspective on the Transfer Portal.

When I deal with a new experience, I try and approach it openly, with beginner’s mind.

The subject of NIL/financial compensation is large and complicated. I want to look at it from a more basic level.

• Are people who work 19 hours/week employees?

• Why should athletes be restricted from transferring when no other students are?

• If young people are pressured by travel teams into committing to colleges at age 14 or 15–should we be surprised when they find a decision made in 8th grade isn’t the one they want at age 19?

  • I’ve talked to multiple athletes who would have made different decisions if the recruiting process began later (junior/senior years)…yes, I know commitments don’t happen until they are seniors…but we all know the reality.

• Don’t people who make a mistake deserve a chance to get it right? (Transfer)

• Coaches are permitted to break contracts (admins, too) rather than remain with the players they recruited.

• Scholarships are normally annual and a coach can withdraw one for no reason–don’t athletes deserve the ability to seek out a better place?

The other issue I think that raises objections from coaches is that the Transfer Portal means more work–not in the sense of sorting thru the Portal. I mean within their own teams. If athletes can leave after any season, it means the coach needs to prove every year that his/her program is doing everything within reason for the good of that athlete. The coach has to now work to keep his own athletes in addition to bringing in new recruiting classes. You can’t just bring them in and think you’ve got them no matter what, that you can just have them sit on a bench without playing time, can’t just have them be the scrimmage team in practice or list then as 6th on a depth chart–you’ve got to coach them up, you’ve got to make sure they’re getting the academics they need, the skills for the future. For the athletes not in position to make millions from professional sports–those things are critical…and they aren’t things common for many coaches at upper levels of amateur athletics.

What do you think? Please feel free to leave comments and observations here–they all get approved, presuming they are respectful!