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'So much to change': Coaches share ideas to fix Transfer Portal
By BANDON MARCELLO, 247 Sports, Jan 20, 9:45 AMThe transfer portal has provided players across the country second chances, new opportunities and bigger stages to shine — and improve — on new teams.
But for many, the portal has proven to be more a pitfall than a gigantic leap on their career path. Not all players are looking to move up the ranks. Some know a drop from a Power Five school to the Group of Five or FCS is likely. The problem, however, is the large number of athletes who enter the portal with high hopes of cashing in via their name, image and likeness at a new school with a profile just as big or larger than their previous home.
Hopes, however, usually fly in the face of reality -- and reality is beginning to set in for players and coaches midway through the fourth annual cycle of the portals existence.
"There's so much to change," a Power Five assistant coach told 247Sports. "I don't know where to start. You feel sorry for all these kids that won't get the chance to get a degree because they entered the portal with nowhere to go."
For every star quarterback like Caleb Williams, the nation's No. 1 recruit in 2021 now with his pick of the litter after leaving Oklahoma, there are three others left in the cold. Nearly three out of four Power Five players who entered the transfer portal during the 2019-20 cycle did not land at another Power Five program — and nearly half (47.2%) did not find a new home or fell to the FCS or a junior college, according to numbers compiled and studied by 247Sports. Only 37.8% of FBS scholarship players landed at another FBS school.
The trend will not end in 2022. The portal is set to shatter another record for entrants before resetting for the 2022-23 cycle on Aug. 1. More than 1,800 FBS players have entered the portal during the 2021-22 cycle as of Jan. 19, out-pacing the record of 2,647 who entered the portal a year ago.
The promise of immediate eligibility at a new school has certainly tempted more athletes to enter the portal, a change that went into effect in the spring of 2021. The NCAA also began in July allowing athletes to earn compensation from their name, image and likeness. The elite players — quarterbacks such as Quinn Ewers (Ohio State to Texas), Spencer Rattler (Oklahoma to South Carolina) and Williams — have cashed in with six- and seven-figure deals. Meanwhile, unintended consequences have developed in the wake of the portal's unveiling in 2018 and the sweeping legislative changes across the NCAA that have provided athletes more freedom to move from school to school and monetize their personal brands.
247Sports surveyed more than three dozen FBS coaches and asked whether there should be tweaks to the portal. They also shared their primary concerns, and nearly all believed in one thing: open and closing dates for the portal.
Portal windows must be created, say coaches
The transfer portal was created to give players the option to leave a team and explore other institutions at any time, without hindrance from their current school.The only red tape slowing the process: schools can wait 48 hours before entering the players' name in the portal. After that, it's fair game and every school in the country can call or message the player.
Four years later, coaches' recruiting schedules have ballooned. Year-round recruiting is required in their own locker room just as it is on the recruiting trail for perspective players at high schools. Players come and go at all times. Some leave in the middle of seasons. Others wait until the end of the season or the conclusion of the fall or spring semesters.
The increased workload is tiresome, coaches say, and calculating always-fluid roster numbers is a headache. There are also rule breakers in their coaching fraternity. Schools and coaches are not allowed to recruit a player until they enter the portal, but active recruiting is occurring behind the scenes before they exit programs, coaches said.
"Everybody is tampering. We all do it," an FBS head coach said. "At this point it’s like going 65 mph in a 55. What are you going to do with it? But there need to be parameters. NFL free agency starts and ends on certain dates, and we need to do that with the portal. That's No. 1. They have to protect the kids from themselves and make it fair for our rosters because it’s impossible the way it is set up today."
Todd Berry, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, wants two windows for the portal to open: after the regular season and again after spring practices. The problem: the NCAA and schools are concerned limiting the time players can explore the portal would lead to legal battles.
Many coaches surveyed by 247Sports agreed with Berry's idea, and others only offered slight tweaks. One Power Five assistant offered hard dates: April 1-30; Nov. 1 through conference championship weekend; and seven days at a school following the departure of a head coach and seven days at a school following the hiring of a new coach.
"If we can create a better window where kids have a few months to get in the portal and make a decision it would benefit both coaches and players," a Group of Five assistant coach said. "It would give kids and coaching staffs across the country a better feel for the number of spots available as well as who is available."
Academic eligibility requirements could curb numbers, save kids' scholarships
Players can transfer as long as they are academically eligible, but some coaches believe more stringent requirements should be considered.
One Power Five assistant suggests players must have a minimum grade-point average of 3.0 to enter the portal. Several others believe only select players should be immediately eligible to compete at a new school.
Other requirements pitched by coaches include:
- Players can only transfer if their head coach is fired or leaves the school. Player whose head coach is fired or leaves the school
- Players can not transfer until one calendar year following their enrollment at original school.
"Glad I am at the end of my career," a veteran FBS assistant said. "This s*** is getting crazy!"
The primary issue, however, is the window. There needs to be a calendar for when players can enter the portal, most coaches agreed, and instituting those guardrails would help curb many problems. Too many good things happened within a short period of time, coaches said, and the creation of the portal, the relaxation of eligibility rules and the freedom to profit off NIL — the latter two happening within months — hastened cracks in the portal's framework.
"We’ve forgotten who the adult in the room is," an FBS head coach said. "I don’t let my kids have dessert every night just because they ask for it. There's no way to protect them from themselves."
Nixing Early Signing Period could strengthen portal, high school recruiting
The Early Signing Period in December was created to end the recruiting process early for coaches and recruits. What it has turned into is a headache for coaches as they ramp up recruiting during their fall seasons. The primary national signing day — the first Wednesday in February — has become an afterthought because of the early signing period in December, and the creation of the transfer portal has only amplified the recruiting noise during what should have been a quiet December.
In many ways, signing days are college football's NFL draft and the portal is free agency. The only difference is there are no parameters for the portal, and free agency is an every-day event. Simply put, because of the portal and the early signing period recruiting never stops, not even for the holidays.
The other issue, which many coaches believe will prove true as the numbers bear in the coming months, is their staff's dwindling focus on high school recruiting.
"There shouldn’t be changes to the portal. I think signing day should be moved to February permanently," an FBS assistant said. "The early signing period hurts high school kids with the portal because from December to February schools are prioritizing transfer portal kids over high school kids. The threshold to go (FBS) out of high school is getting more and more difficult."
Providing immediate eligibility to transfers in the spring of 2021 saturated the market with veterans rather than newcomers over the last year. Transfers, particularly those with experience as starters at their previous school, offered coaches the promise of an immediate fix on their roster rather than a two-year developmental deal with a signee out of high school. Like the advent of the portal itself in 2018, a one-time relief for immediate eligibility seemed great at first glance, particularly with rosters ballooning with an additional year of eligibility provided to players affected by the pandemic.
The numbers, however, are starting to bite schools. The challenge to fill rosters and balance scholarships is cumbersome, which has led many schools to create new administrative position to monitor the portal and balance their roster numbers. The NCAA's answer to the inflation arrived this year: a one-time reprieve for schools to replace players lost in the portal in 2021-22. In addition to 25 combined signees in December and February, schools are now allowed to replace up to seven players who enter the transfer portal. That "plus-seven" model, however, is well below the average departures for each FBS team (13.8) entering the final two weeks of January, and those numbers will only rise. FBS schools lost an average of 19.3 players, including walk-ons, during the 2020-21 cycle that ended July 31, and that number figures to be higher this year.
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So, what's next? Are there too many problems with few solutions? Change is likely, though the first steps are not clear. The NCAA is busy drafting a new constitution as it tries to simplify an antiquated and complex legislative system during a convention this week in Indianapolis. Their focus is on sweeping, fundamental changes within governance rather than the minutiae moving the portal gears within that much-larger system. Coaches do not have much confidence the organization will steer the ship in the right direction before more headaches arise.
"The death of the NCAA began a year ago," an FBS head coach said. "It’s like the playoff expanding: it’s more 'when' and not 'if.' ... There’s just so much that makes no sense."
