There’s a narrative going around that the transfer portal, coupled with NIL, is destroying the chances of low and mid-major programs competing at a national level.
This is one of the stupidest things that anyone can say.
And people say some stupid things.
Especially about sports!
Evan Miyakawa, the Ken Pomeroy of our younger generation, has a helpful tool on his site that mathematically ranks both transfer classes and overall transfer activity. This latter piece is important, because you can be LSU, with the third-ranked incoming transfer class, and you can still be in disastrous shape due to the post-Will Wade exodus, as their 253rd-place ranking in overall transfer activity suggests.
The top ten right now in the latter category, Overall Transfer Activity, is an interesting list. On the one hand, you have appearances from Florida, Arkansas, St. John’s, and Georgetown, as well as UNLV and Providence, all programs who are either high majors or, in UNLV’s case, a big school in a big city with a big basketball history, even if the program’s rather dormant right now. On the other hand, you have Bryant, UAB, Wyoming, and Chattanooga.
To be fair, Chattanooga’s in there because of their sole incoming transfer, Jake Stephens, who followed his coach over from VMI. Stephens is nearly seven feet tall and shot 50% on 142 three-point attempts last year. That can be written off as an oddity of a situation. But Bryant? And UAB? And Wyoming?
You can write off UAB as well, if you really make an effort. They lost Josh Leblanc Sr. to traditional power program…oh wait, this is saying “Texas Southern,” an HBCU in Houston known for playing one of the most miserable schedules in college sports to help finance their entire athletic department. Well, Jamal Johnson’s in the portal too, so who cares that they brought in Eric Gaines, a former four-star high school recruit who played under Wade at LSU and is currently the seventh-ranked transfer nationally, fourth among point guards. And who cares that the Blazers added the Brewer brothers out of East Tennessee State, a pair a lot of power conference programs would have loved to have. UAB, after all, plays in the famously attractive market of Birmingham, Alabama, and the athletic department’s a force of nature which famously briefly got rid of their football program a few years ago because local interest in UAB sports was so low. The NIL/transfer portal combo is feeding right into UAB’s dynastic might.
But Bryant? And Wyoming?
When Doug Edert signed with Bryant, it was a bit of a letdown for those of us who’d fallen in love with the guy during the NCAA Tournament. Bryant? They were a fun team, but, Bryant? Maybe there’s something going on in Smithfield (that’s where Bryant’s at, it’s a town of 22,000 a bit out of the way for those driving from Providence to Woonsocket). Maybe those famous Bryant boosters are out of control. Maybe Jared Grasso, with the name and the look of a character in a knockoff GoodFellas, is dropping bags. After all, in addition to Edert, Bryant grabbed former four-star Earl Timberlake out of Memphis, plucked contributor Antwan Walker from nearby Rhode Island, and went around the Sound to nab Kvonn Cramer from Hofstra. Chauncey Hawkins joins from the St. Francis in Brooklyn. A lot of players have yet to sign, but the Bulldogs currently have the top-ranked incoming transfer class in the country, and the top Overall Transfer Activity ranking to go with it.
Are these guys the biggest names? No. They’re not. That’s the point. That’s what’s being lost in all of this. Journalists and fans are getting so caught up in what a few big names are doing and in the sheer number of players transferring that they’re making claims that aren’t true. Claims that this somehow isn’t good for players. Claims that we should have a different name when it’s boosters paying the athletes as opposed to commercial sponsors. Claims that this is bad for the little guy. Of course, these same scribes and diehards will speak out the other side of their mouth next spring should 13-seed Bryant, fresh off a thrilling season-long battle with Vermont in the America East, puts up 85 points in a first round track meet with Alabama. But anything to fit the present narrative.
In Laramie, the guy who once-upon-a-time discovered Damian Lillard has lured three Pac-12 contributors away from Los Angeles to join Graham Ike and potentially a returning Hunter Maldonado in the Mountain West. Ethan Anderson, Max Agbonkpolo, and Jake Kyman are all Wyoming-bound. The Cowboys are going to, once again, be quite good by mid-major standards. Possibly by national standards.
There’s one apparent negative aspect to the transfer portal, and that’s the easier path it gives coaches to push players out of their programs if they no longer have use for them. In cases like Wyoming’s, it’s unclear whether Eoin Nelson, Deng Dut, and Ben Bowen are voluntarily transferring away or were led out the door to make room for stronger players. It’s the player’s decision, sure, but a lot of pressure can be exerted by the coach, and if the scholarship is a one-year scholarship (it’s unclear if the Mountain West requires four-year scholarships or not, but I don’t believe it does), it can be taken away without warning, in which case it really isn’t the player’s decision. At the very least, it’s a situation where players can be misled into bad situations, and the transfer portal greases the wheels for that process.
The transfer portal is not the thing that enables that process, though. The things that enable that process are these one-year scholarships and poor accountability. By and large, the transfer portal is opening up opportunities for athletes. Athletes like Doug Edert, who gets to make a run at a second year of NCAA Tournament stardom, and potentially even Deng Dut, who was going to be buried on the bench at Wyoming.
Is the transfer portal chaotic? Yes. Does the transfer portal change college sports significantly? Yes. But when it comes to the competitive ability of smaller programs, there’s little basis to the takes that the transfer portal is consolidating power among high-majors. UAB is doing well. Wyoming is doing well. Bryant is cleaning up.
