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It’s happening everywhere right now. High school football seasons have ended across America. Seniors who haven’t already signed a college athletics scholarship are hoping to hear from recruiters – especially those from the “brand name” schools.
There’s one big problem. The phones aren’t ringing.
This is another consequence of the changing landscape of college football. In prior years, many college football teams would be scrambling today to high schools across the country to sign talented young players.
Unless your name happens to be Manning, many top high school football players are being told to sit tight and wait right now.
The reason is the NCAA’s version of the old telephone party line called the “Transfer Portal”.
Let’s say you were recruited by Large State University last year and unhappily sat on the bench for most of the year waiting for a chance to play. If your dream was playing college football and, perhaps, making it to the NFL, you will find yourself with hundreds of other current college players in the same predicament. Many are picking-up the NCAA’s transfer portal “party line” phone and announcing (to anyone willing to listen) that they are ready, willing, and able to transfer to another college immediately.
What about the college football team you are currently playing for? No problem! The NCAA transfer portal has effectively made every current college player a permanent free agent. Players can change schools every year if someone else is willing to take a chance on them.
On the flip side of this huge mess, the player’s current college is also more willing to pull the rug (meaning the player’s scholarship) out from under some benchwarmers, too. Your current college is also watching the transfer portal and shopping for talented players on other teams who want to transfer to your current school (and take your place).
Welcome to college football’s rapidly growing new game of Musical Chairs!
This new game is causing a permanent change in the high school football recruiting process and in the post-season college bowl games.
For example, a top ranked high school running back may have heard overtures from Large State University before and during his senior season. However, he has now put on “hold” while the college reviews available players on the NCAA transfer portal first. The school is searching for more experienced college football players who may desire to transfer into the school. Though the high school football player may turn out to be a better college football player than the incoming transfer, many college programs apparently feel more secure in making room for a college transfer instead of an incoming freshman right out of high school.
There’s also the issue of money. In some cases, it could mean BIG money.
The relatively new pay-for-play scheme known as “Name, Image, and Likeness” (NIL) allows for college athletes to receive money from legitimate (and, perhaps, a few nefarious) businesses in order to promote their products or services.
The colleges are quickly becoming more sophisticated in how to entice new money into their school’s NIL pool of cash. That money comes from wealthy supporters along with corporate sponsors. The NIL (with a little help from the college coaching staff) will determine how much money is to be redistributed to any player. In return, the college athlete must perform some type of reciprocating service for the NIL sponsor(s). This is usually in the form of personal appearances and/or commercials.
Instead of the old-fashioned method of having a wealthy booster buy a car or slip a wad of hundred dollar bills into the pockets of a high school recruit, today’s colleges are allowed to utilize these legal NIL payments to players as inducements to sign with the school.
Instead of beating a path to sign high school seniors to a scholarship, many coaches are checking the transfer portal every day. They will make contact with any players of interest and learn what type of financial enticement the transfer player may want to come play for a new college program.
The NCAA transfer portal recruiting element means that the school’s athletics program is now demanding a growing bucket of NIL cash to dole out to transfer players and a few of the most valued incoming freshmen.
We are now into the era of legalized “Pay-for-play” and instantaneous free agency for players.
The new NCAA rules do not require transferring students to sit-out for a year as was the case in bygone days. A student-athlete can leave a current college right now and start practicing at the new school next semester. .
That’s exactly what has been happening since the end of college football regular season in November.
While the colleges play the “NCAA Transfer Portal Tango” with current college football players, an increasing number of high school seniors are being asked to wait before being offered a college football scholarship.
A very good (but not great) high school football player must wait as even the mid-major and smaller college programs complete their own NCAA transfer portal hunting trips to fill areas of primary need.
We are seeing a decrease in the romancing of most high school football players. If you’re not considered a sure thing coming out of high school, your wait to hear about playing college football has just become longer.
Could this new waiting period for high school seniors cause some to simply forget about playing college football and just go somewhere for an education?
NAH!
Let’s say a dozen bench players at Large State University enter the Transfer Portal in search of another school to play for. In most cases, these players will transfer to a school which is equal in size or a bit smaller than Large State University.
Good ol’ Mid-Level University also has a dozen players hitting the portal, too. The team’s better players are trying to take a step up to a larger school for increased visibility and, of course, a bit of NIL cash available at most larger schools. There are also several lesser-used players seeking to transfer to another similar sized or smaller program in search of more playing time.
Small Football School’s program is facing the same issues as Mid-Level U. Some players are “playing up” to a larger school after a successful year. Most of the bench players will stay put or, sadly, be washed-out as their scholarship is offered to an incoming freshman.
The common denominator is that the new transfer portal game of Musical Chairs is being played by an increasing number of college football players and coaches across the board.
How many college football players are entering the transfer portal? Below is a list of college football programs with the most players seeking to move as of the current week:
Louisiana Tech – 18
Colorado State – 17
Texas A&M – 16
Arkansas – 15
Kent State – 14
Oklahoma State – 13
Oregon – 13
Maryland – 12
Virginia Tech – 12
Washington State – 12
Alabama – 11
Jackson State – 11
There is significant risk for each player who puts their name into this NCAA Transfer Portal hat.
What if nobody wants them?
For the 18 players at Louisiana Tech (which had an unusually bad season with a 3-9 record), coaches at other universities might wonder why so many Bulldog players want out. It’s also quite possible that many transfer players may not find a comparable sized program that is willing to sign them.
A few transfer college players from each school may actually become “Transfer Portal Pound Puppies”.
Like your local animal shelter, some will find a new college football home. For others, it may take a much longer wait before being “adopted”. And for some, nobody may come to claim them.
Would you take that unclaimed player back at your school after he openly shopped for a new team to play for? I wouldn’t.
For many high school seniors wanting to play football at the next level, this new “Transfer Tango” dance happening right now might entice more high school seniors to sign with smaller universities or junior colleges to secure a place to begin their college career.
At the end of their first semester in college, they will become eligible to participate in this odd game of Musical Chairs and the chase for NIL cash.
Many will enter. Few will win.