One hinderance that athletes in the portal have found is transferring credits to another school. Some have been shut out of the school of their choice because university administrators won't enroll a transfer. Also, most schools require at least 30 resident credit hours to graduate from a school. For instance, any student transferring to Ohio in any major must complete 30 credit hours on campus to earn The Ohio University degree, and this cannot be waived.
Word on the street: Marshall thought they found a way around this. They only require 24 credit hours for a degree, and put players in seminars to load this all up into one semester with a courseload waiver. They are also far more lenient when transferring credits. They saw this as a way to entice top-tier transfers. And it worked, as they loaded up on transfers in January from Florida, Florida State, etc. What they didn't expect that it was all a ruse. Many of them left after a few months...with a Marshall degree in hand. And with that degree, they could now gain admission into the school they really wanted to get into all along. This, of course, is the brainchild of some slick agents.
Ahh the portal.
Back when Chad Pennington was QB, a friend described Marshall as "a community college with a Big 10 football program." Their program has always cut corners to enroll good athletes who were questionable students. It's kind of nice to see them get a little of their own cheating medicine.