Interestingly enough, the coaches mentioned back in the preseason that one of the major reasons Ohio was able to sign Ricky Hunt was BECAUSE of the transfer portal. They talked about how a kid this highly rated would have been otherwise scooped up by a P5 school, but because of the amount of activity in the portal, guys like Hunt actually tricked down into the G5. They also said the same thing about WR Chase Hendricks. They said that both guys had P5 offers but the playing field to sign them was leveled out because of the activity/uncertainty of the P5 schools offering them. That said, when you land a kid that you may have overstretched yourself to get like these guys, you also run the risk of losing them down the road to the portal for the same reasons you were able to get them in the first place. Basically, when a kid signs with a school nowadays, it's like a placeholder. About half of them will use it as a stepping stone, the other half will stay put. You can almost bet that about half the guys that sign in a class on signing day won't be around at the school that signed them 4-5 years later.
Interesting. This may be it, exactly. A school like Ohio may get better recruits than in the past due to the portal, but then lose the best of them to the P5 via the portal. Similarly, the FCS schools may also be getting better recruits, but losing the best of them to the G5 via the portal. It's just a new world, and it will take awhile to sort itself out. It will be interesting to see what the new world ends up looking like when it is all done.
It's not the end of the world. It's the start of something new. We may like it. We may not. The danger for the sport in general is that, in a world where players have no loyalty to a team, will fans continue to have loyalty to a team? Will fans all pony up funds to support NIL? Or will they turn away and find some other pastime? College football has changed a lot over the last 150 years, and will continue to change. I have no predictions about it's future, but I do personally wonder why what are essentially professional sports teams are tied to purportedly non-profit institutions of learning? Other than historical origin, it makes no real sense to me.
Last Edited: 12/9/2023 7:02:03 AM by L.C.