Secrets of the college football transfer portal: ‘There’s definitely tampering going on’
David Ubben 5h ago 32
The standout running back from a Group of 5 program got an unsolicited call from a coach at a Power 5 program.
The coach made a promise: Come here, and we can make sure you make the most of your name, image and likeness.
And he put a number on it: $200,000.
The problem? This particular running back wasn’t one of the more than 1,000 FBS scholarship football players who entered his name in the transfer portal during the past year.
“It’s a reality,” a Group of 5 assistant coach told The Athletic this month. “(Tampering) is going on right now.”
Roster management never has been more difficult in college sports. In April, the NCAA eliminated the requirement for first-time transfers to sit out a season before resuming their playing career. Three months later, athletes were allowed to monetize their name, image and likeness for the first time.
The power balance in college athletics has shifted, and college football is in the midst of a never-before-seen roster turnover tornado.
None of the coaches The Athletic spoke with on the condition of anonymity for this story oppose free transfers or NIL, but the two seismic rule changes have combined to create an environment they feel is untenable and, on the issue of transfers specifically, could end up hurting the careers of more players than it helps.
Like it or not, it’s the new reality in the sport. Every coaching staff is wrestling with how to answer one question: How do we keep our players out of the portal?
“That’s the golden question right there,” a Group of 5 head coach said.
The portal launched Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III’s career into the stratosphere after he left Wake Forest, and it turned Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams into one of the sport’s biggest stars after he left Ohio State. At Kentucky, Wan’Dale Robinson’s production in 2021 surpassed what he did in two seasons at Nebraska combined.
But the portal isn’t a fairy tale for everyone.
As semesters begin across college campuses, just more than 50 percent of players who have entered the portal have announced new homes. The longer a player is stuck in the portal, the more questions coaches have about why, like when a house is stuck on the market for months on end.
“The portal was invented for Joe Burrow-type guys. It’s not a bad thing,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “It’s just like anything. We have to educate our players about the tool and if it’s best for them.”
And the tampering issues have become more commonplace, pulling players into the portal often with promises that may not be fulfilled. With just six months of data on NIL money, both sides of the equation are still guessing what’s to come.
“It’s been going on awhile, but it used to just be grad transfers. I had a player at (his previous school) and people called his mom, they called his coach and called everybody to try and get him to transfer, but he ended up staying,” the Group of 5 assistant said.
Now, however, with nearly every team’s entire roster having the ability to leave for another school and play immediately, those calls are happening more often than ever.
“Some guys getting these deals in the SEC are making good money. There’s definitely tampering going on,” a Group of 5 coordinator said. “But I don’t think anybody knows the rules. The NCAA’s loose approach with it is good and bad. They’re trying to not get caught up where they’re making a bunch of decisions of what is right and wrong, but at the same time, the reality is even if the NCAA came down on schools for tampering, they’d just go through a high school coach or handler or whatever to make deals.
“Guys are seeing comparable type players get in the portal and get better offers. They feel like the grass is greener, and it’s risky for some guys. It’s paid off for some.”
At the American Football Coaches Association’s national convention this month in San Antonio, representatives from the NCAA attended a meeting of the FBS assistant coaches’ committee, and tampering with players not in the portal was one of the most contentious issues.
“The NCAA basically said there’s not a whole lot we can do about it, unless we restrict a player’s ability to do something,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “They’re caught between a rock and a hard place, and they don’t have a lot of good solutions. This is my 19th year in coaching, and this is the most uncertain and uneasy I’ve ever felt about the direction we’re headed.”
One suggestion the committee pitched to calm some of the transfer chaos: Giving players a two-month window after the regular season and after the spring semester to enter the portal, which would better allow coaches to project their numbers and fill them through recruiting or backfilling in the portal. In the sport’s current state, an entire position group could depart for any reason and leave a gaping hole in any roster.
Another possible solution: Keeping the scholarship count at 85 but requiring two-thirds of those scholarships be players the program signed out of high school.
“Those sound great, but what the NCAA is concerned about more than anything else is they don’t want to restrict players’ ability to do anything because of the Supreme Court decision,” a Group of 5 assistant said.
One Power 5 assistant said he hoped the sport would have some kind of collective bargaining agreement in the future.
“If we’re going to be like the pros, we’ve gotta have something in there that’s beneficial on both sides,” he said.
Player decisions aren’t the only reason for the overflowing portal. Some barely have a choice.
More than a few of the flood of players who entered the portal were given a push from their coaching staffs, either to free valuable, needed scholarships or by making it clear their path to the field was narrow to nonexistent.
“This is also occurring now: ‘Hey, you don’t fit our new system anymore. We think you should enter the transfer portal. Compliance is two doors down. We’re going to have our operations director walk you over there,’” a Group of 5 assistant said. “It definitely works both ways.”
But keeping players a coaching staff wants to keep is harder than ever.
For Power 5 programs, the challenge usually lies in retaining players who are still developing and might contribute as upperclassmen.
“The level of discontent among the athletes in college football is at an all-time high,” a veteran Power 5 assistant said. “We gotta kind of coddle them, baby them. I’m just telling you. We try not to, but man (pause), it’s terrible, actually. You try to keep kids happy, but you can’t. There’s 22 starters, but there’s 80 guys on your team who aren’t starting, and even the guys who are starting aren’t getting enough sacks or catches or carries and they’re unhappy.”
At the lower levels, the greater challenge is holding on to players who blossom into stars, but it can even become an issue for more modest Power 5 programs. This offseason, All-ACC running back Jahmyr Gibbs left Georgia Tech and landed a coveted spot on Alabama’s roster, one of just three transfers the Crimson Tide gave a scholarship so far this offseason.
But Albany edge rusher Jared Verse parlayed a breakout season for the FCS Great Danes into a spot at Florida State. Tackle Miles Frazier jumped from Florida International to LSU, and offensive lineman O’Cyrus Torrence left Louisiana and followed his head coach Billy Napier to Florida.
“We feel like we’re a farm system,” a Group of 5 coordinator said. “Then they go up to the major leagues to get paid.”
In some cases, players have traded being exploited by an unjust system for being manipulated by lofty promises or bad advice from someone who cares for them but lacks the big-picture perspective and a firm grasp on the sometimes harsh reality the portal can deliver.
“Is the risk for every kid worth the reward?” a Power 5 head coach asked. “A lot of kids that reached out to us from (his previous school); they’re having trouble getting FCS offers because it’s so unknown. When they glorify so many guys that hit it, there’s so many more that won’t.”
One Group of 5 assistant coach said a study conducted by his staff found that in the last year, 62 percent of players who entered the transfer portal left it with less scholarship money than they had at a previous school. And so far, the payoff of moving up is minimal, beyond the experience of playing big-time college football. Last year, 43 players outside of the Power 5 and BYU/Notre Dame were drafted. Only three players moved up from the Group of 5 or lower to a Power 5 roster and were drafted.
“If you’re truly an NFL prospect, they’ll find you,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “The NFL spends billions of dollars evaluating talent. Let them do their job.”
For now, coaches are left trying to find ways to manage their roster, keep their players out of the portal and hope players they signed from high school don’t make decisions that hurt themselves in the long run.
“You have to forecast ahead. That’s the hardest part. It used to be you could lose 4-5 linemen, but now you can lose 7-8 where we’re at,” a Group of 5 head coach said. “You have to hold scholarships. You probably have to keep some through spring ball so you don’t lose an entire position group. You just have to plan ahead and be able to replace them if you have a drastic, mass exodus of a room.”
To prevent that, however, goes back to recruiting philosophy and deepening relationships once signed players arrive on campus. Many coaches emphasized the need for multiple coaches to build deep relationships with players. If a player feels just one coach cares about him or knows him, if that coach leaves, the player is far more likely to do the same.
“You’re paid to recruit, and if you’re good at your job, you’re a salesman. You sell them on what you want them to do but if it’s not genuine and that relationship doesn’t continue when it gets to campus, they don’t have enough invested,” a Power 5 assistant said. “You don’t know who’s recruiting your players after they sign with you. If they play a good game or have a good season, you’re probably fighting against something you don’t see on the surface. So you better make sure everything you’re about is something that kid is invested in.”
Other coaches said they’ve emphasized the need to make more of an effort to coach the entire roster in practices, beyond just the players contributing in that week’s game.
Additionally, being honest about expectations and roles is key. At one program, players meet at the end of the season with everyone involved with their development: the head coach, the coordinator, position coach, strength coach, academic advisers and nutrition staffers. Together, they review the year and explain what went well and what the player needs to improve to reach his goals.
Said one Power 5 coach: “We’re working hard on culture and spending time with our guys. Everyone is trying to find that magic potion to do those things. It’s just always communication and understanding and having real conversations and explaining what young men need to do. The ones you worry about are young players and impatient players.”
Some of that can be fixed in recruiting, but that can’t take effect until changes in recruiting assessment can take hold in college football’s new era.
One Power 5 assistant said his program is being more careful signing players from too far outside his program’s geographic footprint, and the program also red flags prospects who either talk too much about solely the NFL or NIL or have parents who do so.
“You gotta be very careful signing that guy. Because if things don’t go right in the first or second year, the parent may be unhappy, and it won’t have anything to do with the kid,” a Power 5 assistant said. “You have to dissect who you’re bringing into the program and be honest, ‘Did I talk this kid into coming or did he want to come?’”
Multiple coaches eyed a hopeful future in which the lessons less fortunate transfers learn in the coming years influence decisions in the future and slow down roster movement in the sport.
“It’s absolutely crazy, man,” a Group of 5 head coach said. “I’ve learned to just be at peace with everything and be a good person, work on relationships, communicate and take it one day at a time because the rules that are in place now, who knows what it’ll be two months from now.”
Last year featured major rule changes, and considering the current state of college football, we should expect more in 2022.
“I trust that there’s a lot of smart people working toward the same thing. Just like anything else, in two to three years it’ll level out,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “And the player who is an average Group of 5 player will no longer be getting in the portal and hoping for a Power 5 offer.”
David Ubben 5h ago 32
The standout running back from a Group of 5 program got an unsolicited call from a coach at a Power 5 program.
The coach made a promise: Come here, and we can make sure you make the most of your name, image and likeness.
And he put a number on it: $200,000.
The problem? This particular running back wasn’t one of the more than 1,000 FBS scholarship football players who entered his name in the transfer portal during the past year.
“It’s a reality,” a Group of 5 assistant coach told The Athletic this month. “(Tampering) is going on right now.”
Roster management never has been more difficult in college sports. In April, the NCAA eliminated the requirement for first-time transfers to sit out a season before resuming their playing career. Three months later, athletes were allowed to monetize their name, image and likeness for the first time.
The power balance in college athletics has shifted, and college football is in the midst of a never-before-seen roster turnover tornado.
None of the coaches The Athletic spoke with on the condition of anonymity for this story oppose free transfers or NIL, but the two seismic rule changes have combined to create an environment they feel is untenable and, on the issue of transfers specifically, could end up hurting the careers of more players than it helps.
Like it or not, it’s the new reality in the sport. Every coaching staff is wrestling with how to answer one question: How do we keep our players out of the portal?
“That’s the golden question right there,” a Group of 5 head coach said.
The portal launched Michigan State running back Kenneth Walker III’s career into the stratosphere after he left Wake Forest, and it turned Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams into one of the sport’s biggest stars after he left Ohio State. At Kentucky, Wan’Dale Robinson’s production in 2021 surpassed what he did in two seasons at Nebraska combined.
But the portal isn’t a fairy tale for everyone.
As semesters begin across college campuses, just more than 50 percent of players who have entered the portal have announced new homes. The longer a player is stuck in the portal, the more questions coaches have about why, like when a house is stuck on the market for months on end.
“The portal was invented for Joe Burrow-type guys. It’s not a bad thing,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “It’s just like anything. We have to educate our players about the tool and if it’s best for them.”
And the tampering issues have become more commonplace, pulling players into the portal often with promises that may not be fulfilled. With just six months of data on NIL money, both sides of the equation are still guessing what’s to come.
“It’s been going on awhile, but it used to just be grad transfers. I had a player at (his previous school) and people called his mom, they called his coach and called everybody to try and get him to transfer, but he ended up staying,” the Group of 5 assistant said.
Now, however, with nearly every team’s entire roster having the ability to leave for another school and play immediately, those calls are happening more often than ever.
“Some guys getting these deals in the SEC are making good money. There’s definitely tampering going on,” a Group of 5 coordinator said. “But I don’t think anybody knows the rules. The NCAA’s loose approach with it is good and bad. They’re trying to not get caught up where they’re making a bunch of decisions of what is right and wrong, but at the same time, the reality is even if the NCAA came down on schools for tampering, they’d just go through a high school coach or handler or whatever to make deals.
“Guys are seeing comparable type players get in the portal and get better offers. They feel like the grass is greener, and it’s risky for some guys. It’s paid off for some.”
At the American Football Coaches Association’s national convention this month in San Antonio, representatives from the NCAA attended a meeting of the FBS assistant coaches’ committee, and tampering with players not in the portal was one of the most contentious issues.
“The NCAA basically said there’s not a whole lot we can do about it, unless we restrict a player’s ability to do something,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “They’re caught between a rock and a hard place, and they don’t have a lot of good solutions. This is my 19th year in coaching, and this is the most uncertain and uneasy I’ve ever felt about the direction we’re headed.”
One suggestion the committee pitched to calm some of the transfer chaos: Giving players a two-month window after the regular season and after the spring semester to enter the portal, which would better allow coaches to project their numbers and fill them through recruiting or backfilling in the portal. In the sport’s current state, an entire position group could depart for any reason and leave a gaping hole in any roster.
Another possible solution: Keeping the scholarship count at 85 but requiring two-thirds of those scholarships be players the program signed out of high school.
“Those sound great, but what the NCAA is concerned about more than anything else is they don’t want to restrict players’ ability to do anything because of the Supreme Court decision,” a Group of 5 assistant said.
One Power 5 assistant said he hoped the sport would have some kind of collective bargaining agreement in the future.
“If we’re going to be like the pros, we’ve gotta have something in there that’s beneficial on both sides,” he said.
Player decisions aren’t the only reason for the overflowing portal. Some barely have a choice.
More than a few of the flood of players who entered the portal were given a push from their coaching staffs, either to free valuable, needed scholarships or by making it clear their path to the field was narrow to nonexistent.
“This is also occurring now: ‘Hey, you don’t fit our new system anymore. We think you should enter the transfer portal. Compliance is two doors down. We’re going to have our operations director walk you over there,’” a Group of 5 assistant said. “It definitely works both ways.”
But keeping players a coaching staff wants to keep is harder than ever.
For Power 5 programs, the challenge usually lies in retaining players who are still developing and might contribute as upperclassmen.
“The level of discontent among the athletes in college football is at an all-time high,” a veteran Power 5 assistant said. “We gotta kind of coddle them, baby them. I’m just telling you. We try not to, but man (pause), it’s terrible, actually. You try to keep kids happy, but you can’t. There’s 22 starters, but there’s 80 guys on your team who aren’t starting, and even the guys who are starting aren’t getting enough sacks or catches or carries and they’re unhappy.”
At the lower levels, the greater challenge is holding on to players who blossom into stars, but it can even become an issue for more modest Power 5 programs. This offseason, All-ACC running back Jahmyr Gibbs left Georgia Tech and landed a coveted spot on Alabama’s roster, one of just three transfers the Crimson Tide gave a scholarship so far this offseason.
But Albany edge rusher Jared Verse parlayed a breakout season for the FCS Great Danes into a spot at Florida State. Tackle Miles Frazier jumped from Florida International to LSU, and offensive lineman O’Cyrus Torrence left Louisiana and followed his head coach Billy Napier to Florida.
“We feel like we’re a farm system,” a Group of 5 coordinator said. “Then they go up to the major leagues to get paid.”
In some cases, players have traded being exploited by an unjust system for being manipulated by lofty promises or bad advice from someone who cares for them but lacks the big-picture perspective and a firm grasp on the sometimes harsh reality the portal can deliver.
“Is the risk for every kid worth the reward?” a Power 5 head coach asked. “A lot of kids that reached out to us from (his previous school); they’re having trouble getting FCS offers because it’s so unknown. When they glorify so many guys that hit it, there’s so many more that won’t.”
One Group of 5 assistant coach said a study conducted by his staff found that in the last year, 62 percent of players who entered the transfer portal left it with less scholarship money than they had at a previous school. And so far, the payoff of moving up is minimal, beyond the experience of playing big-time college football. Last year, 43 players outside of the Power 5 and BYU/Notre Dame were drafted. Only three players moved up from the Group of 5 or lower to a Power 5 roster and were drafted.
“If you’re truly an NFL prospect, they’ll find you,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “The NFL spends billions of dollars evaluating talent. Let them do their job.”
For now, coaches are left trying to find ways to manage their roster, keep their players out of the portal and hope players they signed from high school don’t make decisions that hurt themselves in the long run.
“You have to forecast ahead. That’s the hardest part. It used to be you could lose 4-5 linemen, but now you can lose 7-8 where we’re at,” a Group of 5 head coach said. “You have to hold scholarships. You probably have to keep some through spring ball so you don’t lose an entire position group. You just have to plan ahead and be able to replace them if you have a drastic, mass exodus of a room.”
To prevent that, however, goes back to recruiting philosophy and deepening relationships once signed players arrive on campus. Many coaches emphasized the need for multiple coaches to build deep relationships with players. If a player feels just one coach cares about him or knows him, if that coach leaves, the player is far more likely to do the same.
“You’re paid to recruit, and if you’re good at your job, you’re a salesman. You sell them on what you want them to do but if it’s not genuine and that relationship doesn’t continue when it gets to campus, they don’t have enough invested,” a Power 5 assistant said. “You don’t know who’s recruiting your players after they sign with you. If they play a good game or have a good season, you’re probably fighting against something you don’t see on the surface. So you better make sure everything you’re about is something that kid is invested in.”
Other coaches said they’ve emphasized the need to make more of an effort to coach the entire roster in practices, beyond just the players contributing in that week’s game.
Additionally, being honest about expectations and roles is key. At one program, players meet at the end of the season with everyone involved with their development: the head coach, the coordinator, position coach, strength coach, academic advisers and nutrition staffers. Together, they review the year and explain what went well and what the player needs to improve to reach his goals.
Said one Power 5 coach: “We’re working hard on culture and spending time with our guys. Everyone is trying to find that magic potion to do those things. It’s just always communication and understanding and having real conversations and explaining what young men need to do. The ones you worry about are young players and impatient players.”
Some of that can be fixed in recruiting, but that can’t take effect until changes in recruiting assessment can take hold in college football’s new era.
One Power 5 assistant said his program is being more careful signing players from too far outside his program’s geographic footprint, and the program also red flags prospects who either talk too much about solely the NFL or NIL or have parents who do so.
“You gotta be very careful signing that guy. Because if things don’t go right in the first or second year, the parent may be unhappy, and it won’t have anything to do with the kid,” a Power 5 assistant said. “You have to dissect who you’re bringing into the program and be honest, ‘Did I talk this kid into coming or did he want to come?’”
Multiple coaches eyed a hopeful future in which the lessons less fortunate transfers learn in the coming years influence decisions in the future and slow down roster movement in the sport.
“It’s absolutely crazy, man,” a Group of 5 head coach said. “I’ve learned to just be at peace with everything and be a good person, work on relationships, communicate and take it one day at a time because the rules that are in place now, who knows what it’ll be two months from now.”
Last year featured major rule changes, and considering the current state of college football, we should expect more in 2022.
“I trust that there’s a lot of smart people working toward the same thing. Just like anything else, in two to three years it’ll level out,” a Group of 5 assistant said. “And the player who is an average Group of 5 player will no longer be getting in the portal and hoping for a Power 5 offer.”
