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Entering the Portal? Get In Line.
The transfer portal doesn’t open for another three weeks or so, but the declarations are already rolling in. The portal’s calendar may say January, but social media lives in its own universe. Players are announcing their intentions weeks early because the entire business is built on unofficial conversations and unofficial agreements, and unofficial opportunities that somehow feel more official than the actual rules.
As an athlete, this has to look like barely controlled chaos. One player posts that he wants to explore options. Or misses the team banquet. Fans panic. Coaches release statements and schedule meetings. Collectives start counting whatever they have left in the bank. Meanwhile, the athlete is just sitting in their dorm, hopefully studying for finals.
It used to be a lot simpler. Play hard. Earn your spot. Now the checklist is different. Now it’s what is my NIL value? And don’t forget to read the fine print. Just ask Damon Wilson.
The former Georgia DE transferred to Missouri and found out the hard way that NIL contracts are not friendly handshake deals. Georgia is suing him for nearly $400,000 in damages after he left a few weeks into a new agreement.
If you are a player watching this unfold, you have to be wondering if you have a transfer clause in your contracts. If you signed it in the last year, you probably do. Schools and collectives have discovered that if athletes can move freely then the money needs some kind of leash. That leash is called “liquidation damages”. The translation is simple. Leave early, and it might cost you more than you made on the deal.
This goes hard against the idea that players are empowered in the NIL era. The sales pitch was more power, more freedom, more choice. But they don’t mention that schools have more lawyers and more people who know how to use the rules in their favor.
So, yes, the portal is pure chaos. But for athletes, it is much more than that. It’s a gamble with real stakes. The freedom to move is real, but so are the consequences. And somewhere out there is another player who didn’t read the fine print on page seven of their contract before he hit post.
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Opinion
Parity is a Myth
There has been a lot of talk lately about “parity” in college football because of NIL. People point at Vanderbilt and Indiana’s success and try to infer somehow this shows the success of NIL. It’s the security blanket conferences keep waving around as if everyone can still believe in the old idea that any team can rise up and shock the world.
Parity is a myth. It has more in common with a lottery. If your school lands a billionaire, congratulations! Here’s your top 10 football team.
Take Indiana. For years the Hoosiers wer politely described as a football project still waiting for construction to begin. They are a basketball school. Enter Mark Cuban. After he makes a direct donation to the athletic department, suddenly Indiana skyrockets to the top. They were winning in the portal. Recruiting was outstanding. What happens next? More donations start to flow in. Do we know how big the check Cuban wrote was? No. Was it big enough to shock the entire Big 10? Absolutely.
Want more examples? Let’s look at SMU. Before they jointed the ACC they actively campaigned to raise as much as possible for NIL. Boy did they do well. They reached out to alumni who wrote $100 million in checks in a single week. More money followed. The impact was immediate. SMU was invited into the ACC before the ink on the checks were dry. Nothing else changed. It was just serious money flowing into the program.
This is the real divide that needs to be addressed. People want to believe that upsets and underdog storylines prove everyone is still equal. But upsets don’t equate to parity. If this all sounds cynical, it’s only because reality is doing most of the work. This is not the era of brilliant recruiting geniuses or creative offensive schemes. This is the era of bank accounts.
Parity is not going to happen anytime soon, if ever. The lottery winners have already been announced. Oregon has Phil Knight. Texas Tech has oil money. Kansas has a massive donor base. Michigan State just collected a massive athletic gift of nearly $400 million.
Notice anything about the team’s cashing in? No mid-major schools. There’s about 28 other D1 conferences outside of the that are not part of the power four. The separation is growing while the sport keeps pretending the playing field is level.
The only hope is to hit the donor lottery. That’s the golden ticket, and it probably comes with a power conference invite as well.
Legislation Update: The SCORE Act
The score act passed out of committee at the beginning of December, but the bill stalled short of a vote from the full House of Representatives. Critics argue that the bill gives too much control back to the institutions because it limits athletes’ rights and protections. It also forbids classifying athletes as employees, regardless of how NIL or compensation evolves.
All the bills in Congress struggle to find a solution to schools funneling money into revenue-generating sports while chipping away at non-revenue or Olympic sports teams.
It looks like there will be no movement on any NIL bills until 2026, after the holiday break.
Small School Focus:
Is Transferring Worth It?
With all the hype around the transfer portal, the truth for athletes in D2 and D3 is pretty straightforward. With very few exceptions, you should be planning for your future beyond sports. So when you think about transferring to a new school you cannot treat it as a launchpad to the NFL or NBA or any other professional league.
The first thing to understand is your degree is the most valuable thing you will get from college sports. The degree is the part that pays your bills long after your cleats or shows are in a box in the garage. So before you transfer, you need to understand how changing schools will impact your graduation path. You need to know how many of your credits will transfer or how long it will push back graduation. This is a career decision, not an emotional one. Sure, if you are struggling with the coach, or the athletic department, that is different. But don’t change schools simply for more playing time. You have to think long term.
Second, evaluate any NIL potential. With most NIL deals negotiated “unofficially” prior to transfer, moving for money comes with risk. Make sure everything is legit. Don’t forget the priority is paying for your education, not making a career as a professional athlete. Your best bet is smaller, local deals with community businesses. Don’t chase big money.
Remember our athletic window is short, but your career window is long. If you enter the portal, keep the second one in mind.
This Week’s Quote
“Success is no accident. It is hard work, perserverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing.”
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