For a few years now, people have referred to the transfer portal as free agency. But they had no idea what was coming.
Per a ruling Wednesday by West Virginia Judge John P. Bailey, the rule that players can only transfer once (as a nongrad transfer) or otherwise have to sit out a year is not enforceable. This government ruling – which will last at minimum for 14 days -essentially allows players to transfer as many times as they’d like as long as they have eligibility. If the ruling is upheld, a player will be able to transfer a few times a year, which could lead to double-digit transfers for some players. Double digit! While that’s unlikely, you get the gist. Free agency is truly here.
The NCAA says it will not prevent multi-time transferring athletes from playing immediately, per a statement to @YahooSports. pic.twitter.com/sRaqT16esr
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) December 13, 2023
So what does this mean? It means player loyalty to schools has been lessened greatly, and college football players will be on the move more than ever. It also makes NIL more important and crucial to schools trying to keep players they want. And it means colleges are more than free to run players off their roster without fear or backlash that the player will be forced to sit out. Basically, what we saw from Deion Sanders and Colorado when he arrived, where he ran off about 75% of his roster, can and will happen more often. Sanders received harsh backlash when he did it because he left many kids stuck. With this new ruling, there is no stuck. It’s everyone for themselves and a cutthroat world. Just what college football doesn’t need.
This is another indication of the swift demise of college football. With NIL in place, TV money dictating who makes the college football playoff, and now college players having the ability to be hired guns over and over, we are screwed. The NCAA won’t put up a fight out of fear of anti-trust lawsuits, and the portal will become more and more utilized as less effort is put into high school recruiting. The disarray we saw when the portal opened on Dec. 4 will be much worse next year at this time, and the spring portal window will be hard to manage. The only hope is that Congress eventually gets involved and puts some restrictions on NIL, which could slow down the portal, but that’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.
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For those who love college football, this is a bad day. While it’s exciting to land a player from the portal, it’s also heartbreaking to see a good player leave, and the ups and downs of this process will take a toll on the love affair with college football. It sounds rudimentary and simple, but every ounce of the innocence of college football fades with each setback like this. Welcome to the new world. What’s next?
