Four Things We Learned From The Transfer Portal

For the first time in a long time, college basketball had something to talk about during the off-season. The transfer portal made sure the sport didn’t fade into the abyss after the championship game in April. Couple the portal with NIL and you’ve got full-blown free agency to keep the news cycle going through the doldrums of the summer. Now that portal season is officially over, it’s time to look back and see what we learned from a chaotic (and awesome) summer in college basketball.

1. Cash Is King

As with most things in life, people tend to go where the money is. College basketball is no different now with the wombo-combo of NIL and the transfer portal. Before we go any further, let’s be clear – it’s all pay for play. There’s nothing wrong with that, in fact, I encourage it!

Many decisions this off-season were influenced by simple dollars and cents. Paul Mulcahy didn’t move to Seattle to hike the Cascades. Aaron Estrada didn’t cancel his remaining visits for no reason. Kerr Kriisa likely didn’t know where Morgantown was before he hit the portal.

The influx of cash in the sport led to some classic “we have f*** you money” situations. Bidding wars over role players made some recruitments more exciting than they probably should have been. Villanova paid how much? For him?

In an article on the topic by Gary Parrish, one coach said, “You have bozo-schools offering insane numbers, and typically those coaches get fired. We lost a guy when we offered over $200,000 — and he would have helped us. But we were blown away by the offer a Pac-12 school made.”

It would be interesting to see how much money really changed hands this summer – which is why transparency in the marketplace is the only adjustment that needs to be made to the current system. No one really knows how much people are getting. This led to a few situations where an athlete or agent would purposefully include a well-funded school in their “top-5” lists to drive up the price. In theory, it’s a good negotiation tactic, but in reality it’s the athletes that end up getting burned. A database with real, guaranteed contracts would go a long way in curbing most of the issues with NIL.

2. International Influx

Once the first few schools figured out how to pay international student-athletes, the floodgates opened for talent to come overseas. International players are generally more skilled and more experienced than American high schoolers. They’ve been playing in big games in front of big crowds for years and college coaches are starting to notice their value.

An interesting trend we saw this off-season was the willingness to take a chance on an international kid once the talent in the transfer portal fizzled out. A Big East assistant coach said, “It’s hard for freshmen to play anywhere at this level, but if you find the right overseas guys they can be more ready at times because of their skill level.” Coaches also prioritized foreigners over freshmen because there’s a high likelihood that freshman transfers anyways due to lack of playing time.

Heading into this season, will some coaches hold off on offering high schoolers knowing there’s some 6’7″ dynamo playing games in Serbia? Schools like Arizona, Gonzaga and UCLA have been attracting international talent for years, but they’ll start to see a lot more of their coaching counterparts on those layovers in Frankfurt.

3. Second-Time Transfers Are Stuck

Once the NCAA came down with their transfer waiver guidelines, it was over for second-time transfers. Many coaches were savvy enough to see the writing on the wall before the NCAA started denying waivers. Guys like Moussa Cisse, Noah Farrakhan and Efton Reid were stuck in the portal for much longer than anticipated because no one could guarantee their eligibility.

Now that waiver denials are coming down, the value of first-time transfers is skyrocketing. This is another reason why a coach would give pause to bringing in a freshman. Getting them on the rebound when they eventually transfer is much more valuable. Coaches who bring in first-time transfers will have more roster continuity than they’ve ever had.

4. Academics Still Matter

This off-season put the “student” back in student-athlete. Many transfers had to pass on their original destinations because they couldn’t get into school. In some instances, it wasn’t necessarily the athlete’s fault. Archaic credit systems at certain universities make it near impossible to transfer in unless you’ve already graduated. In most cases though, it was grades and changing majors that caused a lot of headaches across the country.

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A handful of high-profile transfers had their commitments delayed due to academic concerns. When guys decide to transfer, they’ll forget the part where they still need to pass their classes and qualify for their new school. Many recruitments began and ended with transcript requests.

If there’s anything we learned, it’s that diplomas are the proverbial “get out of jail free” card. Grad transfers have the ultimate freedom of movement. If you’ve graduated, you can enter the transfer portal whenever you want without penalty. It also doesn’t matter how many times you transferred previously. Get your diplomas kids, it really does pay off in the end.

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