It's "Free Agency" every year

[huskyd]

Today's "Athletic" (NY Times) is devoted to the subject of the changing nature of college basketball recruitment. This is nothing new, but the article is a deep-dive with some startling stats. Did you know that NIL transferees can get up to $700,000 for switching unis? From where does all the moolah come? It makes the WNBA, where players rarely make more than $200,00, seem small scale.
I'm not going to spend time here telling you what you can read for yourself. Go read and thank me.
However, I will mention that when I was a mere sapling of a lad, I could tell you the names of every Brooklyn Dodger at every position for many years. Gil, and Junior, and PeeWee, and Duke, and most of the pitchers. The world seemed a more solid place then, and things seemed more dependable. At my current age "Depends" has an altogether different meaning--more absorbent but less absorbing.

 

[Centerstream]

Today's "Athletic" (NY Times) is devoted to the subject of the changing nature of college basketball recruitment. This is nothing new, but the article is a deep-dive with some startling stats. Did you know that NIL transferees can get up to $700,000 for switching unis? From where does all the moolah come? It makes the WNBA, where players rarely make more than $200,00, seem small scale.
I'm not going to spend time here telling you what you can read for yourself. Go read and thank me.
However, I will mention that when I was a mere sapling of a lad, I could tell you the names of every Brooklyn Dodger at every position for many years. Gil, and Junior, and PeeWee, and Duke, and most of the pitchers. The world seemed a more solid place then, and things seemed more dependable. At my current age "Depends" has an altogether different meaning--more absorbent but less absorbing.

In softball, NiJaree Canady was given 1M NIL money to transfer from Stanford to Texas Tech. It paid off as she helped lead TT to their first WCWS. And right before the if necessary game in the Championship, she accepted another 1M+ NIL to return to TT. Unfortunately she then proceeded to pitch the worst first inning of her career and Texas won their first WCWS trophy.

 

[Gamecockfan77]

I have not found that this particularly changes my appreciation of any college sport. It primarily has made the offseason more interesting and improvement more feasible.

But if you were fan of school that was getting raided all the time I can see how it would.

But even men's basketball at SCar which does not make splashes in portal can hope to assemble the right mix of non-descript players who can win. Which is somewhat more interesting and hopeful than depending only on freshmen.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I have not found that this particularly changes my appreciation of any college sport. It primarily has made the offseason more interesting and improvement more feasible.

But if you were fan of school that was getting raided all the time I can see how it would.

But even men's basketball at SCar which does not make splashes in portal can hope to assemble the right mix of non-descript players who can win. Which is somewhat more interesting and hopeful than depending only on freshmen.

I'm much more mixed. The top teams are in a different place, I think the top teams can lose some subsidiary players, gain "parts" they need, etc. But the "rest of us" - It doesn't make me less interested in the sport or watching games, or rooting for my team, but as my wife says, we can't really continue to "invest" in individual players that are, as noted, "free agents", here today and gone tomorrow.