The Athletic - Are so many transfers good for women’s college basketball?

[JellyBean]

The issue of players transferring won't necessarily impact top programs and the majority of Power-5 programs, but from the evidence coming in, the women's game is beginning to mirror college football. Money has become the driving force and is intertwined in the recruiting process. The mid-major programs are the teams that will suffer. Players who may have been passed over coming out of high school and developed their games in their first or second seasons in a mid-major conference are ripe to be pilfered. The examples of the last two NCAA women's tournament of mid-majors pulling upsets will happen less often, simply because the teams won't be able to retain their star players.

Great points about the money being a driving force and how some players, who develop their skills at one school, are ripe to be pilfered at another school. Those are always a possibly. For me, right now, the sample size is too small to say whether or not, those factors are impacting the game.

 

[gold2323]

The Pandora’s box has been opened wide…. there is no stopping it now….
The formula worked for Kim Mulkey….and she was able to exploit it and will continue to do so. However be careful what you wish for.
Read Sun Tsu “ Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.”

 

[Zarathustra]

The Pandora’s box has been opened wide…. there is no stopping it now….
The formula worked for Kim Mulkey….and she was able to exploit it and will continue to do so. However be careful what you wish for.
Read Sun Tsu “ Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust.”

After reading THE ART OF WAR ( Sun Tsu / Sun Tze = too many spellings!)
and THE PRINCE (Niccolo Machiavelli), I felt I had too much of reality... Does
it have to be that way?? Unfortunately... "(And ).. That's the way it is!" Walter C.

 

[Beemer]

Talent follows the money. It always has and it always will.

We're going to see a very different kind of WCBB- the large, wealthy schools (private & public) are simply going to buy the best players. Academics or lack thereof simply won't factor in for the elite players, not when they can become millionaires at 18-19 thanks to NIL. The big factor IMO will be playing time- the more playing time the more money potentially available.
I won't be surprised if one & done becomes a trend for elite women players just as it has for elite male players (unless the WNBA balks but I don't think they will, money talks to them too & they're not going to turn down the opportunity to showcase Player X just because she left after only 1 year of college).

If you think it is bad now, tune in 5 years from today, it will be worse. Like the Cyndi Lauper song says, "Money Changes Everything"

 

[hoopsnloops32]

Talent follows the money. It always has and it always will.

We're going to see a very different kind of WCBB- the large, wealthy schools (private & public) are simply going to buy the best players. Academics or lack thereof simply won't factor in for the elite players, not when they can become millionaires at 18-19 thanks to NIL. The big factor IMO will be playing time- the more playing time the more money potentially available.
I won't be surprised if one & done becomes a trend for elite women players just as it has for elite male players (unless the WNBA balks but I don't think they will, money talks to them too & they're not going to turn down the opportunity to showcase Player X just because she left after only 1 year of college).

If you think it is bad now, tune in 5 years from today, it will be worse. Like the Cyndi Lauper song says, "Money Changes Everything"

Money also follows talent.

The WNBA isn't going to allow one and done because if the NBA had any say in it they wouldn't have one and done either, the players negotiated for that not the league. In general leagues prefer using college to evaluate talent and allow them to develop without having to invest their own money and risk wasting it on busts and players that don't work out. The WNBA specifically will only grow fans by drafting off the success of women's college athletes which means they need players to stay in school to win over fan bases so they eventually come to check them out in the WNBA. So no, the above scenario will not happen unless the WNBA becomes more popular than women's college basketball and players start making significantly more than they are now and there are significantly more spots available in the WNBA aka expansion. I don't see it coming close to happening in the next decade.

The thing with NCAA basketball is that the most opportunity to make money is with tournament success. If you want to make the most money you have to be a top 3 player on a top team. Team's that are able to consistently be a final four team in March will provide the most financial opportunities to their players.

 

[Gordo]

Players with superior talent have always done exactly what they're doing now ... making the best selection for themselves to hopefully achieve the goals set for themselves. The only difference now is that with the transfer portal they have an opportunity to change schools (even within the same conference) without penalty. They no longer have to sit out a year. Add in the NIL factor and the pot thickens ... considerably in some cases. The top schools (meaning those ranked consistently in the Top 25 year in and year out), will for the most part remain unchanged.

As to the fears expressed by some that too many will be in the transfer portal and there will not be enough schools to accommodate them. Really??? I don't envision that happening. Where are the statistics to back up these kinds of comments? If true (to some small degree), most likely the player's evaluation of their talent was highly overrated and unrealistic. Life itself includes many "risks" along the way. Some times you choose correectly, some times you don't.

 

[cancontent]

Talent follows the money. It always has and it always will.

We're going to see a very different kind of WCBB- the large, wealthy schools (private & public) are simply going to buy the best players. Academics or lack thereof simply won't factor in for the elite players, not when they can become millionaires at 18-19 thanks to NIL. The big factor IMO will be playing time- the more playing time the more money potentially available.
I won't be surprised if one & done becomes a trend for elite women players just as it has for elite male players (unless the WNBA balks but I don't think they will, money talks to them too & they're not going to turn down the opportunity to showcase Player X just because she left after only 1 year of college).

If you think it is bad now, tune in 5 years from today, it will be worse. Like the Cyndi Lauper song says, "Money Changes Everything"

Yes talent follows money but it doesn't necessarily guarantee more titles and success. Too many pro teams have taken that approach and it's bombed.

We'll see what happens in 5 years. I'm skeptical that it will make things worse as programs will need to prove they can succeed this way. How many coaches have the ability to meld pieces together and be successful? It's going to be a tougher test for them than some realize.

Sure Mulkey has done it this season. She now has to prove she can do it again. Maybe she will, maybe she won't. But one thing for sure, there's a lot more buzz around the 2023-2024 season because of all the changes due to the portal.