The recent series of posts about LSU v. UConn, plus the short thread about regulation of NIL, has reminded me of the vast changes that have come to college basketball as the results of the transfer portal and NIL. I apologize in advance for this long message.
In examining the ESPN listing of the top 35 players in the transfer portal, it has become clear that many universities have become increasingly dependent on it to replenish depleted stock. The fact that LSU won a national championship primarily with transfer players may well become the new model for basketball success. The addition of Morrow and Van Lith to an already loaded LSU squad puts an exclamation point to the importance of the transfer portal. The UConn men also depended a great deal on transfers this past championship season. According to my admittedly incomplete figures, LSU, NC, Texas A & M, Louisville, Ole Miss, and Virginia Tech each added two quality players to their teams, while Mississippi State added three. Louisville, DePaul, Duke, Oregon, NC State, and Arizona each lost two players.
There is no doubt in my mind that the opportunities NIL offers to certain aggressive teams is a major factor in many (most?) of these transfers. Just look at the success the University of Miami had in both the men’s and women’s programs last season. The NIL opportunities offered by an important Miami donor are largely responsible for the success of the two teams.
College players should be able to profit from the use of their names, images, and likenesses, instead of the profits going to the ravenous NCAA and the Alabamas and Notre Dames of the collegiate world. But we should also consider the costs of this vast change.
First of all, the women’s game is beginning to look a lot more like one-and-done men’s basketball, not with the short college careers of the stars, but the transformation of rosters from season to season. As indicated, the UConn men would not have won their fifth national championship without transfers and transfers Dorka Juhasz and Lou Lopez Senechal were essential parts of the Huskies team for 2022-23. Both, however, were graduate transfers and graduate transfers are the exceptions rather than the rule in the transfer portal.
Second, the ease of transfer and the prospect of the profits from NIL may well lead to an even blatant two tiered basketball system than has previously existed between the traditional powers in the big conferences and everyone else who would be overjoyed just to win a game in the tournament. How many really outstanding players at mid-level Division 1 teams, like many in the Big East, want to remain when visions of sugar plums dance through players heads by seductive NIL deals being offered to them?
Although our Huskies have had players transfer in and out, the team has always been composed primarily of players who commit for four years. The current roster does not contain a single transfer and the success of the team over the years has been based on outstanding recruiting and excellent coaching.
Can UConn, a national power in a midlevel conference, continue to prosper in this new basketball environment? Were the results at the NCAAs in 2023 an anomaly or a portent? Can teams that focus on recruiting, retaining, and coaching continue to win national championships in this new environment? What will happen when Geno retires? We shall see.
In examining the ESPN listing of the top 35 players in the transfer portal, it has become clear that many universities have become increasingly dependent on it to replenish depleted stock. The fact that LSU won a national championship primarily with transfer players may well become the new model for basketball success. The addition of Morrow and Van Lith to an already loaded LSU squad puts an exclamation point to the importance of the transfer portal. The UConn men also depended a great deal on transfers this past championship season. According to my admittedly incomplete figures, LSU, NC, Texas A & M, Louisville, Ole Miss, and Virginia Tech each added two quality players to their teams, while Mississippi State added three. Louisville, DePaul, Duke, Oregon, NC State, and Arizona each lost two players.
There is no doubt in my mind that the opportunities NIL offers to certain aggressive teams is a major factor in many (most?) of these transfers. Just look at the success the University of Miami had in both the men’s and women’s programs last season. The NIL opportunities offered by an important Miami donor are largely responsible for the success of the two teams.
College players should be able to profit from the use of their names, images, and likenesses, instead of the profits going to the ravenous NCAA and the Alabamas and Notre Dames of the collegiate world. But we should also consider the costs of this vast change.
First of all, the women’s game is beginning to look a lot more like one-and-done men’s basketball, not with the short college careers of the stars, but the transformation of rosters from season to season. As indicated, the UConn men would not have won their fifth national championship without transfers and transfers Dorka Juhasz and Lou Lopez Senechal were essential parts of the Huskies team for 2022-23. Both, however, were graduate transfers and graduate transfers are the exceptions rather than the rule in the transfer portal.
Second, the ease of transfer and the prospect of the profits from NIL may well lead to an even blatant two tiered basketball system than has previously existed between the traditional powers in the big conferences and everyone else who would be overjoyed just to win a game in the tournament. How many really outstanding players at mid-level Division 1 teams, like many in the Big East, want to remain when visions of sugar plums dance through players heads by seductive NIL deals being offered to them?
Although our Huskies have had players transfer in and out, the team has always been composed primarily of players who commit for four years. The current roster does not contain a single transfer and the success of the team over the years has been based on outstanding recruiting and excellent coaching.
Can UConn, a national power in a midlevel conference, continue to prosper in this new basketball environment? Were the results at the NCAAs in 2023 an anomaly or a portent? Can teams that focus on recruiting, retaining, and coaching continue to win national championships in this new environment? What will happen when Geno retires? We shall see.
