NIL and Transfer Portal threads have for the most part posted separately, and their conversations siloed. They are in fact together part of what's happening and will eventually negatively impact my favorite college sport. After seeing what was happening in college football, last November I made my first ever social platform post on the BY to voice concern re the inevitable carryover to WCBB. Posters generally assured it would be a transitory (my word choice) phenomena, and the top coaches would figure it out. Not reassured I posted similar concerns on McGraw's Bench, and with a couple of exceptions was provided the same assurance. A brief review of what's happened since:
After recruiting the #1 class Texas A&M FB coach Jimbo Fisher was accused by other coaches of buying recruits with NIL deals. His response was a wimpy denial accompanied by a counter-accusation of hypocrisy at his accusers. Earlier this year an unnamed high school QB and his parents visited Tennessee where he received a not-denied NIL offer of around $2million/year or could be worth up to $8million if he stayed the full 4 years. This will surely not be lost on Kellie Harper who is working to return her program to its Pat Summitt legacy. Nor on Vic Schaefer, who is no slouch at recruiting and also has a very wealthy fan base. And let's not forget Oregon's Kelly Graves, also no recruiting slouch, who has Nike's Phil Knight and their own NIL possibilities.
The above is by way of saying this is moving towards the professionalizing and transactionalizing of college sports (some would say already so in Men's FB). There are already forms of Free-Agency and One-and Done in WCBB with the Transfer Portal. A distinction re NILs: Paige's NIL deals resulted from sponsors approaching her, which are the kind I endorse. The deleterious NILs are used as recruiting tools to sign high school players, those in the portal, and as night follows day, even used as lures to attract players from their existing teams. Both UConn and ND will be at a strong disadvantage in this scenario.
Try this thought exercise: Aliyah Boston will be a a graduating senior next year with 1 year of eligibility remaining. A school on the precipice of an NC puts together a multi-million dollar NIL deal for her to transfer and become the first player to win NCs at 2 schools, with additional jillions to follow. All legal! And then what? Is that what BYers or Benchers signed up for when passionately following their favorite teams? By the way don't bet on the NCAA or Congress trying to reign in anything that benefits players.
I began following WCBB and UConn approximately 12 years ago because Geno's teams played a beautiful flowing game, defying the odds the legacy and culture he built from scratch, against one-and-done of the men's game, and building high schoollers into elite athletes during their 4-year careers. I have admired the ND program as well, and their duels brought out the best in each other. And though Benchers don't want to accept it, Geno's alumni love him! But with my reasons for following WCBB rapidly becoming obsolete, so is my passion for doing so. If WCBB is to have quasi transactional/professional players not imbued with wanting to play for ND or Geno/UConn, what's the point of following them versus a fantasy league?
If I'm still lucky enough to be on the planet, for the next 2 years I'll enthusiastically follow the truly extraordinary Paige, Azzi, CD et al but will then move on.
