I promise my intention in writing this is not to anger you.
And honestly, it’s not to even convince you to like it.
But I’ve been thinking about this and I’ve decided.
I’m sorry but I think I like the transfer portal.
We’re in the midst of the spring portion of the omnipresent power that is the transfer portal looming over college sports, particularly football, and what feels like everything I read or hear tells me that I shouldn’t like the portal.
That it’s ruining college sports. That it’s making college athletics obsolete. That it’s ruined amateurism.
Are you sure about that?
Or are you just afraid to embrace the biggest chaos agent we’ve ever seen in American sports history? And is it yet another thing that differentiates college athletics from the professional ranks?
I think so. And I think that’s why I like it.
In fact, as an ardent college sports fan – and someone who cares passionately about Penn State football – I’m probably supposed to be upset this week. My team’s No. 1 wide receiver was clutched up by the grasp of the portal. For what? Well, it’s relatively anyone’s guess on why KeAndre Lambert-Smith is taking his talents elsewhere.
But the fact he can – for roughly two weeks in the spring and a couple of times throughout the year – cause a little message board madness for whatever reason is something I’m relatively coming around to. It’s another element that adds a little bit more mayhem to college sports, mainly college football.
Let’s put it like this: You’d be ecstatic if Penn State picked up a sturdy wide receiver or elite edge rusher or even clutch kicker.
Oh wait, James Franklin’s squad already did all of those things over the last few years.
College athletics is changing. And a lot of those changes, I don’t like. I’ve explored them – written about them too. But those changes are all being decreed to me by overpaid suits who have never sat in Section NB, Row 22 squished by an allotted 15 inches per seat.
Now, the players are the ones leading this charge and change. In this case, the real stars of the show finally have an ounce of power. And I think that’s why people are so afraid to embrace it. Beyond our propensity to fear change — myself included — we’ve been taught the power is with the administrators.
Yet in so many ways of late, those administrators are ruining college football particularly with conference expansion and rule changes that are really designed to get you to commercial faster all while jacking up the cost of admission so they can hire 14 more of their buddies to look at some spreadsheets.
Why should I trust them? A player leaving is not going to impact fandom as much as surprise ticket cost increases.
Instead, I like the rebellious spirit the transfer portal brings.
So what if the players can up and leave? The players can make my team better. They can make my team worse – pretty much whenever they decide to. I can also watch my rival spiral through the chaos. And I like the adrenaline rush I get as I frantically refresh the On3 board to see what juicy drop of borderline gossip any insider is going to provide me.
Really, some of this is the exact logic of why we love recruiting and why we shell out cash in the first place to get that knowledge. We like knowing who is going where. It’s why we love free agency and trade deadlines in the professional ranks. It’s just in the college world, there are no rules – at least right now – and that makes it all that more interesting.
I also recognize that one of the reasons you might not like it is the fact there’s a monetary aspect at play here. I don’t love being hounded for even more money either (although I think Penn State could do a better job of asking people like you and me for it.) But I also don’t like that colleges and even parts of local economies have been raking in dough while those who are really driving the cash into colleges and their towns weren’t seeing a cent of it.
OK, let’s briefly argue about that last point. Yes, a lot of – but not all of – them were getting a scholarship and college isn’t cheap. And they all were getting some benefits the average student doesn’t quite get. But even if the Flutie Effect isn’t 100 percent true every time, there are plenty of schools out there that would not be what they are today without sports – and their athletes’ achievements.
The portal is – at least until collective bargaining is figured out – a small piece of the power pie the players get to enjoy that I’ve come to like. I’m fine if amateurism is dead. In fact, I’m choosing to embrace the crown jewel of that death and the chaos it brings.
Besides, those suits are going to figure out a way to rein all of this in eventually. That’s what they get paid to do. It’s what they’ve always done. And it’s what they’re doing right now.
So excuse me while I sit here and enjoy the fodder, the madness and even the angst the portal brings.
I’m sorry but I like it.
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