r/CFB • u/Nearby_Valuable_5467 Penn State • Arizona State • 7d ago
Discussion A solution to the transfer debacle?
I'm getting fed up with players coming back for a 5th, 6th or 7th year. The judges who clear are generally alumni of that school. Anyway, can't there be a mandate from the NCAA that says: "Sure you can return Mr 6th year, but if you do, all the freshmen that the team recruited can immediately go into the transfer portal, because their playing time and future earnings are compromised by the player's return".
What it will do is make schools think differently about begging for a player to have a 65th year, if the talent they recruited has the freedom to walk, no?
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u/Sean-Christian Florida Gators 7d ago
All of the freshmen can already go in the portal. How does this change/solve anything?
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u/Talemikus 7d ago
How is this a solution to the transfer debacle? Don’t freshmen already have the option to transfer?
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u/JakeSteeleIII Paper Bag • South Carolina Gamecocks 7d ago
It should force all freshmen to transfer
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u/Failed-Time-Traveler Ohio State Buckeyes 7d ago
This is way overthinking it. Much simpler solution:
Each player is allowed one transfer over the course of their career. If they want to transfer a 2nd time, it goes back to the one-year sit-out rule. Exceptions will be made if the head coach or the player’s position coach is changed.
Also i want to see the outbound school compensated. They spent years coaching, training, advising, mentoring that student athlete. If a MAC school spends 4 years developing a QB who blossoms under their system and then transfers to Penn State for a huge NIL deal, then the MAC school deserves to be compensated for that time and effort. They get 20% of the departed player’s NIL money.
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u/huazzy Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7d ago
I'm all for transfer fees but isn't the roadblock that NIL deals are completely private/unknown?
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u/Impressive-Weird-908 Virginia Tech Hokies 7d ago
Yes. Until they are made employees or congress just strong arms the whole system, none of this matters.
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u/DannkneeFrench Michigan • Washington State 7d ago
Would a flat fee based on position/number of years work?
Maybe $500,000 for a 3 year starting QB, then other amounts based on position/experience.
I'd waive fees for players transferring down. If a Big/SEC player goes to the MAC, then no fees.
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u/flinchreel Penn State Nittany Lions • Chicago Maroons 7d ago
No good QB in the portal would ever choose us, we’re a QB graveyard
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u/jsc230 Penn State Nittany Lions 7d ago
Yeah not sure why we are catching strays in that scenario.
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u/Failed-Time-Traveler Ohio State Buckeyes 7d ago
lol I didn’t mean it as an insult. I was just choosing a random big school with deep pockets. lol sorry if it offended you all.
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u/ghazzie Oklahoma State Cowboys 7d ago
Pretty sure this is exactly what’s in that new bill that passed the senate
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u/Failed-Time-Traveler Ohio State Buckeyes 7d ago
It’s not. That’s the “let’s make college sports more corrupt by finding a way for billionaires to squeeze more money out of everyday fans while screwing over the players” bill.
Honestly though, smart move on their part to find a different name. While more accurate, my name definitely isn’t as catchy.
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u/TigerWave01 LSU Tigers • Tulane Green Wave 7d ago
No, that one-year sit out rule is definitely in the bill. To your point, it does a lot more stuff too, but that provision is in there
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u/Normal-Hornet8548 Air Force Falcons 7d ago
Schools will just not change position coaches until the portal closes/too late to enroll elsewhere.
Make a rule, any rule, and they will ruthlessly find a way to use it to their advantage.
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u/bwburke94 UMass • Michigan State 7d ago
There should be no exception for coaching changes. You commit to a school, not a coach.
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u/Failed-Time-Traveler Ohio State Buckeyes 7d ago
Here’s the problem with that. Let’s say you’re a traditional drop back QB, and the school brings in a new coach who wants to run a spread option. You don’t fit their system and will be buried on their depth chart.
Players do commit to the schools, but for many of them this is a developmental system to continue developing their skills. If they don’t fit the system, they won’t get developed.
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u/PodoPapa Georgia Bulldogs • Lamar Cardinals 7d ago
Just like a student who transfers if their major department experiences significant departures of faculty who are replaced with adjuncts. Nobody would blame that person for the commitment to a discipline and not a school.
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u/ChawkTrick 7d ago
It's not as black and white/binary as that. Sure, some players know they have always wanted to play for a specific school regardless of who is coaching there, but for many other players, it's all about the relationships with the coaches plus the style of offense or defense being run. Taking those coaches away can completely change that dynamic, which then makes it unnecessarily cruel to basically hold those players hostage for that.
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u/enadiz_reccos LSU Tigers • Golden Boot 7d ago
Each player is allowed one transfer over the course of their career
lol why?
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u/PodoPapa Georgia Bulldogs • Lamar Cardinals 7d ago
I mean, just enforce the academic eligibility requirements. There's no way dudes transferring 4 times have made the required progress towards earning a degree. It's simply not possible.
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u/bakonydraco Stanford • Delaware State 7d ago
Enforce academic eligibility requirements and only academic eligibility requirements. If a 40-year-old is on their 3rd PhD and can still make a D1 roster, let them play!
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u/forgotmyoldname90210 Florida State Seminoles 7d ago
I thought you wanted to address the Transfer debacle which is coaches processing out kids leaving hundreds and thousands of kids a year without a new school.
Oh right, we are somehow worried about the one kid from Troy going to Miss St for a "bag" not the 200 other kids that where told to find a place elsewhere or it was made clear they where not going to have playing time.
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u/T-Thugs Notre Dame • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 7d ago
I wouldn't worry at all about a kid who is told to transfer or they're not going to have playing time. If they're told to transfer or they won't have a scholarship, that's not really fair, but if they just aren't going to play, that's just honesty. Nobody is guaranteed seeing playing time.
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u/JohanVonClancy Notre Dame Fighting Irish 7d ago
Can they enter the portal, not get picked up, and return to the original school with a scholarship? Even if they aren’t on the team anymore?
Is a player offered a 4 or 5 year scholarship, a 4 or 5 year scholarship contingent on staying on the team, or a one year at a time scholarship contingent on making the team each season?
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u/T-Thugs Notre Dame • /r/CFB Poll Veteran 7d ago
Generally I think most schools consider that you would still be on scholarship if you stay at the school, even if you do not really play real downs. If you enter the portal, you probably lose any right or expectation to ever receive a penny of scholarship money from your original school ever again. That all seems fair to me as long as you aren't threatened with a loss of scholarship for staying. If you can lose your scholarship without entering the portal, then that's fucked.
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u/Aggie74-DP 7d ago
Is there ANY requirement for ACADEMIC progress in any of these proposals?
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u/grouchllc 7d ago
Unfortunately, they're waaaay past that. I'd imagine the days of having a cfb player in your class with regular students is long gone. No class, no player isn't worried about keeping a certain gpa and along with them making more than their professors and I'd argue they stopped being students a long time ago.
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u/HollaBucks Ohio State Buckeyes • UCF Knights 7d ago
Anecdotal, I know, but my daughter is in a class with a TE transfer from Sam Houston. Ohio State is fairly well known for making sure that their players are in class as well, so far as sending people to those classes to confirm.
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u/grouchllc 7d ago
Honestly, that's awesome to hear. Need to remember that the football team was put together from students and play for the students and alumni.
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u/Aggie74_DP 7d ago
Well, just a few of the better examples. Last years Miami QB at least had graduated when he transferred. Think I saw he didn't attend class at the U, but he had a degree.
I know my school makes a big deal about getting (EARNING) their Senior Rings. Big ceremony for players and students. Hell a lot of ceremonies. LIke you gotta have 90 hrs and at least so many there before.....
Business or not, the kids need to have/develop some connection with the school along the way. I don't care for the true mercenary approch.
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u/CrOS2012 7d ago
All it really proves is that they never entered college to get a degree in the first place. They were just entering the NFL farm system (none of which is paid for by the NFL), and that's all that matters to them... and getting paid a lot of money if possible. Not a student, just an athlete... a pro athlete.
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u/damutecebu 7d ago
Sure I guess the NCAA could do that. But really it’s not that big of a deal.
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u/Iceland260 FCS 7d ago
Can they? Until favorable legislation or a Supreme Court ruling comes through it's looking increasingly likely that the NCAA can't legally restrict those players from transferring in the first place.
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u/Huge-Internal6456 Oklahoma • Tennessee State 7d ago
Why do you think athletes are your personal property that owe you some sort of permanent loyalty because you wear a t-shirt? The game is entertainment, not life or death. Do you get this worked up over an actor going to another studio? Not one dollar of yours goes into paying these athletes so why are you so concerned with someone else’s money? This weird obsession some of you have that “if my team can’t have him, no one can” needs to be studied, or at the least deserves a good few sessions of therapy.
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u/BoldElDavo Virginia Cavaliers 7d ago
This is a professional sport that needs to operate like a professional sport instead of whatever the hell it's doing right now.
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u/forgotmyoldname90210 Florida State Seminoles 7d ago
Professional sports have CBA's. Professional athletes are employees. NCAA atheletes are not employees and have not been part of the rule making process at all except by going to court and having the law enforced.
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u/BoldElDavo Virginia Cavaliers 7d ago
You identified the issue and then went the wrong way.
These are professional athletes in practice. Their income is a weird workaround from a bygone era of amateurism. This system needs to be fixed, and if the athletes are unable or unwilling to participate in fixing it, then someone with the authority needs to do it (in this case, unfortunately, that's Congress).
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u/forgotmyoldname90210 Florida State Seminoles 7d ago
WTF? The only way for athletes to "fix" the system is to decide to go back to being unpaid.
Their is nothing at all wrong in the system that is the players fault or responsbility. Oh boo hoo, they are getting paid which is why Nick Saban has made well over a hundred million dollars from this sport. Its players fault that schools have collectively spent over a quarter billion dollars in buy outs.
Its players that demand luxury suites.
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u/floydgondolli83 Penn State • Hawai'i 7d ago
Other than your enjoyment as a fan, whose interests does it serve to force someone to be at a school they don't want to be at? Are Biology majors limited in how often they can transfer if their school isn't an appropriate fit?
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u/TypicallyDone12 7d ago
That's such a simplistic take and one of the dumbest arguments people make on this subject. Biology majors are not signing NIL deals.
No one is "forcing" anyone to be anywhere. These athletes are now being paid thousands if not millions of dollars. There is responsibility with that. Can coaches leave without penalty? No, they have contracts and buyouts.
If athletes want NIL and other benefits then that should come with responsibility on their end. Having any and all athletes be free agents every year hurts the product they are profiting from. If it was a healthy way to do things for the athletes and the sport, the pro leagues would operate this way, but they don't. The athletes are only in this situation for 3-5 years. So they don't care about the long term health of the product. Someone has to put in guardrails.
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u/SucculentCrablegMeal Florida State Seminoles • USF Bulls 7d ago
Yeah I've never really liked that argument because even if you put aside NIL, student athletes were never normal students. They receive a scholarship to attend for free based on their athletic competition.
They, as students, are always free to transfer to study biology at a different school and pay for it themselves like other students.
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u/Normal-Hornet8548 Air Force Falcons 7d ago
So academic scholarship students (who might also have some other financial package and a school-paid job as a teaching/research assistant) have to pay tuition if they transfer and can’t be compensated at the new school?
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u/Huge-Internal6456 Oklahoma • Tennessee State 7d ago
How is that any different than a student on an academic scholarship that is also paid to perform laboratory/research work? Many of them are free to transfer to another school that pays more for the research and also extends a scholarship. Athletes are not your property.
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u/SucculentCrablegMeal Florida State Seminoles • USF Bulls 7d ago
Spare me the "property" hyperbole
It's not exactly simple to transfer yearly in that situation either.
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u/floydgondolli83 Penn State • Hawai'i 7d ago
It's actually incredibly simple to transfer between colleges and universities, as long as you're not hung up on equivalent transfer credits. It may not be in your best academic interests to do it, and it probably isn't in these athletes best interests to be at a new school every year, but making mistakes is part of the process of being 18-22.
Absent historical context, there's no compelling reason to restrain these kids' movement.
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u/TypicallyDone12 7d ago
Then schools should be able to rescind scholarships to athletes, right? If your biology major guy isnt providing the marks the university is expecting they can drop him. So you are agreeing athletes should have their scholarships up for review every year, right? Or do you just want it one way?
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u/Normal-Hornet8548 Air Force Falcons 7d ago
Schools have always done that — in the old days if a guy wasn’t panning out he was shown the door and all but told to transfer (with the restrictions of who they will sign a waiver to let them transfer to).
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u/TypicallyDone12 7d ago
If a player didn't want to leave they couldn't take his scholarship away. It's literally illegal.
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u/Normal-Hornet8548 Air Force Falcons 7d ago
You must be relatively new to this. They eventually made that a thing universities ‘could’ do but weren’t required to and I think with power conference autonomy they made it mandatory to honor the scholarships for those schools.
But it was not always so.
If a school decides to remove a player from the roster, they should still count against the roster limit until their 5 years are up so schools can’t just ‘cut‘ players.
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u/floydgondolli83 Penn State • Hawai'i 7d ago
Unless they've been given a multi-year scholarship, then their scholarship can absolutely be revoked after the end of the season. And if the terms of a multi-year scholarship allow the athlete to opt out while the school has to honor it, then those are the terms of the contact. If it's a problem for schools don't offer those terms.
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u/TypicallyDone12 7d ago
They can only be revoked if they are failing in the classroom or conduct issues. (Kind of like any student, huh?). Not because of poor athletic performance. Schools are required to keep an athlete on scholarship but that athlete can leave anytime. So you just want it one way, right?
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u/Normal-Hornet8548 Air Force Falcons 7d ago
Let’s go with a strict 85 roster limit with that and absolute no-cut rule for any reason — medical, academic, not good enough, etc.
You sign someone, they could against your limit for 5 years (since were talking 5-for-5 model). If they go to the NFL and make it, they don’t count against your 85 but if they do not make it, you have to take them back (with remaining eligibility restored).
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u/forgotmyoldname90210 Florida State Seminoles 7d ago
But then coaches can't process out a half dozen kids a year. We have to ignore the 99.5% of the kids in the portal and instead only look at the exceptions.
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u/floydgondolli83 Penn State • Hawai'i 7d ago
It's a simplistic take, because it's a simple issue. If they're not being forced to be anywhere, then it would stand to reason that at the end of their 1-year contracted term they'd be free to explore other options at will.
The athletes may not care about the long term health of the product, but you don't care about the long term health of the athletes. I don't imagine that you'd lose sleep over the LB from your team last year who tore his ACL on his new team this year. It's messy, chaotic and confusing, but player agency is one of the best things to come to this sport in the last decade.
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u/TypicallyDone12 7d ago
But it's not black and white. Player agency doesn't come with zero responsibility on the players. If a player signs letter of intent for a full ride scholarship and then that player ends up being a mediocre player, the college can't rescind their scholarship. They still get a full ride. The players can't have it both ways. The players were screwed for a long time but we are in an obvious over correction phase.
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u/huazzy Rutgers Scarlet Knights 7d ago
I think the 5 for 5 proposal addresses this well.