Transfer portal is helping Providence basketball. Can same be said for college sports?
The college transfer portal will remain operational for the next few weeks before closing on May Day, with roughly 1,800 Division I men’s basketball players still looking for a spot for next season.
And, while you never know what you’ll get until players arrive on campus and start working out, the PC Friars appear to have greatly enhanced with guys who played key roles for their previous teams. You can never have too many shooters. Yes, Providence looks deeper. And experienced in the backcourt, yet inexperienced in the frontcourt.
Age is just a number. Even so, older-and-experienced is still far superior to younger-but-talented in college basketball these days.
That philosophy is not likely to change any day soon. The absolute freest free agency in sports belongs today to college athletes. The NCAA Division I Council has approved the continuance of immediate transfers for student-athletes who meet certain academic eligibility requirements, regardless of whether they transferred previously.
Translation: You still gotta go to class and show progress toward a degree, at the very least… which might be harder to do with some of these mercenaries who attend four different schools in four years, chasing NIL dollars if not professional opportunities.
Rhody gains two and loses two. Brown needs replacements. Bryant was fortunate to retain one of their top performers. It will be extremely difficult for mid-to-low major teams to expand their programs the traditional way – by recruiting high school and prep athletes.
Constant roster churn can make it difficult for fans and alumni to connect with their teams. This can also make it challenging for prospective donors to support sports departments.
And I remember the days when fans balked at paying for seat licenses before they earned the right to even purchase tickets. Man, have our games changed. But have they changed for the better?
∎Taking a shot at the Way-Too-Early Big East projections – before the portal closes and rosters are completed: 1) Creighton 2) UConn 3) Marquette 4) Providence 5) Xavier 6) Seton Hall 7) St. John’s 8) Butler 9) Georgetown 10) DePaul 11) Villanova.
Wait, what? Did I read it correctly? Is a blue-blooded team that has won two of the last nine national titles last?
Isn’t it insane to play Portal Kombat these days? Fortunately, there won’t be any games for another six months.
Speaking of games to play… PC will apparently face Central Connecticut at the AMP on the day before Election Day. It will be interesting to watch what scheduling philosophy emerges following this season’s Selection Committee snubs.
∎Talk about a rebuild. Chris Holtmann has almost completed the tear down at DePaul with an entirely new roster, and this week added former Butler head coach LaVall Jordan to his coaching staff. Jordan, you might recall, replaced Holtmann as head coach at Butler in 2017.
∎This week’s “Daddy Big Bucks” on the scene in NIL? FedEx – delivering a $5 million deal, per year, over the next five years to football and men’s and women’s basketball at Memphis. Fed Ex HQ, if you didn’t know, is also in Memphis.
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