Transfer Portal '23....

[Fightingscot82]

We are seeing the trickle-down now of the past few years.

In the Portal era, many teams were taking less and less high school kids. Add in so many staying longer (Covid year) and tons of good high school players ended up at lower programs.

Obviously, now there is a huge market for experienced players so they are all looking to move up (to a better D2 or for some even to D1).

Many, many of these players looked at Clarion, etc., as a place to get film and quickly leave.

Watch where these Edinboro WRs land. It will be a big upgrade, program-wise.

It's a great time to be one of the programs buying.

It has to be nerve wrecking for younger head coaches who have worked years of volunteer, GA, and low pay and high hours assistant jobs to finally get some financial, job, and family stability. Only to have good players leave as soon as a disappointing season happens.

We can assume this is no part of the transfer consideration process, but how many of these guys run out of eligibility before they can finish their degree with all the transfer delays. D1 and NFL dreams don't pay bills 10 years later.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

I honestly feel like some coaches are going to need to readjust their thinking. If a player wants to test the waters, I feel like more programs should be willing to accept them back. Obviously, it's a case by case basis, but coaches can explore. Players should be awarded that same option.

We are seeing the trickle-down now of the past few years.

In the Portal era, many teams were taking less and less high school kids. Add in so many staying longer (Covid year) and tons of good high school players ended up at lower programs.

Obviously, now there is a huge market for experienced players so they are all looking to move up (to a better D2 or for some even to D1).

Many, many of these players looked at Clarion, etc., as a place to get film and quickly leave.

Watch where these Edinboro WRs land. It will be a big upgrade, program-wise.

It's a great time to be one of the programs buying.

[Ram Tough]

I honestly feel like some coaches are going to need to readjust their thinking. If a player wants to test the waters, I feel like more programs should be willing to accept them back. Obviously, it's a case by case basis, but coaches can explore. Players should be awarded that same option.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

The allure of the FBS grad transfer year is strong. Its most likely free and puts off adulthood one more year. Edinboro had two very good players be successful: Walter Fletcher became a utility player at Ball State and parlayed that into a CFL career; Vitaliy Gurman became an instant starter at Toledo and made it through two NFL camps and a practice squad season. Both are things to tell grandkids about. I don't like it but I can't blame them.

You've been great that a good number of them end up nowhere. And they end up leaving college altogether.

PSAC men's basketball had a massive number of players enter the portal after last season. About 25% found new homes. Within that 25% includes players who entered the portal, had no interest, and came crawling back. A couple coaches actually took them back. In D2 men's basketball alone last off-season, more than 850 players entered the portal. That is an enormous percentage.

I'd guess a lot of these new football entries will just end up at IUP, Slippery Rock, Shepherd, etc. As we continue to see, the bottom of the PSAC will work as a football feeder system.

I really thought IUP Football was going to lose a couple but to Tort's credit they really believe they'll be pretty strong next year. They have a huge senior class next year and several years of large high school classes working their way up (when everybody was taking mass transfers Tort kept taking large high school classes). He also has money to spend this off-season to plug a few holes out of the portal.

Long story short, the days of our era are long gone.

[Ship69]

A lot of these kids listed in this thread won't end up in D1. In fact, that's probably not even the goal for most of them.

We'll see them move up the program chain within the D2 ranks. If they can get more money and go to a better program, it makes sense. These kids know which teams will be strong next year. Some, of course, will land offers to go up. As we've seen, that usually means they'll 'go up' and be a deep depth guy and mostly ride pine.

Don't forget some of these coaches say all the right things on media day, etc., but are total ego-monster, jackasses behind closed doors (even at this lower level).

The kids didn't create this new monster. They are just playing by the new rules.

These older coaches are struggling to grasp that recruiting is now a 24-7-365 project (which includes the kids on your own team).

The PSAC West (men's hoops) has been decimated the past two off-seasons with stars leaving to move up. IUP has lost its best player two straight years. The coaches, including Lombardi, have not reacted to it well. This crap is going to run many of the older coaches out early.

Didn't say that the kids created the monster. Obviously they didn't, and coaches who gripe about it need to look in the mirror. But a monster it is nonetheless.

Right now I'm sincerely worried about the future of our football program at Ship and I don't think I'm alone in that. It's never looked so dire under Mac. The Raiders have gone from being one of the PSAC's better offensive teams with QBs such as Zac Zulli, Ryan Zapoticky, and Brycen Mussina in recent years to a team that was dead last in offense in the league this year. The 5-6 team from 2022 lost its two best offensive players to transfer, and this year's 3-8 team already has an all-PSAC defensive lineman ( a key to the league's third-best rushing defense), a starter on the o-line, and a big contributor at DE in the portal. Next year will likely be the third season in a row they'll have a bunch of underclassmen on the o-line, and that just doesn't get it done. It seems to be a rinse and repeat cycle at this point. Maybe Mac can pull off a big transfer turnaround or maybe not. We'll see. Has the new wave passed Mac by? I have no idea and can't really make a judgment about the situation.

Chris Fite in the basketball program has done a great job of establishing a class culture and so far has not lost a single key player to transfer over the past several years, although I'm sure it is inevitable he will at some point. But it's also true that he has had a lot of success in recent years, which makes it easier on the kids who want to stay. I was even somewhat worried there this year as the team lost about 80 percent of its output to graduation, but I'm encouraged by the way the young men have pulled together and although they'll likely take some lumps in December I think it will be a competitive team as the season goes on.

This has been going on in professional sports for quite a while, and I guess it's filtered down to the colleges. Basically in a lot of cases you have to accept that your teams are more and more a bunch of hired mercenaries, and you often don't know who the mercenaries will be from year to year. I can still accept that better at the D2 level because as fightingscot pointed out above the money is not as big of a factor and more of the players are just in it because they love to play.

[Fightingscot82]

A lot of these kids listed in this thread won't end up in D1. In fact, that's probably not even the goal for most of them.

We'll see them move up the program chain within the D2 ranks. If they can get more money and go to a better program, it makes sense. These kids know which teams will be strong next year. Some, of course, will land offers to go up. As we've seen, that usually means they'll 'go up' and be a deep depth guy and mostly ride pine.

Don't forget some of these coaches say all the right things on media day, etc., but are total ego-monster, jackasses behind closed doors (even at this lower level).

The kids didn't create this new monster. They are just playing by the new rules.

These older coaches are struggling to grasp that recruiting is now a 24-7-365 project (which includes the kids on your own team).

The PSAC West (men's hoops) has been decimated the past two off-seasons with stars leaving to move up. IUP has lost its best player two straight years. The coaches, including Lombardi, have not reacted to it well. This crap is going to run many of the older coaches out early.

The allure of the FBS grad transfer year is strong. Its most likely free and puts off adulthood one more year. Edinboro had two very good players be successful: Walter Fletcher became a utility player at Ball State and parlayed that into a CFL career; Vitaliy Gurman became an instant starter at Toledo and made it through two NFL camps and a practice squad season. Both are things to tell grandkids about. I don't like it but I can't blame them.

You've been great that a good number of them end up nowhere. And they end up leaving college altogether.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

OK, since this is the second reply in this vein I feel a response is necessary. Kids should be able to go to school where they want. I have no problem with that. I've been on Earth a few years and am well aware of what coaches have done during that time. And I think the fact that some D1 coaches are the highest paid public employees salaries in their states is a ridiculous distortion of priorities. But that doesn't make it any less devastating when the shoe is on the other foot, and the experience as a fan of knowing some of your best players are gone every time you have a down year is not wonderful. I already am about over with D1 football, and I hope I don't get to that point with the lower levels of the game.

A lot of these kids listed in this thread won't end up in D1. In fact, that's probably not even the goal for most of them.

We'll see them move up the program chain within the D2 ranks. If they can get more money and go to a better program, it makes sense. These kids know which teams will be strong next year. Some, of course, will land offers to go up. As we've seen, that usually means they'll 'go up' and be a deep depth guy and mostly ride pine.

Don't forget some of these coaches say all the right things on media day, etc., but are total ego-monster, jackasses behind closed doors (even at this lower level).

The kids didn't create this new monster. They are just playing by the new rules.

These older coaches are struggling to grasp that recruiting is now a 24-7-365 project (which includes the kids on your own team).

The PSAC West (men's hoops) has been decimated the past two off-seasons with stars leaving to move up. IUP has lost its best player two straight years. The coaches, including Lombardi, have not reacted to it well. This crap is going to run many of the older coaches out early.

[Fightingscot82]

OK, since this is the second reply in this vein I feel a response is necessary. Kids should be able to go to school where they want. I have no problem with that. I've been on Earth a few years and am well aware of what coaches have done during that time. And I think the fact that some D1 coaches are the highest paid public employees salaries in their states is a ridiculous distortion of priorities. But that doesn't make it any less devastating when the shoe is on the other foot, and the experience as a fan of knowing some of your best players are gone every time you have a down year is not wonderful. I already am about over with D1 football, and I hope I don't get to that point with the lower levels of the game.

I'm with you on the duality of the situation. I agree: the players are students first and should have all the rights and privileges as other students. But the NCAA governs how the teams operate and I believe its fair to have *some* sort of safeguard on the schools and coaches because this is clearly out of hand. The "be a star on a great team or transfer" game is getting old very quickly and its not unique to any level or any sport. Way too many kids are way too used to being a star on the local winning high school team and forget that they're starting over in college and that its possible for a team of good players to not win many games. I love D2 because money and media haven't corrupted it but the transfer portal is making it really hard to follow a team.

FBS salaries are what they are because of the money. About a decade ago the compensation structure switched to a cut of the gross revenue instead of what was a fair market salary. And a lot of that money isn't exactly university or state money. When you look at the lists, only about $500k is paid by the school and every other dime comes from clothing deals, TV revenue, boosters, etc. The school just acts as a pass through agent. The "win and leave or be fired" cycle has only allowed more money to be taken from the non-revenue sports and into football coaching staff salary pools.

The purity of D2 is that there isn't much money; nobody is getting rich from D2 football. Scholarships are currency but so are little things like uniforms, locker rooms, turf designs, and social media swagger. Players are still students because they go through all the other motions as other students. There's virtually no celebrity status because so few care or pay attention LOL. The scholarships are very important too because for a lot of these players, those football scholarships make college affordable and for many free when combined with government grants.

[Ship69]

Tough sh!t, as they say.

Coaches do that to players the second a better job comes along.

OK, since this is the second reply in this vein I feel a response is necessary. Kids should be able to go to school where they want. I have no problem with that. I've been on Earth a few years and am well aware of what coaches have done during that time. And I think the fact that some D1 coaches are the highest paid public employees salaries in their states is a ridiculous distortion of priorities. But that doesn't make it any less devastating when the shoe is on the other foot, and the experience as a fan of knowing some of your best players are gone every time you have a down year is not wonderful. I already am about over with D1 football, and I hope I don't get to that point with the lower levels of the game.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Tough sh!t, as they say.

Coaches do that to players the second a better job comes along.

From a fan perspective, this is all so unfortunate. I get it for the players who should have choices and the coaches are never really under contract, but recruiting, following young players as they progress in a program, etc., is all completely different now. Nothing that hasn’t already been stated before but the gap between the haves and have nots in college athletics is just going to continue to widen. On top of that, a lot of these kids (especially the rank and file players) are going to end up with shorter careers because instead of growing with a program they roll the dice on the portal and often end up out on the street. They’re at an age where they’re prone to making bad decisions. This also screws up their path to getting a degree. The high school player that is a borderline DII kid but could be a great one with development and maturity never gets an opportunity because schools are going to surf the portal for defectors who have a year or two of college football under their belt.

With regard to the PSAC, I feel for programs like Millersville that in my view had a pretty good year and had something to build on. I watched a few of their games and they were very competitive even in loses. They gave Slippery Rock all they could handle. I believe it was Clarion that got decimated last year. I guess on the flip side you could argue that Lock Haven used the portal to quickly get back to respectability, but that’s probably going to be hard to sustain. The coaches who are best known for developing players and building sustainable programs will be passed over for those who know how to navigate the portal to reload instead of rebuild.

I feel like such an old man typing this, LOL.

[Fightingscot82]

Chris Cacase, DB, Seton Hill
Kofi Kwaw, QB, Seton Hill
Tim LaSmith, QB, Bloomsburg
RJ Thornburg, OL, Seton Hill

[IUPbigINDIANS]

There seems to be something of a pattern to players who have a year remaining moving on if their team hasn't had a good season. While it's understandable from the player's standpoint, it's gotta be devastating as a coach to watch a player you've been working with 2-3 years decide to spend what should be his best season elsewhere.

Tough sh!t, as they say.

Coaches do that to players the second a better job comes along.

[Fightingscot82]

Rob Tatum, WR, Millersville

[TheBigCat2192]

There seems to be something of a pattern to players who have a year remaining moving on if their team hasn't had a good season. While it's understandable from the player's standpoint, it's gotta be devastating as a coach to watch a player you've been working with 2-3 years decide to spend what should be his best season elsewhere.

I understand your point but that’s really no different than a guy committing to a school and watching his position coach or even head coach bail for a better job after a few good years.

[Ship69]

Cox was 1st-team East both of the last two years so that one could sting. He’s going to be a redshirt senior next year so I wonder if he’s hoping to move up for his final season.

There seems to be something of a pattern to players who have a year remaining moving on if their team hasn't had a good season. While it's understandable from the player's standpoint, it's gotta be devastating as a coach to watch a player you've been working with 2-3 years decide to spend what should be his best season elsewhere.