NCAA Basketball: 3 ways to make the Transfer Portal better

In the Portal

Let’s only talk about what we know and how to fix it. We know that coaches are actively recruiting players from other rosters who have yet to enter the transfer portal and giving them an ultimatum. They will promise NIL money for a player to come and play for their school if they enter the transfer portal and then commit to that school. If the player enters the portal and chooses to transfer to another school, then no money, or if the player chooses to stay at their current school no money. I don’t have the exact numbers of how much this happens but it has been mentioned in a lot of interviews and remarks from Coaches about why the portal is so big.

There are no rules against this and coaches are well within their rights of poaching players from another program. Even if there are no rules right now, there should be. Teams should not be allowed to recruit a player or offer them a scholarship if they are already on a roster and have not yet officially entered the transfer portal. Once the player enters the portal, have at it offer them a scholarship and sell your university, but if they have yet to enter the portal or are still playing don’t offer the player. Not only does it get you out onto the list of opposing coaches. If the player decides to transfer somewhere else the coach is left with egg on their face scrambling to fill the spot they had promised to someone else.

I can not pretend to know what conversations had with players but I have been made aware of conversations that did take place on both sides of this. Ryan Nembhard from Creighton was obviously promised something from Arizona. While he has not committed to the Wildcats yet that is the general consensus that it will happen soon. The NCAA probably doesn’t have this on its radar because it would be easy to implement and would likely not lead to much adjustment from the coaches. If coaches could not recruit players until they entered the portal, and did not tamper with rosters. It would change the outlook of the portal and change the way the sport looks as well.