The reality of NIL and the transfer portal is that it’s made competing for talent much more difficult. That leaves how to make talent work together aside for the moment, but that’s a topic for another discussion.
The latest coach to bring this up is UCLA’s Mick Cronin. After losing to UConn, he was asked about possible changes to how UCLA manages the modern environment. Cronin said this: “I’d like about five million more (dollars).”
Before the tournament, Cronin also said that “[y]ou should be able
to go over the revenue share to be able to retain players.Very few of these guys are going to be able to retire on (NIL money), so we need to encourage guys not to transfer.”
That’s an interesting idea. Here’s another way to possibly do it, if it’s legal: limit the number of transfers any school can take to six.
That would force at least a couple of things. First, players would be much more cautious about entering the portal, or at least players who aren’t in very high demand would. One of the underreported issues of portal musical chairs is that every year, some guys lose their scholarships.
Second, it would help with retention, which would help some of those kids stay on their teams.
Free agency is economically fine, but as John Calipari, among others, has pointed out, frequent transfers make graduation almost impossible. If you go to four schools in four years, your odds of graduating while you have your scholarship are almost zero.
If you combine limiting the total number of incoming transfers with Cronin’s idea, you might return some stability to the sport.
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