The landscape of college sports has changed over the last couple years. This is especially the case for football and basketball. With the addition of Name Image and Likeness along with the transfer portal, some have compared college sports to the Wild Wild West. Well, I enjoy some of the chaos. In a world where every job market seems to be very competitive, the reality of college athletics may indirectly be preparing athletes for life after sports.
Of course, some guard rails wouldn’t hurt college sports. For example, the transfer portal probably shouldn’t be open in the middle of March Madness, but the fact of the matter is that the athletes have more control over the direction they go down and I don’t see that as a problem. Quentin Mccoy is a basketball player at Arizona State, and he has to go through the reality of the new world of college basketball. While talking about the financial side of college sports Quentin said, “We as student athletes are professionals now.” He went on to say that if you’re getting paid like a professional then you should treat it as such, whether that means taking care of your body or being responsible off the court you have to handle your business. There’s an allusion within college sports, and that allusion is that these student athletes aren’t professionals. From the game perspective yes, they are but there is nothing amateur about how much money is made from these sports. According to Investopedia the Men’s March Madness tournament made the NCAA $900 million last year.
The NCAA created the transfer portal in 2018. I wonder what the reaction would be if I told them that in 2025 800 basketball players will be in the portal within the first two days of it being open. The portal can be a gift or curse. For guys like Jayden Daniels, it can provide an opportunity to play with and against better athletes, as well as give you more exposure. There’s also been horror stories about players tricking off a successful role in the name of more money or exposure. For Quentin the transfer portal gives him another reason to have the correct approach. He said that there are hundreds of people that are looking to take a spot, and that’s why you need to work hard to put yourself in the best position as possible. I’d argue that the state of college sports isn’t a bad as people make it seem because of players like Quentin. Quentin strikes me as the type of guy that is willing to work for his opportunities, and after he puts in that work and things don’t go his way, I’m glad he can the chance to go somewhere else and start fresh. Of course, the positive or negative consequences that come with that is on him, but at least he gets that decision.
Like it or not college football and basketball have changed. Top players no longer stay in college basketball three or four years anymore, and the Pack 12 in football doesn’t exist anymore. This is the players’ choice era, and part of being an adult is making decisions and living with the result. The decision of staying at your school or transferring because you might play sooner, the decision of committing to a stable situation or going to an uncertain situation with the main reason being that they have more money to offer. Ultimately the question that players must answer when they are broached with these questions is, will the grass be greener on the other side?
