David Briggs: Yes, college basketball's exploding transfer portal is 'completely insane'

Apr. 3—It is more crowded than Labor Day at the Fulton County Fair. More full than a glass at the Optimists' Convention. More gridlocked than lunch hour at the DMV.

It's the men's college basketball transfer portal.

The portal may still sound like a way station en route to another dimension — Oh my god, Fido just chased a squirrel into the transfer portal! — but it is very real.

And, yes, very busy.

Almost everywhere, including at Toledo (four players in the portal), a line of have-sneakers-will-travel players are on the move, taking advantage of the floodgate-opening new rule — expected to be approved by the NCAA any day now — that will allow them to swap schools one time without penalty.

Already, nearly 1,200 players are on what amounts to the free-agent transfer market, and that number is ballooning by the hour.

It is bonkers.

"Insane," Bowling Green coach Michael Huger said the other day. "It is completely insane. But that's what happens when you don't have rules and regulations."

Welcome to the end of the world* (*as we know it).

Now, I'm of a couple minds.

I will always advocate for athletes' rights, and, as argued here before, if a player is in good academic standing, he or she should be able to transfer without sitting for a season.

That's how it is in every Division I sport except football, basketball, baseball, and hockey (read: the sports in which schools do not have a business stake in keeping the talent under their control).

And, of course, that's how it is for coaches and administrators, who are free to hop from job to job like sack racers.

The open market for all is a long time coming.

"You can't tell the soccer players they can transfer [with no restrictions] and the basketball players they cannot," Toledo coach Tod Kowalczyk said. "It's not equitable and it's not fair."

At the same time, let's not pretend this is a great thing for your favorite college sports.

It's OK to support the athletes, appreciate that this is not the end of the world, and to acknowledge the obvious: that college basketball turning into the world's biggest game of musical chairs is, well, kinda nuts.

And not getting any saner.

For better or worse, we're entering a world in which programs will be defined as much by the players they recruit from — and, more important, keep out of — the transfer portal as those they land from high school.

"It's going to get worse," Huger said. "If it's 1,300 transfers this year, it's going to be 2,200 next year, for sure. Because those same kids aren't going to be happy at the new spot, or they're going to go somewhere else and someone else's kids aren't going to be happy that they came. And then they're going to leave!"

That might be a bit of an exaggeration — 2,200 players from 357 Division I schools?!?! — and, again, none of this is intended to criticize any kid who makes a decision that he believes is in his best interest. More power to 'em.

Narrow the lens, and the truth is every case is unique. Most transfers make sense, even on the outside, often for both parties.

Take Toledo. It was surprising to see Marreon Jackson — the reigning Mid-American Conference player of the year — in the portal, but only because we expected him to start his earnings clock. After giving Toledo four great years and more than proving himself at the mid-major level, Jackson using his bonus season of eligibility to showcase his game on a bigger college stage is perfectly understandable. (Already, he's heard from Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgetown, LSU, Missouri, and Southern California among other major suitors.)

The other three Rockets players to enter the portal — second-year forwards Mattia Acunzo (bound for Robert Morris) and Luke Maranka and junior center Jonathan Komagum (Sacramento State) — were reserves who did not figure to have increased roles.

"Guys want to play," Kowalczyk said. "It comes down what type of role they want, what type of minutes can they get. And I think part of being a head coach or being a leader of any organization is to be honest with people. If you're honest with people and they don't like the honesty as far as the amount of minutes they'll potentially get the following year, they're probably better served to go play at a level where they can play."

Reasonable enough, no?

Still, it's not the case-by-case little picture generating the headlines and angst. It's the exploding bigger one.

While fear of change is always overblown — as is the narrative of a coddled, instant-gratification generation that doesn't know the first thing about hard work and commitment because they never had to walk eight miles to school, uphill both ways — the new landscape will have significant consequences, many unintended, including for the players.

It boils down to this self-perpetuating cycle: More players will be unhappy with their roles and those who are happy will be more prone to ask if they could be even better off elsewhere.

To the first point, in the past, let's say a team had two just-arrived transfers and a freshman taking a redshirt season. A coach would have had to find minutes for 10 of their 13 scholarship players. Now, with everyone eligible — and a play-now culture — Kowalczyk wondered: "How do you keep them all happy with playing time? To me, it will be a revolving door because of that."

As for the players who are content, good luck keeping them from away bigger schools who are beginning to see the mid-major level as a farm system.

Huger has been fortunate at Bowling Green, building a culture that — like at Toledo — has led to stability at the top of his roster. As of this writing, one Falcons player was in the portal (reserve forward Jacob Washington) while at least one of their senior stars — all-conference forward Daeqwon Plowden — intends to return for another season. Trey Diggs could join him, too. (Justin Turner plans to turn pro.)

Not bad at all.

But Huger can feel which way the winds are blowing.

We've reached the point where power programs have staff members devoted to scouting the transfer portal, if not outright targeting certain players well before they declare their intentions.

"I've had some people send me lists that their staff has had going on all year long of potential guys who are going to transfer," Kowalczyk said.

A year ago, Huger's biggest recruiting victory was not of a high school prospect but the Falcons' own star. Turner entered the portal last offseason and had offers from many power programs before deciding to return to Bowling Green, where he became the school's all-time leading scorer this year.

"You're always recruiting your kids," Huger said, "because now other schools ... say, 'Why recruit when we can just see Justin Turner play on TV? Let's try to pluck Justin Turner from Bowling Green.'"

Oh, and if you think that creates hard feelings among coaches, just imagine what it will be like when the MAC — and every other conference — inevitably moves to allow no-penalty transfers within the league. The Atlantic Coast Conference showed the way last month, announcing the elimination of its intraconference transfer rules.

"Now you're looking at all of us in our league trying to steal each other's players," Huger said with a laugh. "It's going to be a mess. It's going to be the Wild Wild West. You're going to have coaches fighting on the sidelines."

Consider our popcorn ready.

First Published April 3, 2021, 10:00am