Here is a story from an Alabama beat writer/sports columnist.
As you will read, he states that in this last transfer window, $1,000,000 plus deals for players without starting experience wasn’t uncommon and that
coaches are offering money and managing budgets for their rosters like general managers of pro teams.
Also, he writes that some collectives pay per game in case players are injured and that some collectives pay signing bonuses.
The full story:
Goodman: Inside the ‘insane’ offers for high-value transfers
- Published: May. 07, 2024, 11:54 a.m.
Alabama head coach Nate Oats lifts a regional championship trophy from the 2024 NCAA Tournament. Oats and the Crimson Tide have reloaded for the upcoming 2024-25 season using the transfer portal (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
By
Joseph Goodman | jgoodman@al.com
A conversation with the parent of a prominent college athlete offered some new insight into the ever-evolving game of recruiting the transfer portal.
“Recruiting on steroids” is what they called it.
The transfer portal closed last week. Players in the portal can still sign with teams, but most of the action is over. Navigating the portal is exhausting for players and coaches, but that’s the new reality of college athletics among the money sports.
What’s it like when a player enters his name into the transfer portal?
“Within 35 seconds — I’m not kidding you — within 35 seconds my phone was blowing up,” said the parent. “When they say it is like recruiting on steroids, the first 36 hours were exhausting. Any school you can think of was either calling, texting, sending DMs. It was unbelievable and some of them were like we’ll just show up with money.”
Some of the offers were “insane,” said the parent.
A few years ago, former
Alabama head coach Nick Saban made headlines when he suggested that Alabama quarterback Bryce Young was getting paid seven figures for NIL deals. That blew everyone’s minds. Let’s just say that the marketplace has escalated quickly since the nascent days of NIL. In this last transfer window, seven-figure deals for players without starting experience wasn’t uncommon.
The transfer portal and NIL collectives have changed everything about college football and basketball over the last few years. According to the rules of the NCAA, athletes can be paid by the collectives for the use of their name, image and likeness. To be clear, that’s not how the system actually operates.
In practice, coaches are offering money and managing budgets for their rosters like general managers of pro teams.
With fewer players to manage, basketball is evolving faster than football. Consider Alabama’s upstart basketball team.
The Crimson Tide reached the Final Four for the first time in school history a month ago. Alabama isn’t going away. After a month of working the portal, Alabama coach Nate Oats has next season’s team looking like a favorite to win the 2025 NCAA Tournament.
Alabama added Rutgers transfer Clifford Omoruyi on Sunday, giving Oats a reliable shot-blocking presence that the team lacked in 2024. A 6-11 center, Omoruyi will take defensive pressure off of forwards Grant Nelson and Jarin Stevenson.
Predicting Alabama’s backcourt is a little more difficult.
Latrell Wrightsell is returning, and Alabama is also adding transfers Chris Youngblood of South Florida, Houston Mallette of Pepperdine and Aden Holloway of Auburn. Mallette is the 6-5 guard who committed to Alabama before the 2024 season even ended. Youngblood, the 2024 co-AAC player of the year, is a 6-4 guard who is originally from Tuscaloosa.
Holloway, the former Auburn five-star, could be in line to start at point guard for Alabama, but not if Mark Sears returns for his final season of eligibility instead of turning pro. In years past, Sears would have turned pro after his fourth season of college basketball. Two things could bring him back to Alabama.
He still has a fifth-year of eligibility remaining due to the COVID-19 pandemic and he could make far more playing college ball if he’s not selected in the first round of the NBA Draft. Currently, Sears is projected as the second-round pick.
Money isn’t everything, said the parent, but they added “I have heard that there are guys who have been told that there’s just not going to be money for you, or we’ll give you $50,000. And that kind of says to me, hmm, how important am I going to be to this team?
“NIL isn’t important, but you don’t want to be the $60,0000 guy.”
Before NIL, $60,000 payments to players would be a major infraction in the eyes of the NCAA. Now it’s the base salary for benchwarmers.
Who’s offering the most money? You’d be surprised.
“I think that the smaller markets struggle more to get players, so the money is bigger,” said the parent. “If you’ve got a powerhouse, then you know you’re going to have eyes on you and you know there is going to be a lot more attention than less-watched schools.”
Where players land isn’t always about the money — playing time is the other currency of the transfer portal — but everyone is getting something on prominent teams. Many NIL collectives now have mechanisms in place to protect the bottom line. Some collectives pay per game in case players are injured. Some collectives pay signing bonuses.
“It’s all kind of convoluted,” said the parent. “You hear about crazy money and sometimes it’s not true. And that’s why you can’t really chase the money. You’ve got to find the right fit.
“And you don’t want to be the cheapest guy on the team. You don’t have to be the most expensive guy either, right?”
The trickle-down effect extends to the high school level, too. Parents and coaches agree that the biggest change in major college athletics due to the transfer portal and NIL is how high school players are now recruited. Many high school players with D-I talent are having to start their careers at the D-II and JUCO levels and then wait their turns.
“From what I see,” said the parent, “the biggest kids being affected are the high school kids. Because once you’re in college, you’ve kind of proven what you can do even if you’re somebody who has just played a little bit. You still would have an advantage over someone in high school.”
From that perspective, major college football and basketball is also experiencing a throwback amid its financial revolution. If everyone is paying for experience over potential, then maybe that will give underclassmen more time to focus on their classwork.
...........................................
Joseph Goodman is the lead sports columnist for the Alabama Media Group
"NIL isn’t important, but you don’t want to be the $60,0000 guy."
www.al.com
