Navigating the New Normal: Strategies for Embracing the College Sports Transfer Portal

In the past, when college football was still a recognized sport 24 long months ago, supporters enjoyed a closer bond with the players who played for their favorite team.

Back then, recruits would be closely watched by fans, who would live and die by a high school student’s choice, and then watch as the prospect signed a national letter of intent. If the player selected your preferred university, they started a trip that was exactly like yours, with the same campus, classes, eateries, pubs, and so on. Even though athletes lead quite different lives from ours throughout their time in college, we can nevertheless imagine them having a similar love for our university. That is the link that binds us to them. We adore collegiate sports in part because of this.

Tuesday marked the opening of the spring transfer portal, and more than 200 players registered their names. That was more than twice as many as on the first day of the spring window the previous year. The previous year’s stats will be crushed by the end of the week.

All of this serves as a reminder that the old college football days are over and that many athletes are now playing for another school until they can find something better. Today’s players rarely stay on campus long enough to establish lasting relationships.

Many would tell you that it is detrimental to the sport. Year after year, rosters are almost completely unrecognizable due to the freedom to move around. Even casual fans now find it challenging to stay up to date with the daily entrants and departures. Above all, we are aware that a large number of the players on these rosters are merely there for transactional reasons.

However, the secret is now known. While we are in this no man’s land, this is the new normal until collective bargaining and employment agreements remove free agency and make the sport less ephemeral. Accept it or not, reality has arrived.

Which leads me to an intriguing query: Is it well-liked by others?

The majority of you undoubtedly want to yell, “NO! NO! NO!” right away.

Give it a moment before responding. Consider the sports-related interests you possess. Consider what triggers your use of The Athletic app. Which narratives do you most frequently read? Transactional news, if you are being honest with yourself, is probably the answer. For example, some people find the NBA free agency season to be just as fascinating as the real playoffs.

I started covering college football in 2009, and since then, I have kept track of the traffic to my pieces. I am aware of the current trends and what energizes people. The rationale behind my tendency to cover recruitment? The future piques people’s curiosity far more than the present does. Who is going to be big next? How will the team appear in the upcoming season? Who are the players we have a chance at?

A feature about a high school five-star prospect is frequently more likely to be read by readers than an article about a former five-star prospect who is now starring for their team. Why? For the future, or the possibility of change, is what makes a difference. Long before the transfer gateway, it happened.

It is not my intention to persuade you to favor the transfer portal. The reservations that many of you have are ones that I also share. To help calm things down a little, even while I understand why we cannot restrict athletes’ freedom to transfer teams, I wish we could only allow them to make one transfer (without incurring any penalties).

We are unable to. It is unfair and will not stand up in court unless the players receive their share of the television money.

I am trying to encourage you to look on the bright side of things because none of us can go back to the good old days. It seems like five decades ago was two years ago.

Yes, the drawbacks are real.

The likelihood is that a player who excels at a smaller school and receives a significant name, image, and likeness agreement from a larger college will depart. That is awful.

Because patience is unusual in today’s sport, your good young players will depart for a quicker route to the field if your institution is larger and has a deeper roster. That is awful.

If you are considering applying or transferring, you will most likely choose the school that gives you the best financial offer. That makes sense, but it is also bad.

However, this is a product of entertainment, and the transfer portal, along with all the other developments we are witnessing as the sport develops, provides us with entertainment all year long. Now the schools compete year-round, even though each team plays real games for just three or four months each fall. In April, you can win and lose. High school recruiting has always been like that, but now that it is occurring with the current rosters, there should be endless drama and intrigue. It provides a forum for us to regularly interact with our team. This is definitely not a boring sport. Even while we might not be able to relate to the athletes in the same manner, we will always have an interest in our

We all adore football, yes. Indeed, the games are the primary attraction.

Upon closer examination, however, college football has always been about the dysfunction and the show. It is always been the strange sport in the room’s corner that does not seem real.

Consider the main plot of the previous season, which was the Connor Stalions spying incident. Though it had one of the most fantastic plots I have ever seen, it was also really serious. On the sidelines, a man (maybe) disguised himself as a Central Michigan employee and stole signage while sporting Ray-Bans. That is quite convincing. That is quite interesting. Well, it is hilarious.

Without a doubt, there will be difficult days. You may feel like everything is bleak or your favorite player may decide to quit your squad. That your team’s best player began his career somewhere else may make you unhappy.

College football is going to be totally insane, but it is also in purgatory, waiting to be saved. Every day of the year, there is a cause to browse message boards, rant in comment sections, and tune in to podcasts.

Is there anything more we might want from an entertainment product?

(Photo of Dallan Hayden: Robert Goddin / USA Today)