Random question about the transfer portal..

[4shotB]

perhaps this has been discussed here and I missed it. If so, my apologies. Here is my question and it involves a hypothetical scenario. Let's say that a school has an extremely well liked and respected (by the players and their families) head coach but the HC is ultimately fired based on his record (and not for just cause due to some other reason). Let's say that most, if not all players decide to leave via the portal. This could induce an almost death penalty effect on the school that would take a number of years to recover from. Will schools be allowed some sort of exemption in the number of players they bring via traditional HS recruiting and the transfer portal to compensate for such a significant number of scholarship athletes? Thanks in advance for any insight.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

perhaps this has been discussed here and I missed it. If so, my apologies. Here is my question and it involves a hypothetical scenario. Let's say that a school has an extremely well liked and respected (by the players and their families) head coach but the HC is ultimately fired based on his record (and not for just cause due to some other reason). Let's say that most, if not all players decide to leave via the portal. This could induce an almost death penalty effect on the school that would take a number of years to recover from. Will schools be allowed some sort of exemption in the number of players they bring via traditional HS recruiting and the transfer portal to compensate for such a significant number of scholarship athletes? Thanks in advance for any insight.

Interesting question. The NCAA tried to do this to Penn State years ago when they encouraged mass transfers through guaranteed waivers. PSU was under probation though, so not sure what would happen if all the players just got fed up and left on their own.

 

[smokey_wasp]

Hmmm. Not sure if the NCAA has ever thought of this. I would think they would still be limited on the number of HS recruits they could bring in, but perhaps they could bring in unlimited transfers to fill a team? Would be disastrous no matter what.

 

[bobongo]

Hmmm. Not sure if the NCAA has ever thought of this. I would think they would still be limited on the number of HS recruits they could bring in, but perhaps they could bring in unlimited transfers to fill a team? Would be disastrous no matter what.

I imagine there would be plenty of transfers to fill the void. The first few years would be pretty rough, though.

 

[4shotB]

I imagine there would be plenty of transfers to fill the void. The first few years would be pretty rough, though.

That is true but the bigger question remains however....can you recruit enough of them to restock the roster? If you are limited to 25 recruits in a single year and only 20 or so players elected to stay in place the process would be excruciatingly slow imo.

 

[RonJohn]

That is true but the bigger question remains however....can you recruit enough of them to restock the roster? If you are limited to 25 recruits in a single year and only 20 or so players elected to stay in place the process would be excruciatingly slow imo.

If you have 65 or 85 students leave a program in one year there are more issues with the program than just the head coach. (depending on whether you are counting walk-ons or not)

Marshall is the only team I know of that lost that many players at one time. Maybe SMU after they were banned from football?

 

[Oldgoldandwhite]

We will probably see it happen in our lifetime.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

If you have 65 or 85 students leave a program in one year there are more issues with the program than just the head coach. (depending on whether you are counting walk-ons or not)

Marshall is the only team I know of that lost that many players at one time. Maybe SMU after they were banned from football?

Different situation but the UAB debacle in 2014 saw the entire team disbanded only to reform two years later.

 

[RonJohn]

Different situation but the UAB debacle in 2014 saw the entire team disbanded only to reform two years later.

Forgot about that one.

 

[bobongo]

That is true but the bigger question remains however....can you recruit enough of them to restock the roster? If you are limited to 25 recruits in a single year and only 20 or so players elected to stay in place the process would be excruciatingly slow imo.

I doubt it. The NCAA wouldn't provide special dispensation for one team. As long as you have 11, you can play football :=). But it's fairly uncharted territory, so who knows?

 

[ChristoGT]

I haven't doublechecked, but it seems there were a number of basketball teams that lost 4, 5, 6 . . and believe Georgia was 7 . . . to the transfer portal, so upwards of half their team, plus graduates.
OK, I checked. 1552 transfers in basketball, or an average of 4 per team on a 15-member team. So, if that same percentage happens in football, you could see in the range of 20-25 per year leaving on average.

 

[TooTall]

Syracuse women basketball had 11 of their team leave...finally fired the coach but the damage has been done.

 

[Augusta_Jacket]

I haven't doublechecked, but it seems there were a number of basketball teams that lost 4, 5, 6 . . and believe Georgia was 7 . . . to the transfer portal, so upwards of half their team, plus graduates.
OK, I checked. 1552 transfers in basketball, or an average of 4 per team on a 15-member team. So, if that same percentage happens in football, you could see in the range of 20-25 per year leaving on average.

Biggest difference is that in basketball the addition of 1-2 players can drastically remake an entire team. Football is a lot harder to rebuild when you lose large amounts of players.

 

[4shotB]

We will probably see it happen in our lifetime.

Based on what you hear about the transition from Curry to Ross, I wonder how many of those players would have left if given the opportunity without losing eligibility? I agree with you in that we haven't seen it before only because the rules are now different. It may be also a cultural shift at play as well as people hop from job to job much more frequently now than they did 20 or more years ago. It will happen and if no other rules are changed, it could have a very long and devastating impact on that program(s) when it does.

 

[slugboy]

Syracuse women basketball had 11 of their team leave...finally fired the coach but the damage has been done.

Basketball only has a total scholarship cap--not a yearly cap. In basketball, you can replace every scholarship player in one year.

I'm not sure if it's still the case, but when I just checked, the 25 max scholarships per year and 85 in four years limit applies to transfers also.

 

[orientalnc]

So, if in this scenario the entire team transferred out, you would have to fill out the roster with 25 recruits/transfers? Plus walk-ons, of course. Could you field a team with only 25 scholarship players?

 

[slugboy]

So, if in this scenario the entire team transferred out, you would have to fill out the roster with 25 recruits/transfers? Plus walk-ons, of course. Could you field a team with only 25 scholarship players?

I think you would be allowed to compete with 25 scholarship players and 50 walk-ons. There’s no slaughter rule at our level, though.

 

[gville_jacket]

Forgot about that one.

What's even more insane about that whole situation is the coach actually stayed! His contract ran through when they didn't have a team so he stuck around to campaign for the team to return. If Bill Clark ever decides to leave UAB, he would be big time get for any program. Lots of folks in the state of Alabama assume he'll take over after Saban retires.

 

[Coloradojacket]

I believe we can look at Tennessee right now and see the result. They had 17 players transfer out. But, they had 8 transfer in. Kids are not stupid, if they see an opportunity they will take it. And while some kids come in to play for a coach, many come because they like the school or it is close to home.

 

[Root4GT]

I think you would be allowed to compete with 25 scholarship players and 50 walk-ons. There’s no slaughter rule at our level, though.

There were a couple games that went to running clocks in the second half when CPJ’s team was rolling Div 1A teams years ago.