Every week there seems to be another horror story of the NCAA transfer portal experience, from attempts to poach players to the countless that have entered and never found a transfer home.
For the longest time the portal was referred to as "The Wild West," but I fear that's now disrespectful to The Wild West times.
With the winter portal window opening up yesterday, and the upcoming cuts to college rosters everywhere, we're destined for a not just a crowded portal, but one that can only be described as overflowing - and that may be putting it in the nicest possible terms.
The latest example of how out of control the portal has become came from Jay Norvell at Colorado State, who has more than his share of firsthand experience with roster poaching as he previously shared two of his top players turned down significant pay days, one in the $600k range, to enter the portal. Both ultimately decided to stay put.
After an 8-4 season, his best since arriving in Fort Collins, Norvell blasted the independent agents that shop players around behind the scenes before approaching the kids themselves via social media direct messages to share how much schools are willing to pay them to transfer.
"These kids are not thinking about getting into the portal, but when they have these people calling them and say, 'If you get in the portal, I'll get you $200,000...and by the way, I'm going to take 15% - 20% of that."
That cut Norvell shared the agents are taking dwarfs what NFLPA agents charge.
"So they're just stealing from these kids. An NFLPA agent gets 3%. A lot of these agents that are talking to all of our players, they are taking 10%, 15% or even 20%. That's really...criminal, really, but that is what is going on in college football."
"As much as we try to tell our players that, and educate them, when someone is offering you that kind of money, it's still hard for these kids."
"We talked to our top 26 kids, and they ALL have been offered, a lot of money."
Jay Norvell on the outside influences that go along with the transfer portal and the grotesque reality of how some of the scenarios unfold with the portal as a whole. @CSUFootball @1310_KFKA pic.twitter.com/xXEuabtj2V
— Will Petersen (@WillyPtakes) December 9, 2024