College football’s latest new frontier – the NCAA Transfer Portal window that opened Dec. 5 – has ushered in an unprecedented flood of student-athletes who are seeking to restart or resume their careers in new locations.
It’s part of a new era in collegiate sports, what with Name, Image and Likeness opportunities that can present up to seven-figure paydays coinciding with this new reality.
Similarly, it’s bringing out the shadier side of the sport in college football, according to Washington State coach Jake Dickert.
The Cougars’ head man earlier this week revealed unprecedented tampering into his program as the Cougars prepare for their bowl appearance opposite Fresno State.
“There’s immense challenges to what this Portal and this NLI provides,” Dickert said in a press conference earlier this week. “There’s more tampering going on than you could ever imagine.”
Dickert, who just completed his first year at the helm, then elaborated on those hurdles.
“We’ve had guys contact our players’ parents,” Dickert revealed. “We had a coach from another school contact one of our players and offer him an NIL. A coach.
“So there’s more things going on behind the scenes that you can’t even imagine. You can’t even imagine the things that are happening right now to try to pry our players away from this place. It’s stunning, it’s amazing, it’s the new thing that I guess comes with this Portal transformation. But it’s not right. And who’s going to regulate it? Who’s regulating this stuff? So, there’s challenges that we’re facing that obviously are extremely disappointed with with other teams and other programs and the collectives maybe acting on their own behalf. But to try to get to our players’ parents and offer them money and opportunities and stuff, it’s unacceptable to me.”
Earlier in his team’s bowl preparations, Dickert had expressed support for the players who sought a change of scenery but also cautioned against rash decisions.
“As far as the Portal goes, that’s the new college football that we all wanted, I guess,” Dickert said. “And the grass isn’t always greener. A lot of those guys that got in from our roster are guys that haven’t played here and want new opportunities. I support that. Sometimes, there’s going to be a guy here or there that wants to have a different opportunity, and sometimes when you earn your way at a Power Five, it’s not always easier to just go somewhere else and restart.
“The guys in that locker room are what we’re focused on. We’re excited about building off the foundation laid this year. We want to do it with people who want to be here. We’re going to do it the tough, hard, grimy way, that’s Washington State way and we’re excited about going forward.”
Dickert guided the Cougars to an 7-5 campaign during the 2022 regular season that included a signature road-win at then-No. 19 Wisconsin. He’s seen his WSU staff raided for key assistants in recent weeks, including by both Pac-12 rival Arizona State and North Texas.