Transfer Portal implosion

[GO 150s 87]

And now Jordan Mayes declares…

Thoughts from my foxhole on this terrible run of transfer portal losses. It’s particularly alarming that these announcements are coming AFTER spring practice and the Black-Gold Game. Not only that, it’s defensive starters (3 so far) that are leaving. I’m beginning to believe something else is at play here in a foreboding sense. Are there imminent coaching departures we are yet to hear about? Is team cohesion eroding in the locker room? I don’t know but you’d have a hard time convincing me nothing is amiss.

[wpgrad]

Our coach has been in the portal for the last decade.

As I posted elsewhere, I don't blame the players at all especially if they end up in the SEC or ACC or whatever. They'll get some level of NIL, get a good degree, and have a better shot at the NFL if they are good enough.

When a player leaves and ends up at Div 2 eastern technical school of western illinois, I think that is a foolish decision.

But....buckle up everyone...because this is going to happen every year and it is going to happen more each year.

[WrekDivr]

Always hate to lose good talent, but wish them the best. The timing, while unfortunate, was driven by when the portal opens. Army’s spring game was on April 11 and the portal opened on April 16.

[PrideandDream]

IDK, maybe just testing the waters. They aren't gone until they are gone. I just think it's part of the culture of these kids these days. Certainly hurts more because we are Army and I think most all of us appreciate the commitment to the team and to the higher purpose of the academy. I think we all also know that if there are 150 players on a team then less than 5% of them are gonna wind up getting an offer from a P4 school and even if they do they may never play there. Look at Alston who got almost no playing time at Iowa State. Or Anthony Adkins (not a portal guy) but went to UCLA and saw minimal time in 2023 and none in 2024. At some point these kids will figure it out.

To some extent I say let them go. The most hidden part of college football is that it is developmental. You have to be willing to persevere and face adversity to get to a point where you are good enough to contribute routinely to a team. Running from that adversity doesn't help. We are better off weeding them out. Plus think about this we don't have a bunch of 4 and 5 stars. At best 2s and 3s and there are thousands and thousands of those kids. I say let them self identify and self separate. The ones we want will fight through and compete and rise to the challenge.

Elo Modozie had 1 FBS offer out of HS and that was Army. And he was a WR and 195lbs. Now that may be a huge exception but my point is that you just Never know who will accept the challenge and rise up in place of these guys. We just need to keep recruiting hard and keep winning and stack the depth chart as deep as we can with guys that will be the next in line.

[gabn92]

This is the world of college football now. I'd be surprised if the "something's amiss in the lockerroom" theory was correct. This seems more like new norm we're going to have get used to.

We have to realize that Army is a "feeder" program for bigger/better programs. Some of these kids come to Army primarily to play football, with everything else secondary. Sometimes Army is their only/best opportunity to play. Couple that with a good coach and staff who can win games and develop players and you create a situation where kids have improved while at Army and other programs take notice because Army is winning games. And young, talented Army players are bound to test the waters...and even be invited to test the waters. Ultimately, I think we'd all rather have the problem of trying to keep talented players at Army rather than the opposite...that the only possible place they could play D1 football is at Army.

Rather than running around worrying that the sky is falling, we should be asking ourselves what could Army do to mitigate the realities of competing in the NIL/portal era?

Obviously, the problem with the portal for Army is that it is a one-way door: players leave and nobody replaces them. Army will never get players through the portal, so one answer to this problem is to create another "door" for players to join the team. I think that "door" is expanding to provide a routine pathway to a 5th fall semester. Expanding that semester to allow more of our most experienced/best players to remain on the team would open a pathway for Army to keep key players to offset the departures of more junior players.

I think USMA could accommodate this by:

1) Identify and work with select players starting in their junior year to plan either for a 2 or 3-season developmental plan from that point. Some would begin planning/working towards a December graduation allowing that 5th fall season for football.

2) Others would stick with normal graduation but remain at USMA as graduate students for the fall semester, enabling them to play the fall season and then depart. A full master's degree wouldn't be possible in that short amount of time, I don't think, but certainly an opportunity to earn some graduate credits towards a future degree should be possible with a world-class faculty like USMA's.

The only downside I see is the short delay in getting a few more LTs into the Army. I think this is pretty negligible really...we'd be talking numbers like 10 or 20 at most I would think and we'd be talking about a 4-6 month delay. With an institution as big as the Army, that wouldn't even create a small ripple.

The upside of course is that Army maximizes one of its strengths: being a developmental program. Finding a creative way to provide Army players a pathway to use their full 4 years of NCAA eligibility would be smart for Army and would certainly help mitigate the losses of younger players that depart in the portal like we are seeing this year...and will continue to see.

We can certainly bemoan the state of college football on this board and be frustrated/disappointed when good players leave. But I hope someone at USMA is thinking creatively about this problem because action needs to be taken if the Academy wants to remain competitive in football.

[Coach MC]

This is an issue with many layers. I'm no longer in the coaching side of football, but still heavily involved in the travel basketball world as a director and coach. We have had nearly 100 Division I recruits, having done this for over a quarter century. But it is becoming almost impossible for a high school student-athlete to receive a Division I scholarship in hoops because of the portal impact. We have mitigated that somewhat because most of our players are high academic kids who are recruited by Ivy and Patriot league schools, where NIL and portal are not as much of an influence on the way those schools recruit.

Army recruits our program heavily. In fact, one of our alumni is on the team now, and another is at the prep school. Our current 2026 class members all have Army listed as a school of interest that is recruiting them. When I talk with these kids and their parents, I explain that this is not a decision to be taken lightly. To whom much is given, much is expected. It is an amazing opportunity. I want them to commit and stay, not kick the tires on West Point for a year or two and then move on. I really believe you have to commit to the school as much or more than the athletic program, because there will be adversity at some point in your athletic career, and they will need something to fall back on.

The issue on the recruiting side of Army athletics, and especially football, is that so many kids who commit have not thought about a service academy until the moment those schools begin recruiting them. When you consider all that goes with enrollment at those schools, it is a huge commitment when you see it through. 9-10 years. So if there is adversity on the football side such as injury or lack of opportunity, or a kid starts to really stand out as a player, the temptation to leave becomes greater before they step foot on campus year three. Especially when you consider immediate eligibility at the new school, and the chance to make significant money via NIL and revenue sharing. The new culture allows that the moment things don't go exactly the way a student-athlete wants or a better opportunity presents itself, you simply pick up and move on to the next destination. It may be especially problematic for us moving forward, and the upperclassmen are really the ones we know we can truly count on for the coming season.

I've learned that to complain about this broken system does nothing. You simply have to adapt and persevere. For us, it may mean a renewed emphasis on what West Point can offer long term, in regard to career opportunity and earnings potential in varied fields. Too many kids and their families focus on the instant gratification model and it can be tempting financially. But that will end, and can end rather quickly. So hopefully the player exodus is over, and we can start to focus on the 2025-26 season. There may be a lot of new faces in prominent roles.

[wpgrad]

This is an issue with many layers. I'm no longer in the coaching side of football, but still heavily involved in the travel basketball world as a director and coach. We have had nearly 100 Division I recruits, having done this for over a quarter century. But it is becoming almost impossible for a high school student-athlete to receive a Division I scholarship in hoops because of the portal impact. We have mitigated that somewhat because most of our players are high academic kids who are recruited by Ivy and Patriot league schools, where NIL and portal are not as much of an influence on the way those schools recruit.

Army recruits our program heavily. In fact, one of our alumni is on the team now, and another is at the prep school. Our current 2026 class members all have Army listed as a school of interest that is recruiting them. When I talk with these kids and their parents, I explain that this is not a decision to be taken lightly. To whom much is given, much is expected. It is an amazing opportunity. I want them to commit and stay, not kick the tires on West Point for a year or two and then move on. I really believe you have to commit to the school as much or more than the athletic program, because there will be adversity at some point in your athletic career, and they will need something to fall back on.

The issue on the recruiting side of Army athletics, and especially football, is that so many kids who commit have not thought about a service academy until the moment those schools begin recruiting them. When you consider all that goes with enrollment at those schools, it is a huge commitment when you see it through. 9-10 years. So if there is adversity on the football side such as injury or lack of opportunity, or a kid starts to really stand out as a player, the temptation to leave becomes greater before they step foot on campus year three. Especially when you consider immediate eligibility at the new school, and the chance to make significant money via NIL and revenue sharing. The new culture allows that the moment things don't go exactly the way a student-athlete wants or a better opportunity presents itself, you simply pick up and move on to the next destination. It may be especially problematic for us moving forward, and the upperclassmen are really the ones we know we can truly count on for the coming season.

I've learned that to complain about this broken system does nothing. You simply have to adapt and persevere. For us, it may mean a renewed emphasis on what West Point can offer long term, in regard to career opportunity and earnings potential in varied fields. Too many kids and their families focus on the instant gratification model and it can be tempting financially. But that will end, and can end rather quickly. So hopefully the player exodus is over, and we can start to focus on the 2025-26 season. There may be a lot of new faces in prominent roles.

It really is amazing. I used to coach and was involved, or saw first hand, a good number of D1 commits over a 10 year period and the "model" that a player/family used in say 2015 to get seen/get recruited (which camps to attend, what summer events to do, what travel team to be on) is now pretty much 90% different. To the point that, if a kid says "I really wanna play for national title at Ohio state when I'm a junior" they might now be better off going to Toledo, being a stud from day 1 and playing, and then portal'ing to ohio state junior year.

[PrideandDream]

Tons to consider here. I do think the next two big things will be that the NCAA is going to have to adjust the transfer portal and do it once per year after the playoffs and before spring ball and have essentially one "free agency" period like the NFL where the impact to team cultures is minimized.

The bigger change I think is when teams start digging deeper into the contractual agreements around the payments that are coming in the fall. I think you will see less roster flexibility and guys not eligible for the portal. Not that we will have them so we might still have players leave but I do think teams are going to get locked in to players longer that they want to keep. And that will happen everywhere. What might be more amazing to watch is how they manage roster caps and essentially salary caps over time. And unlike the NFL as long as there is a specific eligibility period then you only have so much time to work with. You could sign talent to deals that you can't get out of and they might be a bust and you could be stuck with them. I propose that too will change and eligibility will end shortly after NCAA players unionize. Certainly lots of ways this all could play out.

Someone had mentioned a transfer penalty or tariff for lack of a better term where if your school accepts a transfer that you have to pay an associated fee. That's probably not even legal or enforceable but it's an interesting thought.

To some degree I think all this helps Army in the future. For one simple reason, College football is still about development. Not only of each athletes development but also the development of the team and frankly many assistant coaches. Even 4 and 5 Star guys aren't ready to play at the next level. And they make up a tiny percentage of the total athletes. As these so called elite teams start paying players that are frankly, not fully matured and they are trying to push them through adversity it has the potential to not only stunt their development but it also has the ability to turn locker rooms totally toxic. At least at Army we can get good kids who probably aren't upended by money offered at other schools and we can build a good culture of a team. At least this is my hope. It won't end guys going into the portal but for the guys that don't transfer and those that stay we should be able to coach them hard and build a team. At least I hope so. but you know what they say "Hope is not a Method" - Gen Gordon R. Sullivan

PD

[RABBLE]

And now Jordan Mays declares…

Thoughts from my foxhole on this terrible run of transfer portal losses. It’s particularly alarming that these announcements are coming AFTER spring practice and the Black-Gold Game. Not only that, it’s defensive starters (3 so far) that are leaving. I’m beginning to believe something else is at play here in a foreboding sense. Are there imminent coaching departures we are yet to hear about? Is team cohesion eroding in the locker room? I don’t know but you’d have a hard time convincing me nothing is amiss.

The transfer portal and the NIL have ruined college football. This is a simple statement from an old Army fan since I was a seven year- old boy . Eighty years a fan and collector of Army information filling two rooms of my home on library shelving. Proud of it and wish to donate it all to anyone who would want it. All records are complete and organized by date ( 1890-2024)
I have tried with West Point but cannot find the proper contact to date. Nothing has been digitized but very well could be. It is a treasure that I would believe would be a fine addition to the history of Army Football.
Sad with the way things have gone and disappointed of these latest developments, but that is the end for me since the game has changed, I have changed too I guess.
OLD FANS DONT DIE, THEY JUST STOP COLLECTING. but still happy.

[rbmarmy]

Rabble, I will ask around our congresssman is a West Point grad and we are only 1 hour away. There are somr people work there as well. Right now the emphasis is on graduation, but don't despair, I'll get back to you rbmarmy