Talking About How The transfer Portal In College Football Has Changed The Game Forever
Moncks Corner - Since the NCAA approved a one- time transfer rule for college athletes in 2018; that rule change may have benefited some players already in college, but it certainly complicated the recruiting process, particularly for high school football players, engaged in the process of trying to get an opportunity to play at the next level.
As someone who observes the recruiting process on the front end, often meeting young aspiring football players, and their families during their freshman season of high school, (if not sooner), I would like to stress this fact one more time: Certainly, feel joy and content once the struggle of hard-work and sweat equity results in a scholarship offer, verbal commitment, or signing on the dotted line, but understand new struggles and challenges await you at the next level also.
While you feel rewarded with a next level opportunity, YOUR STRUGGLES IN PROVING YOU BELONG AT THE NEXT LEVEL are about to begin all over again. All those many hours in your high school weight room, or with the added expenses of outside training instruction, are about to become many hours in a college weight room, where you are constantly reminded that winning keeps the head coach from being fired!
According to NCAA data, 2,323 college football players on scholarship, entered the “one time transfer without penalty portal” during the academic years of 2021 and 2022. Over this two-year period 54 per cent had enrolled at a new school where they continued playing football. However, 41 per cent were still exploring their options, or had no offers from other schools, as the 2022 football season began.
Don’t these statistical facts verify that as one struggle concludes at the high school level, new struggles and challenges begin for so many next level college football players. Boiling it all down, the net effect of the transfer portal complicates matters for college head coaches, and their coaches, who now have to weigh signing a player from the portal, versus signing a player out of high school.
As of August, 25 there were 24 senior football players from within South Carolina (Class of 2024) committed to major college football. Reviewing some of the data available within our own research at “The High School Sports Report”, the state of South Carolina normally would have between 26 and 30 players committed to major college football at the start of each football season, going back to the year 2000. Then, the state will usually increase those numbers between 8 to 12 additional players, offered and signed by major colleges by the National Signing day in February of each year. The new important Signing Day is actually in December that allows many seniors to enroll early at their respective college choices.
Even with the transfer portal, the state of South Carolina, has remained right at 40 high school players signing major college signees a year, which is remarkable based on how many players get picked up out of the portal. Last year (2023) the state had 38 prep players sign major college football scholarships and here are the 20 major colleges who signed them: South Carolina (6), Clemson (3), Georgia (1), North Carolina (1) North Carolina State (1), Appalachian State (6), UNC-Charlotte (1), Coastal Carolina (1), Virginia (2), Duke (2), Georgia Tech (1), Wake Forest (2), Northwestern (1), East Carolina (3), Texas Tech (1), University of Alabama-Birmingham (1), Georgia State (1), Syracuse (1), and Missouri (1).
In the Class of 2022, South Carolina produced 43 in-state players who inked major college football scholarships to 21 different major colleges. This is the break-down: Clemson (6), South Carolina (6), Notre Dame (1), Vanderbilt (1), North Carolina (1), Michigan (1), NC State (2), Virginia Tech (2), Marshall (1), Wake Forest (2), Arkansas (1), South Florida (1), Arizona State (1), Syracuse (1), Virginia (1), Coastal Carolina (3), UNC-Charlote (2), Appalachian State (2), Florida International (1), East Carolina (2), and Georgia State (1).
By NCAA rule, major colleges are capped at a total of 85 scholarships, on their rosters, by the start of each season in early August. Due to so many players leaving through the transfer portal the NCAA approved a measure allowing any major college football team the right to replace up to seven players a year, lost through the portal, and these seven players they gain must come from the portal. Any player picked up through the portal will count against the 85 total allowed. Once a player enters the portal colleges are free to communicate with that student athlete.
The good news is that while the transfer portal is hurting the number of high school seniors being signed in many states, it has not yet had a serious negative effect on the long-term traditional numbers of major college football scholarships in South Carolina (not yet anyway).
Without question, it has affected the amount of evaluations done by college coaches towards some high school players. Before any athlete can be offered a scholarship, they must be evaluated and this process requires time. If a college coach already knows about a player he missed on, a year or two ago, entering the portal, it is almost common sense for him to reach out to that player already knows about, especially if his team is needing certain that position filled. Most football programs have a full-time person just to monitor the portal and often social media lights up when certain high profile athletes enter the portal.
Thus, the challenge for high school football players is to embrace the process of bigger, stronger and faster and to truly study your options if you are fortunate enough to have options. There are right at 900 next level college football programs in the United States. They include 133 D-1 FBS major colleges (85 full scholarships per roster) with the next level being 63 D-1 FCS schools who have 65 equivalency scholarships for their roster, that can be given out on a partial basis. There are around 32 D-2 colleges (36 scholarships) and junior colleges are caped at 85 total per roster. Many other levels of college football award scholarships more towards academic qualifications without giving athletic scholarships. An example of this type college would be “Presbyterian College” in Clinton.
The goal of high school athletics should be learning valuable life lessons from working with a group of teammates and coaches towards goals of success, both on and off the field. One day, when you are hopefully being interviewed for a quality high paying job in your educational field, the HR person will be pleased to read on your resume that you were the captain or co-captain, of your high school football team, or that you earned all-region or all-state honors.
Trust me, that could be the difference in you getting the job, everything else equal.
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Recognizing the achievements of young athletes in South Carolina since 1986.