Not to sidetrack this thread, but is the portal as wild in other collegiate sports as it is in football? I’m sure the dollars are a different level and am curious how much annual relative movement there is in other sports.
I can say that for my sport of lacrosse, it’s not anywhere near. I think it’s pretty simple:
1) In few sports can one make a serious living as a professional. Football is an obvious example of one where you can.
2.a) To make a living as a professional in football, one almost HAS to have significant playing time to get the opportunity. That’s one motivation for the activity.
2.b) Even those who have a chance to play professionally know that a long career is likely not in the cards so one has to maximize their value when they have the opportunity. Second motivation for the activity.
3) For the non-revenue athletes choices for where to go to school tend to be as much about school as it is about athletics. While this is definitely true in lacrosse, I have to imagine that it’s true in many other sports. To that end, that’s one reason for a lack of activity in the portal from other (non-revenue) sports. If a kid does want to transfer they do have to do the portal thing, but it’s generally just part of the process and candidly, being non-revenue sports… the likelihood of anyone tweeting about it is nearly zero. So, on top of lower numbers, it’s also far less out there for the world to see.
I will say, in lacrosse, an option that I see frequently enough is that a varsity player becomes disenfranchised and rather than transferring they leave the team and join the club team. It’s a way to continue to enjoy the game without the level of commitment as a varsity athlete. All in, non-revenue athletics is a very different landscape.
