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- Thread starter Tomateaux Quinoa Gumbeaux
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ScriptOhio
Everybody is somebody else's weirdo.
How the transfer portal and NIL have affected FCS schools:
www.espn.com
Grey Zabel hesitated. The North Dakota State tackle didn't know if he should answer the question posed by a reporter. The two-time FCS national champion played five seasons for the Bison, and was one of seven FCS players invited to the NFL combine this year, the smallest number of small school prospects, defined as players who most recently played below the Division I FBS level, in a decade. Zabel said he had a few offers from bigger programs to enter the transfer portal.
How much money did you leave on the table by not entering the transfer portal for a Power 4 FBS program last year?
"That's a tough answer," Zabel said, and paused to think about his words. "Six figures."
"It's not just me. There's other very talented players that are getting tampered with every single year, that our guys are being [enticed] to transfer elsewhere. ... It's tough for a lot of these guys to turn down that type of money. But in the long run, you just got to fall back to what you believe in."
Zabel said he believed in Bison football, which he describes as a player-driven and process-driven program. He played for the same offensive line coach, Dan Larson, for the past four years, a coach who has a record of developing players for the NFL. The Zabels have a family farm in South Dakota, and Grey didn't have much NIL money from NDSU, but he used what he had to lease 245 acres of farmland in South Dakota. The Bison lost in the semifinals of the 2023 postseason, and he didn't want to end his time in Fargo, North Dakota, that way.
"It's an emptiness that you want to fill immediately," Zabel said. He wanted to be a national champion again, and he did that. Since then, he has been climbing draft boards because of a strong Senior Bowl week and versatility to play guard and center. He could be a first-round pick, and many teams are asking him questions about why he didn't move up.
"The dollar range was in a place where you had to consider it, and you had to truly think about it," he said. "It was a hard decision, but at the end of the day, it was a super easy decision to decide to stay at North Dakota State and play my final year there because of the culture, the relationships you make, the locker room that you established and played with the past four years. You don't want to leave those guys or leave that program, you want to stick where you started, stay home, and in the end, win the last game of the season."
Zabel is a rarity in college now. NIL money and the one-time transfer rule, which went into effect for the 2021 college football season, allowed college athletes to transfer once and not sit out the season (the rule expanded in 2024 to allow unlimited transfers with no penalties as long as players met academic requirements). That led to a steady decline in small school players making the combine. They're all moving up before they go pro.
"The Khalil Macks of the world [played four years at Buffalo of the MAC before going No. 5 in the 2014 draft] will be relics of the NFL drafts past," an analytics staffer for an NFL team said. "With the money you get in the portal now -- not sure we'll ever see another top 10 pick out of an FCS or lower program again."
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Goodbye to small school prospects: Why fewer NFL players come from outside the FBS
Seven non-FBS players were at the 2025 NFL combine, a 10-year low. Here's why it happened and the implications for future prospects.
Where have all the NFL's small school prospects gone?
Grey Zabel hesitated. The North Dakota State tackle didn't know if he should answer the question posed by a reporter. The two-time FCS national champion played five seasons for the Bison, and was one of seven FCS players invited to the NFL combine this year, the smallest number of small school prospects, defined as players who most recently played below the Division I FBS level, in a decade. Zabel said he had a few offers from bigger programs to enter the transfer portal.
How much money did you leave on the table by not entering the transfer portal for a Power 4 FBS program last year?
"That's a tough answer," Zabel said, and paused to think about his words. "Six figures."
"It's not just me. There's other very talented players that are getting tampered with every single year, that our guys are being [enticed] to transfer elsewhere. ... It's tough for a lot of these guys to turn down that type of money. But in the long run, you just got to fall back to what you believe in."
Zabel said he believed in Bison football, which he describes as a player-driven and process-driven program. He played for the same offensive line coach, Dan Larson, for the past four years, a coach who has a record of developing players for the NFL. The Zabels have a family farm in South Dakota, and Grey didn't have much NIL money from NDSU, but he used what he had to lease 245 acres of farmland in South Dakota. The Bison lost in the semifinals of the 2023 postseason, and he didn't want to end his time in Fargo, North Dakota, that way.
"It's an emptiness that you want to fill immediately," Zabel said. He wanted to be a national champion again, and he did that. Since then, he has been climbing draft boards because of a strong Senior Bowl week and versatility to play guard and center. He could be a first-round pick, and many teams are asking him questions about why he didn't move up.
"The dollar range was in a place where you had to consider it, and you had to truly think about it," he said. "It was a hard decision, but at the end of the day, it was a super easy decision to decide to stay at North Dakota State and play my final year there because of the culture, the relationships you make, the locker room that you established and played with the past four years. You don't want to leave those guys or leave that program, you want to stick where you started, stay home, and in the end, win the last game of the season."
Zabel is a rarity in college now. NIL money and the one-time transfer rule, which went into effect for the 2021 college football season, allowed college athletes to transfer once and not sit out the season (the rule expanded in 2024 to allow unlimited transfers with no penalties as long as players met academic requirements). That led to a steady decline in small school players making the combine. They're all moving up before they go pro.
"The Khalil Macks of the world [played four years at Buffalo of the MAC before going No. 5 in the 2014 draft] will be relics of the NFL drafts past," an analytics staffer for an NFL team said. "With the money you get in the portal now -- not sure we'll ever see another top 10 pick out of an FCS or lower program again."
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