Almost 1400 in the Transfer Portal right now. I wonder if a bunch more players will enter the portal now that there is no question they will be able to play right away.

I hate this rule. I hate that our roster will probably have a large amount of turnover every season. However, at this point I am trying to take the view that it may help more than hurt us. The number of players on our roster, that the big boys want to poach, is probably quite limited. If they are putting up big numbers, playing a lot of minutes, and like Little Rock a fair number of those will simply be happy and want to stay here. On the other hand, every P5, AAC, Big East, etc. team has 4-5 players, who are unhappy with playing time, who could probably help us. That is a very large pool of players to choose from. If we do this right, we could do fine in this new environment.

I could be wrong about this, but I think that continuity in the roster has a direct effect upon fan loyalty and interest. Stan the Man was "our man" to the Cards fans. Ozzie was the face of the franchise for a long time. When you have no idea who is going to be on first, you get about as confused as Costello was.

When you watch a player develop from a raw freshman to a steady senior, you feel like you have an investment in him. When the roster completely changes every year, it seems to me that the fan base will identify less with the program. And attendance was already a problem, and probably will be a bigger problem emerging from Covid.

The fans are the losers in this whole process. And of course, we only pay the bills, but no one thinks about that.

I wonder what the relative rates of turnover will be at the different levels of college basketball. Will D2, D3 and NAIA experience the same roster chaos?

I am getting less and less interested in players who are going to be making several times as much money as I ever thought about. I had rather watch a bunch of kids who play hard for the love of the game, and who are in school to get an education instead of being in school to milk the system for all they can get out of it before they turn tail and run for the money.

(04-16-2021 09:29 AM)mjs Wrote:  The number of players on our roster, that the big boys want to poach, is probably quite limited.

That probably won't matter. The kids still dream the dream, and they think they can do better for themselves somewhere else - and once they are gone, they are gone, even if all their assumptions turn out to be faulty and they ride the pine a little further up the ladder.

David Robinson, where are you when we need you?

I know a young man who got the Navy to pay for his education (engineering) at Fayetteville, but then he was obligated for several years of military service. Maybe we need to start shaping athletic scholarships something like that.

Basketball just needs to have a minor league system.

(04-16-2021 11:07 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  I know a young man who got the Navy to pay for his education (engineering) at Fayetteville, but then he was obligated for several years of military service. Maybe we need to start shaping athletic scholarships something like that.

Basketball just needs to have a minor league system.

The G-League is growing so the NBA is to a small degree moving in that direction. Still college provides them with a "free" minor league where they can evaluate players. They love the one and done, because it is less risky to draft a player who has gone through the rigors of the ACC, Big 12, etc. for a year then a high school senior.

I knew this would pass. NCAA trying to save face...it's not looking good when you have conservative Justices on the Supreme Court being skeptical of the NCAA amateur argument. Justice Thomas is the most conservative of them and all and its rare for him to speak during hearings and he stated:
"It just strikes me as odd that the coaches' salaries have ballooned" while the league restricts payment to students.

I am torn because I think college sports was unique because you were able to see players develop each year. However, when coaches can leave for bigger paychecks, take a kids scholarships for a "better" player, and universities can make millions off a jersey, tv rights, shoe contracts, etc. while the kid can't ever receive royalties during college and afterwards something has to give. It is sad when kids make universities millions and their family is struggling at home, such as a parent getting evicted or loss their job and the kid can not take not one cent from anyone that is not deemed close unless they want to be deem ineligible. Definitely, the solution to this is complicated. My two cents...

(04-16-2021 07:47 PM)LR Alum Wrote:  I knew this would pass. NCAA trying to save face...it's not looking good when you have conservative Justices on the Supreme Court being skeptical of the NCAA amateur argument. Justice Thomas is the most conservative of them and all and its rare for him to speak during hearings and he stated:
"It just strikes me as odd that the coaches' salaries have ballooned" while the league restricts payment to students.

I am torn because I think college sports was unique because you were able to see players develop each year. However, when coaches can leave for bigger paychecks, take a kids scholarships for a "better" player, and universities can make millions off a jersey, tv rights, shoe contracts, etc. while the kid can't ever receive royalties during college and afterwards something has to give. It is sad when kids make universities millions and their family is struggling at home, such as a parent getting evicted or loss their job and the kid can not take not one cent from anyone that is not deemed close unless they want to be deem ineligible. Definitely, the solution to this is complicated. My two cents...

It is definitely a very complicated issue. I hate to make everything racial, but it is hard not to. For years, mostly Black athletes (many from poor backgrounds) have been making millions of dollars for universities, administrators, and coaches while they make nothing for themselves. Most of the latter are white, although there has been progress made in increasing the number of African-American coaches. Yes, some of the football and basketball players go on to make big money, but that is really a small minority. It is only right that players should get a share of the wealth they generate, but whether college sports, as we know it, can survive is the question.

Then the issues arises as to why students who assist Professors on research projects that bring in millions in grant money to the school should not share in the wealth.

From CBS:

1. There are more players in the transfer portal than there are available scholarships: That's a widely-held fact in college football and basketball. There currently are more than 1,000 football players in the portal alone.

Let's be generous and assume each of the 130 FBS programs have five extra scholarships to give. (They do not. Not even close. But we're trying to make a point.) That's 650 scholarships. That also means a boat load of players who won't have a new home.

This coming year will be a total mess. Giving players an extra year because of Covid is ridiculous. In basketball, for example, most major schools played, at least, 25 games or so. There are a few schools that shut down- the Vanderbilt women's team for example. Some players "opted out" specifically because of Covid concerns. Players that fall into those 2 categories should get a "free" year.
Players on teams that played 90% of the their games, or more, should not.

Another negative from this transfer mess is that coaches are going to have to spend even a larger percentage of their time and resources recruiting as opposed to coaching. Which means that the Caliparis of the world win and the Beilein's of the world lose.

(04-16-2021 05:33 PM)mjs Wrote:  They love the one and done, because it is less risky to draft a player who has gone through the rigors of the ACC, Big 12, etc. for a year then a high school senior.

But you would think that even in the NBA there would be a few who would have the best interests of the game at heart. Or perhaps that is asking too much, since everyone in the NBA was one of the privileged few.

(04-17-2021 08:52 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Then the issues arises as to why students who assist Professors on research projects that bring in millions in grant money to the school should not share in the wealth.

Research students do not lose their scholarships for doing outside research or working/interning at a company that will directly benefit from the research. Also, if a professor feels a student has a good idea and concept they will point them in the right direction for investments to start a company. And, the student still does not lose their scholarship. That's pretty much how the tech world works. College athletes can't intern or work part time at pretty much any company. Their pretty much locked into a bubble where they can't use their talents outside of that bubble (college). I like college sports, but once it became a big business the amateur status loss credibility. If college coaches were making a salary like a professor, than that would look a lot better.

(04-17-2021 08:52 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote:  Then the issues arises as to why students who assist Professors on research projects that bring in millions in grant money to the school should not share in the wealth.

To be fair, professors don't "share in the wealth" either. Obtaining grants likely helps a professor attain tenure and associated pay raises. In the same way, assisting in obtaining a grant helps grad students get recommendations and good jobs in the future. College professors don't make multimillion dollar salaries like top coaches do.

From ESPN:

Guard Charlie Moore is transferring from DePaul to Miami, his fourth school, for his final year of eligibility.
Moore provides a much-needed reinforcement for the Hurricanes, who since the end of the season have lost three players via the NCAA's new transfer rule.