It is too late to put the genie back in the toothpaste tube or put the toothpaste back in the genie bottle. NIL + transfer portal free agency is here and will not go away, just change shape. The transfer portal is great in transition years, but not so good in years when consistency matters. Right now the transfer portal is Napier's friend. We do not know yet if the portal will be good for Napier in the long run, but I assume it could be if he looks at Oregon State as an example of using transfer portal veterans and JUCO to balance out the inexperience with younger athletes. Napier, like everyone else, is still developing the best NIL + transfer portal free agency strategy.
There is nothing that they can do about NIL. The NCAA could investigate and penalize those who (all) who are using it improperly, but they wouldn't even investigate the blatant cheaters pre-NIL, so why would they. It will break some colleges and universities athletic departments though. The portal will always be there (and should have been all along), but there is no possible way that unlimited free agency will work long-term. That is just a recipe for a team to become the 1927 Yankees...every best player in the country on the same team. It needs to be his friend if he wants to continue to work at UF long term, but so far we've seen precious little use of it. Hopefully this cycle it will turn around unless he plans on signing a Freshman class of about 45 players. It is troubling that we've already seen several commitments from some top portal players to other schools in areas where we have a real need. At last glance, we only have 1 developmental type commitment from the portal.
Fan of the portal. Can help with depth, bridge a gap bringing in a vet, or just upgrade a position really quickly. It's better to build your roster thru recruiting, but in the era of "instant success".... you're normally not given the time to build a program properly. Folks will say Michigan... but they were paying that dude $7-$8mil a year, they had to be patient
And yet, recruiting rankings are the Bible in most people's eyes around here. Even that is going to change dramatically. Signing day just not going to have the same impact. Which I actually celebrate.
The portal is great for rich programs and bad for poor ones. Just like anything else where the dollar amounts isn’t regulated.
UF has not done a good job of getting on the portal/NIL bandwagon, IMO. We're getting "outbid" by other schools for a lot of guys and if you look at the top players in the current portal and the rest of the top undeclared recruits, we're hardly mentioned. Other programs (Miami, Georgia, Bama, LSU, Southern Cal, Texas A&M, as examples) have it working for them already and we're behind the 8 ball trying to play catch up.
At this time UF for the 2022 season had/has about 2020 players exit the team via the portal. Thankfully the Gators on had a hand full of seniors (4 or 5). Thus we have about 24/25 players at this time exiting the team. This figure could increase early into next year. To keep pace with the roster loses, the Gators need to land at least 15 players via signing and another ten via the portal. An ample number of recruit and portal player need to be able to contribute on the season opening kick off. In my opinion the NIL as we know it, just legalizes the $50/$100 dollar handshakes of the old days, and much more. Today, it is just a way to buy recruits without going behind the scenes or into back alleys.
Of course it is...just like everyone predicted it would be. 99.99% have no NIL value other than what they can do for Team X on the field.
Well at this time it appears that HBC Napier, has landed a very good recruiting class. Now the icing on the cake, will be getting good players via the Portal (which will happen). Words of caution: This recruiting class and expected income of players via the Portal is just one step. The next steps will be shoring up the coaching staff, keeping the current players at UF (away from the Portal and off field issues), coaching up the players, and and having a respectful 2023 season (hopefully 8 and 4 with a bowl game victory. If Napier can accomplish these steps, next year's recruiting class will be lights out, we will have more Portal entries versus exits, and will be very competitive for the SEC title in 2024.
Some of you might find this article interesting. Florida football: Chris McClellan drops hints on why guys are in the transfer portal
Everything in the world is better when you have money. Whoever said money can’t buy you happiness is full of shit
It can certainly buy championships. If things continue down the road as it is, it will be a few “super teams” like in the NBA.
The difference is that now it’s all out in the open and kids are comparing bags. And the bags got much much bigger.
Enlightening, for sure. I saw this on another board and posted it on another thread on this board. It's surprising to me how different the expectations and commitment required by Billy Napier seem so much more than that of Dan Mullen. Hopefully, there are enough good players who have bought in to built a decent team. And he needs to find players in the portal who are willing to come to UF with the work ethic and dedication required to be successful.
The portal is fine by itself but having it along side NIL is a disaster. To many mid tier portal guys getting upper tier NIL deals. I prefer CBN’s approach, focus on high school recruits and take portal players only at “have to“ positions without breaking the bank, if you will. Next year is not going to be our year, I expect improvement though, so why overpay for mid to good players now….play for the long run!
I never saw it or I would have certainly given you credit for finding it. Great minds... Lol. I was actually reading some free stuff on 247 and someone there linked that site and article.
