Kevin Grundhoffer, contributor

In June 2021, the Supreme Court ruled against the NCAA stating that the association cannot limit education related payments to student athletes. This meant that student athletes could now receive endorsement deals through NCAA approved companies and organizations. Immediately following, booster clubs of various schools began creating collectives to influence athletes to come to their school based on the promise of a Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deal. This also prompted the change of transfer rules. 

Before this, athletes would be required to sit out the following season if they transferred to another school. However, in April 2021, the NCAA ruled that a one-time transfer wouldn’t lead to the need for college athletes to sit out the season following their transfer. The inception of the transfer portal essentially made athletes free agents ready to be recruited to the school offering them playing time and the possibility of an NIL deal. Athletes are now able to transfer once to a new school and may petition for a waiver if they transfer more than once. 

The waiver grants immediate eligibility so that the athlete will not have to sit out a year. Most transfers get this waiver approved if they are transferring for the second time or more. The transfer waiver consists of stating whether the student athletes’ physical or mental health has been impacted by the school as well as extenuating circumstances and education impacting disabilities. These two factors combined have created what some are calling a monster. 

Athletes are transferring at record rates, and are being fueled by NIL money. For example, when the transfer portal opened for the first day for division one football in Dec. 2023, 1,127 student athletes entered their names ready to find a new place to play. That was a 44% increase from the previous year and a number that continues to grow. This has created a trickle down effect that now makes it a lot harder for high school players to play division one as well as to all other levels. Instead of prioritizing high school athletes, programs are now looking for recruits in the transfer portal and offering scholarships to those athletes over the incoming athletes out of high school. Now, more than ever, there is a trend of athletes going to lower divisions and then transferring up. 

This has created the wild west of recruiting. Coaches now seem to have to recruit their own players twice in order to get them to try to stay. The universities with the most money are tending to get the best players because they are able to offer them bigger and better NIL deals. This has had exactly the effect that you think it would because student athletes who generally do not have much disposable income are taking the money that is offered. It doesn’t really matter the location or if they like the university itself, it’s becoming about the money. 

College sports in the beginning were meant to showcase amateur athletes at their best. Now, college athletes are being paid like professionals. The NCAA has strayed away from what it was built on and has not made any changes that could potentially make the playing field more even as well as more ethical. The transfer portal and name, image and likeness has benefited a lot of student athletes but it has also negatively affected them in certain institutions as well as the amateurism of sports. The debate will still stand, is pay for play in college athletics ethical? If it isn’t, what can the NCAA do to fix it?