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Northern Illinois  starting running back, who led the MAC in rushing yards, and was just named a freshman All-American, is in the portal.

With the NIL, the portal, and grad transfers, I think the one time transfer waiver needs to go away.  IMO it's a disaster to the business model.   Fans may not have skin in the game, but they are the only reason it's a profitable venture, and I think the transfer waiver is the one rule change that may legitimately kill the point of college sports.  Amateurism was an excuse, but having kids commit to a program, I don't think was

Northern Illinois  starting running back, who led the MAC in rushing yards, and was just named a freshman All-American, is in the portal.

With the NIL, the portal, and grad transfers, I think the one time transfer waiver needs to go away.  IMO it's a disaster to the business model. Fans may not have skin in the game, but they are the only reason it's a profitable venture, and I think the transfer waiver is the one rule change that may legitimately kill the point of college sports.  Amateurism was an excuse, but having kids commit to a program, I don't think was

The place of an NIU in the business model is legitimately fascinating. That running back moving, presumably, up is probably good for the business model, or at least has the potential to be.

(FWIW, he was not the MAC's top rusher, he was third. Interestingly, the No. 1 guy is a third-year freshman. Will be interesting if he transfers)

The place of an NIU in the business model is legitimately fascinating. That running back moving, presumably, up is probably good for the business model, or at least has the potential to be.

(FWIW, he was not the MAC's top rusher, he was third. Interestingly, the No. 1 guy is a third-year freshman. Will be interesting if he transfers)

Is it?  The business model also includes eyeballs on Tuesday night MACtion.  I can honestly say I didn't watch a single one of those games this year.  Maybe I'm the minority.  College football rosters have always been unbalanced.  So it's not simply the fact that there isn't parity that turns me off.  The appeal of the mid major is putting all the pieces together in one year.  A mismash MAC champ of former P5 guys who couldn't quite cut it, and underclassmen looking to use it as a stepping stone, meh.  And I'm saying this fully aware that the best MSU player, perhaps since Charles Rogers, is a one year transfer rental.

Is it?  The business model also includes eyeballs on Tuesday night MACtion.  I can honestly say I didn't watch a single one of those games this year.  Maybe I'm the minority.  College football rosters have always been unbalanced.  So it's not simply the fact that there isn't parity that turns me off.  The appeal of the mid major is putting all the pieces together in one year.  A mismash MAC champ of former P5 guys who couldn't quite cut it, and underclassmen looking to use it as a stepping stone, meh.  And I'm saying this fully aware that the best MSU player, perhaps since Charles Rogers, is a one year transfer rental.

I mean, you probably didn't not watch MACtion because of the roster mish-mash or whatnot. You don't watch it because you're busy and don't really care about Mid-Major football.  

And that's just what it is. Mid-Major football is incredibly niche and TV filler. People in DeKalb most of the time don't care about mid-major football. If the kid is good enough to be better than the MAC (maybe, maybe not), it's better for the sport if he's good at IU than if he's very good at NIU. Maybe if he's GREAT, it's a different story, but the top rusher in the nation is in the MAC, and none of us even knew. (I suppose there's he risk of going up and being bad, but them's the breaks)

The flip side is that lamenting a Mid-Major which is young guys who might move up and P5 guys who couldn't cut it is a very particular taste. In truth, if a Mid-Major has that one year, and it has some names where you say, "Oh yeah, I remember him," that's probably better for the business.

I remember thinking about this with Mike Daum, former basketball stats machine at SD State. He had the chance to move up, decided to stay put, got some love for sticking with his squad. The next year, the biggest games he played in were against Memphis and Tulane. Summit League teams are barely on TV. Then SD state got upset in the conference tournament game, and he was an All-American that no one saw. It was a nice story that he stayed with his guys, but it would've been better for the sport if, assuming his 25 and 11 sort of translated, he'd been a notable player in a Big Ten front court. 

It's hard to say.  We can compare Steph Curry's tourney run in 2008.  They went to the Elite 8, and then he returned the next year, but they lost a few important players.  They ended up losing in their conference tourney and not making the tourney.  It might've been more fun if he had transferred somewhere else so he could have another exciting tournament in 2009.

Like I said, I'm not against it.  I just don't like it personally as a fan

What's interesting is that IMHO this has largely been an issue between P5 and G5, not within P5 from non-helmet to helmet teams.

I.e. if you're a star at Mississippi State, do you transfer to Ohio State because it's a bigger and more prestigious helmet? We haven't really seen a lot of that IMHO. 

From the G5, we see stars that may transfer to P5 or helmet schools because they've shown they can play at a higher level. Within the P5, a lot of the transfers we've seen are players who aren't getting playing time, looking for greener pastures. 

The question will be whether NIL changes this... If there's a significant NIL $$$ gap between P5 stars at a non-helmet and P5 players at a helmet, it might entice players who are a star at a mid-level P5 team to jump.