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I'd think coaches would love the portal

easy way to shed scholarships from kids that aren't going to play and reuse them

easy way for a new coach to clean out the current roster of kids that don't buy in to what he's sellin

seems to be taking scholarships away from a good percentage of kids

yes, you have to recruit your own roster, but you can also unrecruit your own roster to open up spots for kids you'd rather have

If your team is pretty bad, swapping out, on average, should be an improvement.  A second stringer from an upper level team should help a lower level team and play.

I think the portal is helping about 25% of the kids that enter - they find more playing time or more money or just a better situation overall

about 25% find a very similar situation with different scenery 

about 50% end up in a lesser situation (FCS, JuCo, no scholarship, or struggling to learn a new system and again looking up the depth chart)

until the kids realize this or get better advice from parents and coaches this is just a better way for coaches to manage rosters

I'm guessing coaches often "counsel" certain players to depart and portal out, covertly perhaps, or with subtlty.  As noted above, it's roster management, especially if you can sign a premium freshman class.

"Hey, Ryan, hate to tell ya, but the HC doesn't think you are cutting it here.  You won't play much next year."

How much does the top player make off NIL?

They absolutely do.  In the business it's called "processing" and over the past decade it's been one of Nick Saban's greatest strengths.

Of course, it's pretty easy for him,  when every 5* wants to come and they all think they're going to beat out the next guy.  Normally "the market" would adjust and people would start distrusting the coach of a program that is so heavily reliant on processing/roster management, but these kids all think they're bullet-proof.  No amount of warnings from the guys getting processed, to the new recruits that are about to enter the meat grinder, can dissuade them, because they all think it can't possibly happen to them.

But NIL and the more open portal are going to remove some of that advantage from Saban and the other coaches that were so skilled at it.  As FF and others are pointing out, now there are more opportunities for ANY coach to do the same thing.

Im hoping in the future NIL will help against opting out for bowl games

if a player stands to lose a lot of money to opt out that might change his mind