Is the amount of activity the Buckeyes are seeing in the portal normal? I'm hearing both sides from my family and friends. A few buddies are on the edge freaking out about the amount of guys that have entered the portal and I have some on the other side saying it's completely normal.
Secondly, does entering the portal guarantee someone is leaving or can players put their feelers out there and then return to the team? Are they actually accepted back if that happens? Man I hate this system.
I'm not the best person to answer this because frankly, I'm rapidly entering the DGAF territory as described above by
@MikeDeTiger .
The portal is so hard to figure out. Every time I hear a guy is transferring out from here or there my first thought is: Are they losing a quality projected starter or just losing a guy who never would have seen the field anyway?
It is hard enough for me to keep track of that vis-a-vis Ohio State so I just blanket refuse to do it vis-a-vis other teams.
WRT Ohio State. I definitely think that the volume of transfers is unusually high but it isn't altogether clear to me if it is insanely high or just a little above what is or soon will be the "new normal".
Then there is another issue. In theory this volume of transfers could be indicative of SERIOUS problems. If guys are leaving because there are locker room issues or something, yeah that is bad. OTOH, it could be a good thing. Maybe Day and the staff needed roster space so they sat down with a bunch of guys and basically said "Look we appreciate your contributions but you are unlikely to ever get much PT here so if you want to play, we recommend that you look elsewhere." I'm not fundamentally a fan of that concept. I used to hate it when certain schools would oversign then run guys off and this feels a lot like that. However, in the portal era that is the "new normal" so whether I like it or not the choices for Ohio State are to either embrace it or cease to be a NC Contender.
I'm a bit like MDT. I just don't have the time, energy, or motivation to research every transfer out, the various rumored targets and transfers in, etc. I think I'll pretty much wait until next year and see what the finished product looks like. Only THEN will we actually know if Day* got it right.
*Day here for Ohio State, but, IMHO, this same logic applies everywhere so you can literally substitute any coach and say the same thing.