I think we’re at the point where everyone is in the portal very year, unless they have a multi year contract. Just like every professional sport
Should it even be called a portal any longer? Free agency sounds about right I think the college players will miss having a place they can come back to as alumni in 20 years where they are remembered and celebrated by fans. ETN will not ever be a Gator in my eyes and likely goes pro after this year. Don’t know if any one will look at him as their own. Perhaps UGA if he helps them win a title?
I am fine with one-time, no penalty/restriction transfers. Only seems fair. An additional grad transfer year, too. It’s the unlimited transfers plus NIL money that makes it even worse than pro free agency. That said, I am pretty sure we would count guys like Pullin, Clayton, and Samuel as Gators, even alumni (whether they graduated here or not). Same for kids who left the program because they just couldn’t compete at this level. It’s a little harder when they get induced to transfer by a financial offer from a rival. I still think—and recent evidence bears this out—that the best path to sustainable success is building roster continuity through prep recruiting and player development, using your NIL dollars mostly on retention, then augmenting your core with the portal. Our approach this offseason leads me to believe that’s how Golden wants to handle his roster construction.
the only problem with prep recruiting and development is as soon as they could blow up in high school they're elsewhere...and as soon as they develop here they bolt elsewhere....whereas targeting proven players in lower conferences with 1-2 years left that want to use the SEC and hopefully a winning program as a platform to get into the NBA. NIL dollars for retention could be an expensive and unknown game, especially with schools out there willing to pay the crazy $$$ they are. I guess what you're also saying is develop a culture of loyalty built on success, which I definitely agree with
Florida should have enough money to keep kids. I can’t think of anyone we have lost under Golden for more money elsewhere. More playing time, more opportunities to score, a new environment, sure, but kids who balled out here have stayed: Castleton two years ago, Kugel last year, Clayton and Condon (among others) this year. Hard to say whether that’s because of NIL commitment or program culture is hard to say. The closest we’ve come to losing someone unexpectedly was Fudge to the league.
I'm fine with the one-time, no penalty/restriction transfers, but also that a conference should have the ability to make their own rules about restrictions. I think if you want to transfer a 2nd time, you should have to sit out a year. You can still get your NIL money sitting on the bench, but it would likely cut down on this chaotic, unfettered free agency. As for building a roster, yes, ideally you would build through recruiting high-schoolers and developing them. But we've all been conditioned to demand instant success so most coaches don't have that luxury, especially when players you've developed can up and leave at the drop of a hat. Just as an aside, I was watching some Gators NCAAT tournament games from 2012 and 2013 over the last few days. Oh my, those teams were so locked in on both ends of the court. The offenses moved the ball beautifully with sharp, quick passing until someone got open. Watching Mike White's plodding offenses, you forgot what a great job CBD's teams did moving and sharing the ball. I also forgot what a good all-around game Erik Murphy had. I remembered him for his 3-pointers, but the guy scored from everywhere, passed brilliantly, and battled hard for rebounds. Kenny Boynton was a tremendous defender and put a lot of pressure on defenses with his drives. Wilbekin was becoming great. Yeguete consistently shut down bigger guys. Some inspiring teams to watch.
He has been at 4 schools, but he only played for UF and Samford. And, spoiler alert, this is tongue in cheek, his great success at Samford doesn’t count, because Southern Conference players are not capable of succeeding in the SEC, and the Gators would never sign a Southern Conference player.
4 different schools really is crazy, and must be exhausting for the player. If through the NIL college teams are indirectly paying players, I wonder if and when we get to the point where college players sign contracts. Giving 18-23 year olds this much freedom isn’t good for anyone…and it certainly doesn’t hold them accountable. Young adults need to learn how to overcome, how to make the best of a situation. It often brings out the best in them. This doesn’t turn out men, it turns out ship-jumpers when things get tough or they don’t like a situation. He’s definitely not the only one. Most good players will want to play pro somewhere, and will need to sign a contract. If things get tough, which happens all the time, they may not have the coping skills to power through and overcome. Then again, very few kids from 0-18 have coping skills these days either. I’m all for these guys making money, but this is creating far too many mercenaries. Surely this model isn’t sustainable.
The schools can pay directly now. They’ve set a cap at ~20 million. I expect that to be challenged in court, soon. I would also expect unions, cba’s, contracts, etc to be coming down the pipeline soon enough. I also fully expect any cap to continue to be circumvented via nil money.
I am guessing that if Billy D or Todd G had been Ques' coach at UF, he would have been at UF for 5 years. His leaving Samford likely was for 2 reasons, one being money and the other being that the Southern Conference is treated by the NCAA as a one-bid basketball conference. BYU pulled a Jalen Rashada on Ques by breaching its NIL agreement with him. Kansas State looked like a great spot for Ques, but then came the recurrence of his knee injury. Following that, Kansas State signed Dug McDaniel, which likely means that they weren't willing to gamble on a full medical recovery by Ques. Saying that, I don't know anything regarding whether Ques has fully recovered from his knee injury.
He was looking to get feedback and apparently gave the staff no indication he was considering leaving.
On the point about instant gratification, sure, at the beginning of a new coaching tenure you will have to turn over the roster quickly. That’s what Golden did last year. But around the country the best programs are building through player development. UConnn had as many true freshmen starting as they had transfers the last two years. Houston, Purdue, Tennessee, Duke, Marquette, even UK—a majority of the elite teams nationally were composed largely of multiple year players, mostly recruited out of high school. Programs like Bama last year got all the attention, but even they had an overwhelmingly high school recruited roster in 2022-2023 (Miller, Bediako, Clowney, Bradley, Griffin).
