Miller: All's Fair in College Football's New Free Market

Miller: All’s Fair in College Football’s New Free Market

The monetized transfer portal has created early winners and losers but will prove fair over time

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Posted on May 27, 2022


  By Dane Miller, SuperWest Sports

Like it or not, the transfer portal has changed College Football. The restrictions that kept players rooted at one school have been relaxed, allowing roster movement that was unheard of just a few seasons ago.

The updated rules provide opportunities for athletes to profit from their Name, Image, and Likeness, turning the system into a laissez-faire model that feels like the Wild West.

The new system is a fair way for players to get the money they deserve in a free market environment that doesn’t confine them to one team.

The old heads cry about how the portal and NIL have somehow changed the sanctity of college football while ignoring the free-market principles that benefit the players themselves.

If businesses, USC donors, or the SC Collective want to pay $3 million dollars to Jordan Addison to become a Trojan, then more power to them.

USC transfer Jordan Addison | Adrian Kraus / Associated Press

There’s nothing wrong with an individual getting paid to play sports for a college team. There’s a demand for those players and a limited supply.

Basic market principles dictate the price of a high-impact athlete like Addison, and wealthy donors and successful businesses are willing to fit the bill.

That’s what free markets do: make people money.

Anyone whining about the new free agency of recruiting can reminisce about the “old days” to a continually thinning crowd. The portal and NIL are here to stay.

Adapt or die.

Regardless of your view on the new system, there’s no denying that college football is in a better position when its players stay in school longer.

The lure of NFL money suddenly becomes less certain, if not less appealing, when an athlete can make comparable amounts by staying in school.

The result keeps top-level talent in college, increasing the quality of the product, and probably creating more parity across the landscape.

Just a week or two ago, Nick Saban snapped at Jimbo Fisher for his recruiting methods at Texas A&M, clearly threatened by the Aggies’ use of NIL money to recruit.

Nobody wants to see Alabama continue to dominate on the recruiting trail and on the field, and the new portal and NIL regulations should help distribute talent to more schools.

If Saban is scared, that’s a good sign.

But the underbelly of any free market system is the losers that correspondingly falter while the winners advance. As the saying goes, “The rich get richer.”

Nick Saban and Jimbo Fisher | Lynne Sladky/Associated Press

And those principles are no different in the new age of college football recruiting.

A small town like Boulder and other schools in small markets simply won’t have the capital in place to attract high-impact players. At least not at the start.

The markets in those areas aren’t able to compete with the businesses in major metropolitans like Los Angeles, where a couple of million dollars for an NIL deal is more readily available—and well worth the cost to get an exceptional player on the roster.

That’s why you see schools like USC benefiting and Colorado faltering. It’s a free market where money talks. And it’s awfully quiet in some places.

The good thing is there are plenty of wealthy individuals willing to pay to attract talent. It’s just up to those businesses, donors, and collectives to make the offers and pull the deals together.

So, instead of complaining about other teams’ success in the portal, it’s time to get to work.

Top Beneficiaries of Transfer Portal Gains: USC and Oregon

USC Portal Gains

Player	Position
Jordan Addison	WR
Mekhi Blackmon	CB
Terrell Bynum	WR
Solomon Byrd	DL
Jacobe Covington	CB
Travis Dye	RB
Eric Gentry	LB
Romello Height	LB
Austin Jones	RB
Shane Lee	LB
Latrell McCutchin	CB
Brenden Rice	WR
Bryson Shaw	S
Tyrone Taleni	DL
Caleb Williams	QB
Mario Williams	WR

Oregon Portal Gains

Player	Position
Caleb Chapman	WR
Chase Cota	WR
Christian Gonzalez	S
Mar'Keise Irving	RB
Bo Nix	QB
Jordon Riley	DL
Casey Rogers	DL
Sam Taimani	DL

Worst Hit by Transfer Portal Losses: Colorado and Arizona State

Colorado Portal Losses

Player	Position
Mekhi Blackmon	CB
Jarek Broussard	RB
Christian Gonzalez	S
Carson Lee	OL
Chris Miller	CB
Mark Perry	S
Brenden Rice	WR
Dimitri Stanley	WR
Josh Watts	P

ASU Portal Losses

Player	Position
Lonyatta Alexander	WR
Jordan Banks	DL
LV Bunkley-Shelton	WR
Jayden Daniels	QB
Ezra Dotson-Oyetade	OL
Eric Gentry	LB
Rodney Groce Jr.	LB
Tommi Hill	CB
Jermayne Lole	DL
Spencer Lovell	OL
Ricky Pearsall	WR
Chip Trayanum	RB/LB
Johnny Wilson	WR