One of college basketball’s most respected voices took to social media on Friday imploring the NCAA to make changes to the sport’s current transfer portal process.
As of today, over 1,100 college basketball players have entered their names into the portal. Many players are looking for lucrative NIL deals, while others are simply in search of programs that offer more playing time.
“The NCAA needs to act and they need to act quickly,” implored ESPN’s Dick Vitale, citing the number of players changing schools. “It’s insanity, it’s wacky what’s going on. The transfer portal has caused an absolute nightmare [on the collegiate landscape].”
Vitale focused on the negative effects the portal is having as elite programs are poaching the best players from the mid-major programs. He says it is creating an unfair competitive balance where the smaller programs simply can not compete.
“The transfer portal is absolutely destroying so many teams—especially the mid majors,” he said in the video.
The beloved 83-year-old announcer acknowledged that what the top tier programs are doing is all legal and within the new NIL and transfer rules, but he begged the NCAA to help save the health of the sport.
“The bottom line is it’s not good for the game,” Vitale said. “It’s creating such instability. Don’t sleep on this NCAA, you have to check out what is going on.”
The @NCAA must do something about the system they created with “THE TRANSFER PORTAL”! Mid Major schools losing STARS they develop . It is like they r a minor league to the Elite programs .Over 1100 in portal is totally wacky . pic.twitter.com/BW0iK7fw1h
— Dick Vitale (@DickieV) April 13, 2023
While the transfer portal can benefit athletes financially, one aspect Vitale did not address is the negative impact it is having on high school recruits. Rosters in a constant state of flux, are preventing schools from making formal offers to high school recruits years in advance. Instead, due to the delays of roster building, top talents are now forced to make career decisions on extremely short notice.
While Vitale is simply voicing the quiet part out loud, the effects of the transfer portal and NIL deals on the sport have been rumored to be major factors in the early retirement decisions made by Hall of Fame coaches like Jay Wright and Mike Krzyzewski.
Those like Vitale can only hope the NCAA listens and sets forth guidelines to, in his view, save college basketball.
