Kentucky football’s win at Missouri offered plenty of reason to be excited about the program’s future.
Freshmen Barion Brown, Dane Key, Josh Kattus, Deone Walker and Keaten Wade all made important plays. The staff remains high on many of their fellow class of 2022 signees who are not playing significant roles as freshmen.
But in the age of the transfer portal, having talented freshmen probably means interest from powerhouse programs too.
“In this day and age, it is inevitable that we are going to have turnover and going to have guys that enter the transfer portal,” Stoops said Monday when asked if he expects to have to re-recruit some of his own players this offseason. “There’s going to be guys that we hopefully add. It just happens. It’s part of this new world. Sometimes it’s for the better and sometimes it’s not.
“... Sometimes it is absolutely essential, it’s the right thing for both places. It’s the right thing for a player and the right thing for the program. Other times there’s young men that you say, ‘Let me help continue to help develop you mentally, physically’ and give them the tough love that sometimes we all need.”
Since the NCAA allowed most athletes to transfer once without sitting out a season, the transfer portal has been a net positive for Kentucky.
Stoops and company have used it to add a handful of starter caliber players to the roster in each of the last two years. Meanwhile, most of the outgoing movement into the portal has come from Kentucky players not expected to see significant snaps for the Wildcats.
Odds suggest eventually Kentucky will lose one of its key contributors to the portal though.
Stoops thinks program culture and locker room dynamics can help keep key players in Lexington, but even he acknowledges one other consideration could play a significant role.
“NIL is a major factor,” Stoops said of players’ opportunities to profit of their name, image and likeness. “It is. I don’t think I need to expand on that anymore. It’s a player. It’s a major player.”
In July, Stoops made an appearance on Kentucky Sports Radio to crusade for more NIL investment at Kentucky while many of his SEC rivals used collectives to help persuade recruits to sign. Asked Monday if he thought the program was where it needed to be in relation to NIL activity, Stoops offered a nuanced response.
“I think any program would say they want more,” Stoops said. “The Yankees probably want more money. Everybody needs that.
“I’ll say this without getting too much into it: We’ve worked our way through that as an administration, as an institution, as a program, to find the balance, to make sure it’s right, make sure it’s clean, make sure it’s legal, fair, ethical, moral. We’ve worked through all of that. Our administration has helped us as a program and all of our student-athletes and coaches to get through some of that.”
In October, the NCAA issued expanded guidance to schools to clarify which NIL activities are allowed and which are not.
According to the updated guidance, schools are not allowed to engage in NIL negotiations on behalf on athletes or provide free services unless they are also available to the general student population. Coaches or other school personnel can assist collectives in raising money through appearances or by providing autographed materials but cannot donate cash directly to a collective. Schools can request donors financially support a collective but cannot direct that money to be donated toward a specific sport or athlete.
Kentucky Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart has faced criticism for not publicly embracing NIL movement in the same way other college administrators have, but in September the school did announce its “BBNIL Exchange,” a portal designed to connect athletes with entities interested in signing NIL deals.
Whether that support is enough for the football program in a conference as competitive as the SEC remains to be seen.
Last week, Tennessee Athletics Director Danny White posted a video to Twitter voicing support for specific NIL collectives, urging fans to make Tennessee “the top NIL destination in the country.” When former Mississippi State athletic director John Cohen left that job for the same position at Auburn, Sports Illustrated reported greater NIL support at Auburn as being a primary motivator for the move.
Cohen’s move suggests NIL opportunities won’t only be a factor in the transfer portal. They could also play a role in the offseason coaching carousel too if sitting head coaches jump to higher-profile jobs.
In the meantime, Stoops has a clear message for Big Blue Nation.
“We need support from the community, from the state,” he said. “It is what it is. If we want to compete at the highest level, we’ve got to have money in the bank. That’s legal.
“... We have collectives in place that are supported, that are cleared from our administration, (that) you’re allowed to put money into. So, donate.”
Next game
Vanderbilt at Kentucky
When: Noon Saturday
Records: Vanderbilt 3-6 (0-5 SEC), Kentucky 6-3 (3-3)
Series: Kentucky leads 48-42-4.
Last meeting: Kentucky won 34-17 on Nov. 13, 2021, in Nashville.
