Transfer portal part of ‘much-needed shift’ in power from college coaches to athletes

Editor’s note: This is the second of a three-part series analyzing the state of the transfer portal and what it means for Iowa Athletics and beyond.

IOWA CITY — Maryland head football coach Mike Locksley found some “inspiration” while on a summer vacation to the British Virgin Islands.

He was stuck at the small Terrance B. Lettsome Airport “without a lot of amenities, trying to figure out how to get home,” and airlines sometimes “don’t understand customer service anymore.”

“But when I looked over at that little newsstand after about an eight-hour wait, I saw Joel there, and this guy had tremendous customer service,” Locksley said.

Joel delivered food and shared his TV with travelers as he dealt with tourists who “probably weren’t in the best of moods at the time,” Locksley recalled while at the Big Ten’s football media days in Indianapolis last month.

Locksley used his observation from the British Virgin Islands to tout athletes’ “great experience” at his school (before another five coaches spoke at that podium who presumably also believe their athletes have great experiences).

But one can also use Locksley’s travel delay as a metaphor for changing dynamics in college sports.

Coaches have more incentive to be more like Joel and less like Locksley’s airline in terms of meeting athletes’ needs.

That’s because the transfer portal has facilitated a power shift from coaches to athletes since its inception in 2018 — a shift accelerated by athletes profiting off their name, image and likeness as well since 2021.

"And maybe a much-needed shift,“ Locksley later told The Gazette in Indianapolis. ”Coaches have had that type of power, and now that players have it, I think there’s some equality involved in it.”

An Iowa football fan does not need to look far for examples of an athlete exercising their power to move and compete immediately for another school.

Wide receiver Charlie Jones was fifth on the Hawkeyes in receptions in 2021. Then he transferred to Purdue and had more receptions (110) in 2022 than Iowa’s entire wide receiver room combined (76).

“I really just wanted more opportunities as a receiver,” Jones said retrospectively regarding the move on the Men on Melrose podcast. “There was nothing else to it.”

Iowa’s Cade McNamara is another example of an athlete using the transfer portal power to better their situation.

Had the quarterback stayed at Michigan, he likely would have been behind a former five-star quarterback on the depth chart. Instead, he is leading a Big Ten West front-runner as its clear QB1.

“If it weren’t for the transfer portal, I would have never been able to experience this place,” McNamara said.

Coaches and administrators, particularly at Iowa, have not always been keen on the portal.

As recently as May 2022, ex-Iowa athletics director Gary Barta advocated for the NCAA to stop allowing athletes to transfer without having to wait a year to play. A couple months before that, head football coach Kirk Ferentz was “not looking to bring a lot of new guys in that really didn’t grow up in the program.”

But at this point, the pre-NIL and pre-transfer portal days seem to be clearly in college football’s rearview mirror.

“I don’t think it’s going to go back to where athletes aren’t allowed to monetize their NILs and where athletes are not allowed to transfer at least once without having to sit out,” said Mit Winter, a lawyer with Kansas City-based Kenneyhertz Perry LLC who focuses on NIL issues. “I see things moving more in favor of the athletes.”

Further changes could occur as the NCAA faces various legal obstacles to its amateurism model, or what’s left of it.

The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint for unfair labor practices against USC, the Pac-12 and NCAA. If it succeeds, football, men’s basketball and women’s basketball athletes could be considered employees.

Winter said it is possible for athletes in some sports to be considered employees, but not athletes in other sports. The Title IX implications would be murky, though.

“People will give you different answers on that,” Winter said. “Some people will tell you that Title IX doesn’t apply to employees, it just applies to students. … But if Title IX does apply to the athletes as employees, then it would definitely have to be a consideration.”

The Johnson v. NCAA court case also is considering whether NCAA athletes should be considered employees. The outcome of House v. NCAA, meanwhile, could open the door for revenue-sharing with athletes.

Winter anticipates collegiate sports eventually having “some sort of revenue-sharing model where schools are directly paying athletes.”

“A lot of the timing is going to depend on what happens with some of the pending legal proceedings,” Winter said.

In the meantime, the change in power dynamics around college sports already is evident.

“It definitely has put a little more power in the hands of the athletes when they’re, No. 1, going through the recruiting process and, No. 2, when they’re already at a school,” Winter said.

Comments: john.steppe@thegazette.com