Errbody’s entering the portal and getting paid

Like having to produce five months of magazines with no active sports when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and then having to write about a football program the last two years whose head coach got a lottery ticket contract after winning a national championship, dumped his wife of 23 years, entered the way-past-mid-life-crisis dating portal, became the shirtless selfie king, hired incompetent coordinators, gave the same answers like he was on sound loop (“It’s my responsibility, I’m the head coach") explaining his team’s repeated mistakes, was overjoyed to walk out the door after fleecing LSU for $16.9 million and then watched the Tigers make their oldest head coaching hire ever (not a bad thing), hand him a $10 million per year deal for leaving Touchdown Jesus and Notre Dame and then him unknowingly create his new team motto when he was introduced to Tigers’ fans at a home basketball game.

“We are fahhhhhhhhhhmaleeeeeeeeee.”

To the Tiger Rag staff, especially William my assistant editor and Joe my designer, thank you boys for having my back and going to war with me every month. I also want to thank my wife and my two dogs for living with a zombie for two years.

I also want to thank the following Baton Rouge restaurants for providing me with the necessary food for stress eating: Phil’s Oyster Bar for its fried crawfish sensation salad, City Pork for its barbecue ribs, Dearman’s for its homemade hamburgers and chocolate malts and The Velvet Cactus for its steak fajitas and strawberry margaritas.

Any of those fine-eating establishments and a personal trainer can feel free to contact me for an NIL deal.

All that said and after roughly five minutes of deep thought and 45 seconds of prayer (believe me I pray much longer on the important stuff), I’m announcing I’m entering and leaving the sportswriters transfer portal and have decided to take my 44 years of experience and eroding brain cells back to my previous employer Tiger Details.

Respect my decision. Or not.

It’s something the kids say.

Sounds cool. Means nothing.

Thanks,

Ron

Transfer portal announcements via social media are the resignation letters of the new millennium. Nothing says “I quit” like splashy, bold creative graphics and authentic LeBron James-like gibberish.

For those who say that the transfer portal is ruining college sports, it’s not, especially after the NCAA revised the rule to where an athlete can only transfer once and become academically eligible.

Call it the Indiana Jones “You Must Choose but Choose Wisely” clause.

The transfer portal, which came to fruition after decades of testing on Star Trek, has quickly become a double-edged sword.

Yes, players have a right to transfer, specifically when the head coach they signed with is fired or quits to take a new job. Why should athletes be indentured servants when coaches can pack it up and move on to new employment for substantially more pay?

When this happens, it’s often the first eye-opener for most college athletes. If they didn’t already, at that moment they realize college athletics is a multimillion-dollar business and they should be able to make career business decisions like coaches.

When student-athletes enter the transfer portal, they surrender their scholarships from their current school. And when a player finds a new locale and receives a scholarship from that school, it counts towards that annual 25-scholarship limit. A transfer player takes a scholarship as if he were a freshman out of high school.

If a coach loses a player with any sort of experience to the transfer portal or graduation, coaches are flocking to the portal in all sports.

For the coach, especially in football and basketball, getting experienced transfers who successfully fill a need is often the difference between being mediocre or challenging for championships.

There’s no better immediate example than LSU’s No. 16 ranked unbeaten men’s basketball team, off to an 11-0 start heading into Wednesday’s final non-conference game vs. Lipscomb before the start of SEC play.

LSU coach Will Wade’s immediate recruiting needs after three players turned pro early were point guard, power forward and shooting guard.

He signed senior point guard Xavier Pinson of Missouri, sophomore power forward Tari Eason of Cincinnati and sophomore guard Adam Miller of Illinois.

“We wanted somebody that had done it at the high major level,” Wade said. “You can get kids that do it at a different level and then move up and still play really really well, but I just think that's a lot more of a riskier proposition.

“If you look at all our transfers, we've got all three from high major programs. They all put up good numbers at another high major program.”

Though Miller tore an ACL in preseason and is out for the year, Pinson’s 88 games of college experience at Missouri with 49 starts is obvious at LSU through his calm court leadership. And Eason, a 6-8 matchup nightmare, has been the Tigers’ best player.

The one negative of the transfer portal, which affects football recruiting more than basketball since basketball has drastically fewer scholarships to offer, is more football coaches are leaning towards signing transfers than taking a chance on a 3-star high school recruit.

That is not healthy for high school football. Sort of makes you wonder if soon-to-be two-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Justin Jefferson or former NFL running back Jacob Hester would have had chances to sign with LSU since they were each a 2-star.

The transfer portal is not the problem with college sports. But when you combine it with the less-than-one-year-old NCAA rule allowing athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness, it has turned recruiting filthier than anyone ever imagined.

The phrases “paid under the table” or “$100 handshake” or “He’s the bagman” no longer exist.

It’s reaching into the money bag and placing thousands of dollars on the table for athletes from rich alums who are filtering the cash through their businesses in exchange for an athlete’s NIL.

The NCAA passed this rule without any boundaries and not nearly enough eyes to enforce bidding wars between schools for recruits, especially transfers.

Any Power 5 Conference athletic program hoping to contend for national and conference champions should organize a cartel of its richest boosters to create competitive finances necessary to sign the top recruits.

Baton Rouge personal injury attorney and LSU graduate Gordon McKernan seems to be leading the charge for the Tigers, jumping into the NIL fray signing women’s basketball player Alexis Morris.

“I am exploring some deals right now and I’m open to deals, to support these student-athletes and also, at the same time, bring a benefit to my company,” McKernan told Jacques Doucet of WAFB-TV in Baton Rouge. "But LSU is behind in this game. There’s no doubt.

“It does seem that the communities that like Alabama and Texas A&M have some things figured out. It may be the coaching change we had this year. I'm not sure, but I do think that we'd have to make up some ground ... I think it (the lack of available NIL deals) is being used against us.”

There’s no word on what LSU athlete will sign next with McKernan. But now that quarterback Myles Brennan has withdrawn his name from the transfer portal and is returning to the Tigers, he seems to be an obvious choice.

Maybe his first commercial could go something like this:

“A defective flip-flop caused me to stumble down porch steps, break my arm and miss my entire 2021 season. Gordon got me $1 million from the flip-flop manufacturer. GET GORDON!”

Brennan then tosses a ‘G” logo football to McKernan, who makes a one-hand grab while with his other hand throwing a money shower of cash at Brennan and says “GET IT DONE!”

Cut! That’s a wrap.