Musical Chairs

The college basketball season is nearing March Madness time. The Power 5 conferences ended their season last weekend and will move on to their conference tournament while many others have begun theirs or actually finished on Sunday. A lot of young kids had their dreams fulfilled and will now try to reach their next goal of winning a game in the NCAA tournament.

While watching these tournament games most people won’t think about the recruiting phase for next season. Yes coaches are preparing their teams but they will need to fill spots because of graduation or because athletes are transferring to new locations or some will test the waters of a professional career. So the kid that scored 40 plus for Stetson on Sunday may be getting messages that a team in some big city is impressed with his skills and leadership and would love to see him in their team’s uniform. Oh, and the big car dealer down the street has an idea for a auto commercial that is a ‘Slam Dunk’ for an awesome kid like you.

This is the new phase of recruiting. It’s not right but it is happening and as soon as the 68 teams are announced for the ‘Big Dance’ there is a good chance the NCAA will announce when the transfer portal will open. Coaches that had a rough year and won’t play in any postseason tournament may need to find a realtor to sell their house and find them a new one. If the coach doesn’t find a new job he and his family may have to downsize. Just kidding!

Oftentimes when a coach is fired several of the kids he recruited will be moving on instead of giving the next hire a chance to sell what he has to offer. Last year WSU lost a couple of promising players to the transfer portal. One went to Villanova and the other to USC. Their reasoning was to win. Ironically WSU won this year and finished in second in the Pac 12 (first in the Pac 2) and Villanova and USC have losing records. In order to assure postseason play those two teams need to win their conference tournament. Maybe if they can get to .500 they might be invited to one of the lesser known tournaments. But they can’t be happy with their decisions.

So the transfer portal and the Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) are here to stay. Like all good ideas there is abuse and the big boys have a tendency to take advantage and money is the root of the problem. NIL money lures young kids and they forgot about the school that wanted them and the education opportunity and may take their talent and acting ability to places far away. Will the coaches look after him like the first school’s coaches did?

I know that the local schools that I follow will lose kids to the transfer portal. I’ve watched some of the games that these kids played in for their new schools and many of them performed well. Chances are they would have done the same had they stayed with the old school.

I wish I had a good answer although I probably do but if no one listens or acts on it then it isn’t a good answer. I do know that a majority of the problem these kids deal with is trying to relate to a coach that is earning several millions of dollars per year as long as they are winning and recruiting kids from areas that don’t have it so nice. Professional sports have a salary cap. If the teams goes over that amount they then need to pay what amounts to be a fine or a tax. That is supposed to help keep teams more evenly matched. The Yankees and the Dodgers still seem to buy a lot of high priced players but that hasn’t seem to make them dynasties. I suggest we put a cap on the amount of money that coaches make. That seems to be what most of these kids are looking at as well as the NBA contracts. But most kids don’t have NBA talent and if they play professionally it will most likely be overseas.

College athletic departments are in debt trying to keep up with their league rivals and most aren’t on an even playing field due to population or location. But that doesn’t mean their coach isn’t worthy of a big payday they just can’t afford it. If there is a cap for that maybe it would help athletes decide if they want to play for a rich coach or a really good coach.

No matter what happens there will be a lot of movement of athletes in the transfer portal and coaches for a bigger paycheck or because they were fired. Musical chairs is about to begin.

— Dale Anderson is a sports columnist from Ritzville. To contact him, email [email protected].