Written by Over the past few years we have seen a drastic change in the fabric of college football. This is partially in thanks to the addition of the NCAA Transfer Portal, which was instituted on October 15th, 2018. Since the Transfer Portal took effect we have seen a massive increase in the number of ‘big name’ recruits transferring out of the University they initially committed to and possibly even played for after high school.
Before the NCAA Transfer Portal was in effect it wasn’t like we didn’t see any student-athletes transferring during their tenure as collegiate athletes. But since it’s inception, the number of transfers has grown exponentially, including some household names like Jalen Hurts and Justin Fields.
The transfer portal has been a helpful addition to college athletics. It has helped simplify the transfer process and alleviate a lot of busy-work that had to be done by all Universities involved to help these athletes find their new homes. However, starting in 2021 the culture of NCAA Football has gotten even more complicated with the addition of the new Name Image and Likeness Laws. These NIL Laws now allow NCAA student-athletes to receive payment from sponsors, endorsements, etc. based on their own name and likeness, which used to be strictly prohibited by the NCAA.
I am a big proponent of this new rule allowing these athletes, who bring millions of dollars into their Universities, to make some money for themselves at the same time. However, these new rules once again drastically change the landscape of NCAA athletics and complicate things for some of the faces of college football.
The first name that comes to mind is Spencer Rattler, Quarterback for the University of Oklahoma.
When the NIL rules went into effect last summer, Rattler got to work quickly, finding brand deals and sponsorships that supposedly total somewhere north of $750,000 per year!
Entering the 2021 football season, Rattler was the favorite to win the Heisman Trophy and was expected to lead OU to the College Football Playoff later this season. To put it nicely, things haven’t gone according to plan for Rattler and the Sooners.
While OU is still on track to have a successful season, Rattler looks to have lost his starting job as Quarterback for the Sooners. During their epic comeback to beat rival Texas, Rattler was benched in favor of Freshman, Caleb Williams. Since Williams’ stellar performance against Texas he has taken over the starting job under center for OU and ran with it.
In the time since the Rattler benching on October 9th, Rattler has been criticized heavily for the way he handled being pulled from the game and many analysts expect to see him enter the Transfer Portal after this season and look for a home elsewhere.
As I mentioned earlier, the Transfer Portal will help Rattler find his new home much easier than he would have been able to a few years ago, but where do his NIL deals fit into this equation?
If Rattler is to leave Oklahoma, I would anticipate many of his sponsorship deals falling through, especially the local deals he has with businesses in Norman, OK. How much is that going to weigh on his transfer decision?
Is it worth leaving OU and potentially losing his $750,000 annual ‘salary’?
Will he be able to find new sponsorship deals now that he isn’t a Heisman frontrunner?
Will potential new sponsorship deals from different companies nationwide impact where he decides to transfer?
There are so many questions that we may never know the answer to, but it is undeniable that these new NIL rules have changed the way NCAA student-athletes look at their options when deciding whether or not to transfer from a school.
With so many unknowns in this new world of NIL deals and college transfers, Rattler isn’t the only athlete who is running into these roadblocks in his career. There are athletes all over the country at different levels who are now impacted by the NIL Laws. With this being the first season with these rules in place, we don’t really know what to expect or what impact these rules will have on college athletics, only time will tell. We truly will have to wait and see what impact these new rules have, not only on the athletes, but also the sports and different Universities across the country.
The Transfer Portal and NIL rules aren’t innately bad things for college football at all, but they do cause major ripples across the entire college football landscape. We are seeing the entire structure of college football change right before our eyes and it is very intriguing.
As years go by, and these new rules become the norm in college athletics, they’re going to weigh very heavily on the decisions of those athletes and potentially sway an athlete toward one school over another simply because of the potential sponsorship deals that are associated with each and every University in the country.
College football is more complicated than it has ever been, and it will be interesting to watch how the NIL rules and Transfer Portal impact the overall culture and structure of college football over the years to come.