Why keeping good players has become harder than winning games

The Transfer Portal Panic: How Universities Built a Revolving Door and Called It Strategy

The best player on the team entered the transfer portal. The athletic director sent an urgent email: “URGENT: Player retention crisis meeting at 3 PM.”

The coach’s response: “He’s always had interest from other schools. This is normal in the modern era.”

What actually happened: The coach treated him poorly. The team lost games. The player realized he could play for a team that actually wins. He’s gone.

The Transfer Portal Paradox

Before the transfer portal, schools could trap players in bad situations. Players had limited options. They either stayed or sat out. Most stayed.

Now, players vote with their feet. Bad coaches lose their best players. Good coaches keep their best players. It should be a meritocracy.

Instead, universities are spending millions to prevent it.

The Retention Strategy That Doesn’t Work

Step One: Offer more money. “We’re increasing your NIL package.”

Step Two: Offer more playing time. “We’re moving you to a better position.”

Step Three: Blame the player. “He wanted more money. He wasn’t committed to the program. He wasn’t a culture fit.”

What universities don’t do: Improve the coaching. Improve the team. Improve the situation. Because those things are hard and expensive and require admitting previous mistakes.

The Mathematical Certainty

Bad coach = Players leave = Need to recruit new players = More transfer portal activity = More chaos = Worse team = Coach gets fired = Cycle repeats

Good coach = Players stay = Continuity = Better team = Coach gets paid more = Stays longer = Winning continues

The difference between winning and losing programs is increasingly simple: can you keep your best players or do they escape?

Ron White once said: “I’ve watched people make bad decisions. But I’ve never watched an institution spend millions to prevent consequences from their bad decisions.” Universities have made this their primary business model.

The transfer portal was supposed to give power back to players. It did. Universities hate it. So they’re spending millions fighting the one development that actually introduced accountability.

The irony is beautiful: universities created a transfer portal to be “player-friendly,” then spent millions trying to lock players in anyway.

Auf Wiedersehen, amigos.