I get what you’re saying. I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying that the sport has completely eroded but it’s certainly altered it in a way that i don’t enjoy all that much.
Perhaps when schools finally have to be the ones who are paying athletes, which will probably happen within the next 5 or so years, then maybe that will help reduce movement.
Well said. Between unrestricted transfers and unrestricted NIL, it it easy to chase money, playing time and a better roster. I don’t begrudge the players the ability to earn money on their talents or to move to a better situation. For many, the college years will be their prime years for earning money in the sport.
Although it sucks to watch players I have been cheering for leave for other teams, and I have to learn a greater number of new players on each year’s roster, I still find myself following Michigan basketball as strongly as ever. The tradition of supporting your own college team has always been one of the strengths of college sports. I suspect that tradition will keep a lot of the fan base for college teams, but I agree that unrestricted free agency could diminish the support over time. Especially for fans of colleges that consistently lose in the free agency competition.
I agree that revenue sharing would hopefully revert things to the historical mean here in terms of players sticking around. As you said, that seems to be a handful of years away still. Considering how quickly things have evolved over the past two years alone, I sincerely question how much patience I might have to stay as engaged in the interim.
Again, hopefully I’ll look back at all of this and laugh at how dramatic it seemed. I just can’t shake that for the first time in my life I’m finding that my desire to stay engaged with teams I have followed and loved for so long is beginning to wane more quickly than I ever imagined it could, and it has nothing to do with the results on the field/court/whatever and everything to do with the overall atmosphere of college athletics.
It’d be interesting to see how Swords and Olson would fare in their freshman year. They would need to have a Buecker, CC, Watkins immediate impact in order for Michigan to contend. Are they capable of doing it? Maybe, but generally, freshmen for WBB takes a while for them to make an immediate impact. I think KBA will be forced to play 3-4 guard lineup due to the roster construction.
I feel the same way. And it stinks
I don’t begrudge the players the ability to earn money on their talents or to move to a better situation. For many, the college years will be their prime years for earning money in the sport.
Totally agreed, which is why even mentioning this makes me feel very old-man-yells-at-clouds. Any other college student could make money doing what they want and move between schools as necessary and desired. Why should it be different for athletes? Those players don’t owe me anything at all, and I’m trying to make sure I am very careful about not sounding like they do. They should do what’s best for them. If Laila can make good money going elsewhere, by all means she should feel free to seize that opportunity.
Purely speaking as a fan, it has eroded a lot of what has felt so enjoyable about college athletics for so long. One of the things about women’s basketball in particular that had been so refreshing was that you didn’t ever have one-and-dones or things of that nature. You actually got to see players develop. You could watch Emily Kiser develop over the course of years and be so thrilled for her when her number finally came up and she seized the opportunity. You could be happy for someone like Xavier (he spells it with an ‘x’ again, right?) Simpson as he carves out a niche in college basketball and becomes a fan favorite. And in what men’s college basketball world is Caitlin Clark even playing college basketball as a junior, much less a senior?
But I just keep returning to the blockquote above. If I can honestly say that the players should do whatever is best for them – and I do believe that – then I either have to be willing to adapt my fandom to the current reality of roster management or make a decision as to whether I am interested enough anymore to give time and energy to it.
I don’t want to revert this to the NIL thread but again, having thus be in the form of a multiyear contract seems logical
Maybe it’s one year for some players but then at least everyone knows what it is
Jordan Hobbs seems to be staying (knock on wood) and she now projects to be the senior leader on the team. She’s gotten a little better every year so we’ll see if she can take things one level higher.
Hopefully, the portal can giveth too. We sorely need an inside presence or two.
My hope is that – with Chyra Evans going to Utah – Cam decides to come back as the starter. We still need more, but that would be a great start.
YES - THIS! I think the key to protect the future of the sport is more tied to multi-year incentives than anything else. You want to incentivize players to stay and coaches to invest in their development. Whether it is NIL, Revenue Sharing, or Salary/Contract stuff is sort of adjacent to whether you can keep players around. The death of the no unlimited transfers tipped the scales over the edge into total chaos.
I think I’d like Dusty & Co. to see if they can help KBA reel in some portal stars!
Doubt it. Situation is salty.
Do you have generic details about the departures that you can share without betraying sources or muddying waters?
Ugh. Sorry to hear that. Was Evans the same way?
It had to be about PT and the fact that she didn’t start for most the year, right?
I was wondering if that would rub her the wrong way 
Bunch of personality stuff kicking in.
Can’t make sense out of the situations without knowing the details. And I don’t know the details.
Phelia is different. For her it’s money and higher (Texas?) profile.
It’s weird. I wasn’t completely locked into the sports scene when I lived in Austin but it seemed to me that UT was even more of a football first school than UofM. And then I’d say baseball might’ve been 2nd. Then men’s basketball and softball. I used to listen to some local sports radio and I don’t recall any talk about women’s basketball.
That said, it wouldn’t take much for the crowds at the Irwin Center to be bigger than the Crisler Center.
When I lived out west for ten years, Wyoming, Arizona, the sports scene was zoned in on pro football, softball. But now we have “Big 18.”. Too much travel time for a student now. That could be a big turnoff. I have heard off the news and local scat that KBA is a disciplinarian. By nature she has an east coast personality. Edgy. But not a bad thing in my view. Now there’s the transfer from Boston College, again, an east coast player. I enjoyed L
Hansen style of play. John Bacon said it best:
They need a Katelyn Flarety. If I mashed her last name, pardon me.
Play minutes is a big deal now. With transfer portal+NIL has created players buffet.
Oh nope. I’ve had the “Debbie Downer” fan begrudge already. It has me questioning why I should pay money for season tickets again. Been a fan since Sue Guevara. Very disappointed. But this transfer episode happened when Naz left too. This is part and parcel to lawsuits filed by former NCAA players about 15 years ago. About not being compensated when the school and coach makes $$.