During our holiday, ESPN released a 30 for 30 titled, Paid to Play: Understanding College Sports in 2025. In this documentary episode, ESPN records and examines college athletes with NIL money and more importantly, the transfer portal.
If you have an interest in sports, especially for our Golden Grizzly athletes, I highly suggest watching this intriguing 30 for 30.
Over the past several years, the college athletics transfer portal has transformed the landscape of college sports. What was once a rare and often complicated process has become a normalized, even expected, part of an athlete’s career.
On the surface, the transfer portal appears to empower student-athletes by giving them greater freedom and control over their futures. However, as its use has skyrocketed, concerns have emerged about whether the portal is becoming a long-term problem particularly when it comes to competitive balance, team stability and the concept of loyalty in college athletics.
The transfer portal was designed to simplify the process for athletes who wanted to change schools. Instead of navigating backdoor conversations and sitting out seasons, athletes can now publicly declare their intent to transfer and be contacted by other programs.
In theory, this promotes fairness and transparency. Athletes who are buried on depth charts, mismatched with coaches or facing personal circumstances can find better opportunities elsewhere.
For many players, especially those at smaller schools, the portal has become a pathway to higher visibility, better resources and improved development.
Despite these advantages, the volume of transfers has raised red flags.
Every offseason now resembles free agency, with rosters turning over at unprecedented rates.
Coaches must re-recruit their own players annually while also scouting the portal for replacements. This constant churn disrupts continuity and chemistry, two elements that traditionally defined successful college teams.
Instead of developing athletes over four years, programs increasingly rely on quick fixes, prioritizing experienced transfers over incoming freshmen.
One of the most significant issues tied to the transfer portal is its impact on loyalty.
College sports have long sold the idea of commitment — athletes choosing a school, representing it with pride, and growing within a program.
Fans connect to players because they follow their journeys year after year. With the portal, that bond is weakening.
When athletes transfer multiple times in search of better playing time, NIL opportunities, or exposure, the line between college sports and professional sports begins to blur.
Loyalty is now being tested on both sides — players often feel little obligation to stay if coaches can leave for better jobs with minimal consequences and fans question how invested they should be in athletes who may only wear a uniform for one season.
The sense of tradition that once defined college athletics — rivalries, long-term player development and school identity — risks being overshadowed by short-term self-interest.
The portal also creates competitive imbalance. Power programs with national exposure and resources can aggressively target top performers from smaller schools, effectively using them as talent pipelines.
While this is not entirely new, the ease of transferring noticeable shifts the balance of power even further toward elite programs. Mid-major schools often lose their best players just as they begin to shine, making sustained success more difficult and undermining parity across college sports.
There is also a developmental concern.
Frequent transferring can hinder athletes who never fully settle into a system, coaching philosophy or campus culture.
College athletics is meant to be an extension of education, not just a stepping stone to the next opportunity. When athletes are constantly on the move, academic stability and personal growth may suffer.
The transfer portal is not inherently bad. It has corrected injustices and given athletes agency that was long overdue.
However, without limits or safeguards, it threatens the foundational values of college sports. If loyalty continues to erode, college athletics may lose what once made it unique — teams built over time, players growing into leaders, and schools representing more than just the next best option.
The transfer portal is starting to become a “free agency” just like professional sports. The athletes are not committing themselves to a four-year program, and instead they’re seeking personal success.
The challenge moving forward will be finding a balance between player freedom and preserving the integrity, identity and long-term health of college athletics.
If that balance does not exist, the transfer portal should be discontinued.
It is unfair to the college coaches who offer these players full ride scholarships to athletes in their respected four-year program. It is a selfish act. If you do not have loyalty to the program, then why play for it at all?