Big news from Transfer Portal World this week, and no, it's not that it malfunctioned and turned former Ball State running back Carson Steele into a Good Carson and an Evil Carson on his way to UCLA. You remember that episode of "Star Trek," right?
("Enough, Mr. Blob," you're saying now. "We get it. Every time you hear 'transfer portal' you think of the transporter on 'Star Trek.' And, by the way, the episode you're thinking of is 'The Enemy Within', and it involves a transporter malfunction that splits Kirk into Good Kirk and Evil Kirk.")
Yes, that's exactly the episode I was thinking of!
But I digress.
("All the time," you're saying)
What I really want to talk about is Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman, last seen taking his 12,967 career passing yards -- second only to Philip Rivers in ACC history -- and entering the transfer portal for his final year of eligibility. And guess where he materialized?
No, not Ball State, you ninny!
He materialized at Notre Dame, which immediately gets a significant upgrade at the quarterback position. Drew Pyne? Tyler Buchner? Posers. Hartman is the real deal, by all accounts. And he's only gone a-portaling once, which ought to qualify him for college football sainthood these days.
Since the NCAA said, "Ah, screw it, do what you want" and let players transfer any time they felt like it and allowed schools to buy them via NIL deals, college football has been like Congressional Republicans trying to elect a speaker. It's been chaos and madness and Rep. Matt "Frat Boy" Gaetz (aka, "the most punchable face in America") almost getting punched in the face.
Which would have been the No. 1 sports moment of the week. But again I digress.
Point is, the NCAA did the right thing, but it did it all kinds of wrong. From too many rules we've migrated to NO rules -- which means a recruit's "commitment" to a school isn't a commitment at all, and the transfer portal has turned all of them into wandering vagabonds eternally looking for a better NIL deal or a better starting job or a better shot at a title.
Let's take one guy as an example.
Kedon Slovis was the Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in 2019 as a quarterback at USC, but after two great seasons he got hurt and lost his starting job to Jaxson Dart for awhile and then, in December 2021, announced he was entering the transfer portal.
He wound up at Pitt, where this season he started all 11 games and threw for 2,397 yards and 10 touchdowns. Then, just a year after he entered the transfer portal, he entered it again, this time deciding to play his last season of eligibility at BYU.
So, basically, Pitt got themselves a Rent-A-Quarterback for one season. And now Slovis is on to his third college in three years.
(And here I'm compelled to wonder how all this moving around affects his education. Do all his credits transfer? Does that even matter anymore?)
Oh, and the aforementioned Jaxson Dart?
He entered the portal when new USC coach Lincoln Riley brought Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams with him. He could last be seen at Ole Miss, where he threw for 2,975 yards and 20 touchdowns this season.
Just a sophomore, you may still find him at Ole Miss next year -- or not, the way these things go nowadays.
You know that old saying? The one that says you can't tell the players without a scorecard?
Never been more true.
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