Super Bowl players say transfer portal a move in right direction
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ATLANTA – The No. 1 story this college football offseason has been the transfer portal, with big names such as former five-star quarterback Justin Fields taking advantage of the ability to move freely between schools.
But it wasn’t always easy for players buried on depth charts to find new homes, and at this year’s Super Bowl in Atlanta there are a few former transfers who wish they had the opportunity to move freely throughout the system like today’s players.
“The transfer process was different just due to the fact that there were so many different rules about transferring and sitting out and stuff like that,” New England Patriots punter Ryan Allen said. “I remember I went through long conversations with the NCAA, the transfer committee, it went on for probably two months and my mom slaved away for hours on that stuff.”
The transfer portal was implemented in the fall of 2018. In order for a student-athlete to transfer, they must enter their name into the portal as the first step. Once entered, any coach from any other college program can contact the athlete. This streamlines the process that was cloudy in years past and often time relied on backchannel communications between schools and players wishing to transfer.
Allen started his career as a walk-on at Oregon State, where competed for the starting job against current Los Angeles Rams punter Johnny Hekker. After losing out, Allen knew he was good enough to punt in college, he just had to find a new home.
Unfortunately, schools weren’t able to contact him or even know he was available, and there was plenty of confusion about how the process worked. Allen said the delay and uncertainty caused him to miss out on plenty of opportunities to play at the Power Five level.
“Through that process I lost out on some opportunities to go to bigger programs like NC State,” Allen said. “There were other schools interested, but it was during a period in time when I wasn’t sure if I would be able to play right away. Some of those schools needed someone right away, so they didn’t want to risk giving me a scholarship and having me sit for a year. So Louisiana Tech was the only school that ended up offering no matter what that I would have a spot.”
Allen went on to have success with the Bulldogs, winning the Ray Guy Award in 2011 and 2012 as well as making back-to-back All-American teams. But in retrospect, Allen said it’s hard not to think about how close he came to giving up the sport because of the red tape associated with transferring and how many other players in his shoes might have actually done just that.
“We were pretty close at certain points to saying, ‘Is this even worth it?’” Allen said of his frustrations with the transfer process “If you think about it now, that probably happened to multiple kids just in my year and when you multiply that by how many colleges there is, that’s a crooked system. Kids that are 18 and 19 years old that are unrecruited and then develop and aren’t on scholarship. They should have an opportunity to go play for some other school that would need them. Look what happened to me. I’m a living example, because I ended up going to do what I was able to do because I was able to move schools.”
St. Louis Rams defensive back Darious Williams had his own transfer issues, signing with Division III schools Marietta College in Ohio out of high school and playing one year before deciding to transfer. With no clear options, he elected to walk-on at UAB.
“I started my career out in Division III, and after a year I felt like I was a little better than the competition,” said Williams, who went on to earn a scholarship and become an all-conference player. “I just got my release and went home when I decided I wanted to transfer. I knew I was eventually going to find a place to play somewhere, so I took a chance on myself.”
So would the portal have helped Allen and Williams navigate the process easier, and perhaps provided a clearer path to success?
“It would have helped,” Allen said. “I don’t know all the ins and outs and hopefully it doesn’t get too saturated with guys jumping to a bunch of different schools. I just know my experience going through that and I know how hard that was for my whole family and that almost killed an opportunity for me go to and have success. It hurts to know that probably happened to thousands of other kids that didn’t get the chance.”