STILLWATER – I remember leaving State Farm Stadium and the Oklahoma State victorious locker room back on Jan. 1, 2022 and one of the last players I saw was cornerback Jarrick Bernard-Converse. The highest graded (Pro Football Focus) corner in the country returning for another season. I had been surprised after the Big 12 Championship Game and leading up to the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl that the four-year starter was convincingly saying he was coming back.
“Hey Jarrick, you still plan on coming back,” I asked as I was leaving.
“Yes sir, Jason and I may be the mother hens, but we will be young and talented and we’re going to have a really good group back there,” Bernard-Converse said smiling. I never suspected that Jarrick would be transferring like Tanner McCalister. If anything, I saw Bernard-Converse going to the NFL Draft. I think he will have a long career playing on Sundays for somebody.
You can imagine my surprise when I was told that Jarrick Bernard-Converse was in the transfer portal. This is a player as Oklahoma State dedicated as it gets. Then I started to ask around. I was told that after a meeting with his position coach Tim Duffie and head coach Mike Gundy that he had said he thought he would stay. The coaching staff had him meet with some contacts that could present NIL opportunities.
Schools initially weren’t supposed to be involved in NIL, but that went out the window in a hurry. NIL was not supposed to be part of recruiting. Well, that’s no longer the case. Also, schools are not allowed by rule to contact players about transferring that have not filed the paperwork and put themselves in the portal. My dog is not supposed to take food of any table or counter, but when my back is turned, guess what Sandy does?
“It’s a reality,” a Group of 5 assistant coach told The Athletic this month for a story that David Ubben wrote Secrets of the college football transfer portal: ‘There’s definitely tampering going on’. “(Tampering) is going on right now.”
Do I think Jarrick Bernard-Converse was tampered with. Absolutely! Can I prove it? No, not unless somebody gives me subpoena power. Do I now how he was tampered with? I believe I do, but again I would love to have subpoena power to confirm it. Honestly, I don’t think any other Cowboy player that went in the portal was tampered with. I think Jim Knowles might have said something to Tanner McCalister that he could play at Ohio State. Maybe said it to some others to. You could call that tampering, but players do often follow coaches.
When former Notre Dame coach Brian Kelley took over at LSU I believe it took him about as long as it did for him to come up with that faux southern accent to make up his mind that he was going to do whatever it took to overhaul the Tigers depleted roster.
“We want to build everything from the freshman class, but we are going to have to use the transfer portal,” Kelly told ESPN during the broadcast of a depleted LSU team being pounded by Kansas State 42-20 in the Texas Bowl. “We’ll be in a transitional build, so we’ll have to use the transfer portal.”
Since the end of the regular season, LSU has added 13 players through the transfer portal and since Jan. 16 alone they have brought in 11 players including Bernard-Converse. A player happy at his school, suddenly and without explanation goes in the portal. As recent as Tuesday, Bernard-Converse was in the Cowboys offseason workouts and was overheard telling head coach Mike Gundy and director of athletic performance Rob Glass that he thought he was staying. The next morning the LSU football Twitter account is trumpeting his transfer.
It would be very hard for LSU and Kelley to convince anybody that they are doing this completely the right way.
“It’s been going on awhile, but it used to just be grad transfers. I had a player at (his previous school) and people called his mom, they called his coach and called everybody to try and get him to transfer, but he ended up staying,” a Group of Five assistant coach told Ubben and The Athletic.
The process isn’t new. It has long been acceptable and not against the rules for schools to jump committed players at other schools that they felt they needed and that they could poach at the last minute. Truth be told, that is one reason so many coaches wanted to go with the early signing period that is now in December. Many coaches wanted signing day earlier. The longer a player was committed before signing, the longer he could be swayed to switch by a blue blood rival. That scenario happens a lot less now than it used to. Check it out.
“It used to be that you just had to keep schools like Oklahoma and Texas from your recruits before signing day, but now it’s your entire roster that they can come after,” one Big 12 assistant coach from a school other than OSU told Pokes Report. “It’s not just the teams like that in your conference, they are coming from all over, especially the SEC. It doesn’t matter if they (players) are in the portal or not. Nothing stops them.”
Many of us that have been covering the process for a long time used to refer to the 70’s and 80’s as the “wild west.” Not anymore, this is so much wilder than back then. It is entire rosters with any player that has not transferred since the NCAA put in the new rule allowing athletes to be immediately eligible with their first transfer combined with the advent of NIL, a way to pay the athletes.
“Some guys getting these deals in the SEC are making good money. There’s definitely tampering going on,” a Group of Five coordinator said to The Athletic. “But I don’t think anybody knows the rules. The NCAA’s loose approach with it is good and bad. They’re trying to not get caught up where they’re making a bunch of decisions of what is right and wrong, but at the same time, the reality is even if the NCAA came down on schools for tampering, they’d just go through a high school coach or handler or whatever to make deals.
“Guys are seeing comparable type players get in the portal and get better offers. They feel like the grass is greener, and it’s risky for some guys. It’s paid off for some.”
I don’t have a problem with players making money with name, image, likeness or even pay-for-play, which is what it has become. Oklahoma State is entering the NIL game. Initially, the school stayed out of it as the rules initially were supposed to dictate, but after all the situations such as Miami and the full squad gym endorsements, the BYU sponsored walk-ons, the Nike influence at Oregon, and virtually every SEC school constructing an NIL trust now Oklahoma State has had to respond.
“I certainly haven’t been around forever, but in talking to some people that have been around longer than I have the general feeling seems to be that this is the most dynamic times in college athletics history, just with all the changes that are going on (NCAA) constitutional convention, NIL, tranfer portal and conference realignment. How those things play together is just very, very dynamic,” Oklahoma State University athletic director Chad Weiberg told me in a radio interview earlier this week. “I think the other aspect of this that is nearly unanimous is that nobody likes where we are, so now the question, quote-unquote, is how do we go about fixing those things.
“Our (athletic department) staff is spending a tremendous amount of time trying to make those adjustments and trying to figure out what those things are, particularly with NIL,” Weiberg said. “That is changing nearly every day as a school is doing something different or there is something new. We have to look at it and see if that would work for us. We are going to do the right thing and we are going to be competitive. If that is the game that is being played, then that is how we’re going to play.”
Sources have said that with the Supreme Court ruling from last June 21 that colleges can now cover up to $6,000 in costs for education-related expenses for student-athletes that most Division I schools are planning to just fork over, schools are going to come up with NIL payments. One source told me University of Arkansas student-athletes are set to get just over $13,000 per athlete next fall. An Oklahoma State source said that the number for athletes on that campus could reach $17,000.
No details are available, but Oklahoma State officials have reached out to generous donors that want to see Oklahoma State stay competitive in this changing environment.
I’m okay with that and I believe we should all be okay with it. Other athletes like quarterback Spencer Sanders, baseball slugger and pitcher Justin Campbell, softball third baseman and home run queen Sydney Pennington, or basketball’s top scorer Avery Anderson III should get more for name, image, and likeness. That is what NIL is truly about, not across the board payments.
I’m fine with all that. I’m fine with different schools paying out different sums. What I’m not fine with is tampering. The rule is there. If an athlete is not in the portal, then they or their family or former coaches or friends are not to be contacted. Punish the tampering and that would be a great first step to bringing some normalcy, if not sanity to what is going on right now.
two different issues, IMO.Orangeheart72 said:
And though not directly related, how ironic again for OSU that many thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars are being thrown at football student athlete portal transfers at blue blood schools, without likely investigations and regardless of tampering that's improper under NCAA rules. Meanwhile, all the Cowboys basketball team members that received zilch connected to illegal actions of a coach (other than one former player who temporarily held a couple hundred dollars) are restricted from post season play due to something they received $0 from and that didn't advantage or affect the make up of our team.
Robert is spot on regarding the situation right here with NLI. Maybe I am putting out too much information here but I am looking at putting in $5,000 to $10,000 a year to contribute to the NIL business through whatever arrangement is chosen via the school and representatives because I guess it is that important to me to see my School, OSU, be able to compete on the big stage and I have the funds available to do this. My wish is that they would get a handle on this and make it uniform for everyone. Maybe it will take these players forming a Union which can then negotiate a collective bargaining agreement and thus allow for a CAP on the funds allowed to be doled out via NLI! WELCOME TO THE BRAVE NEW WORLD FOLKS!Orangeheart72 said:
And though not directly related, how ironic again for OSU that many thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars are being thrown at football student athlete portal transfers at blue blood schools, without likely investigations and regardless of tampering that's improper under NCAA rules. Meanwhile, all the Cowboys basketball team members that received zilch connected to illegal actions of a coach (other than one former player who temporarily held a couple hundred dollars) are restricted from post season play due to something they received $0 from and that didn't advantage or affect the make up of our team.
So the unions tell us, but in many cases and particularly with athletic leagues their exact purpose is to allow capping and controls of earnings.CaliforniaCowboy said:
Unions are typically created to defeat Caps, and increase earnings, not to restrict earnings opportunities..
this whole NIL money grab started with UCLA Women's gymnastics, and Fresno State volleyball, not Div 1 men's football blueblood schools.
That may be the only way to do it.Ok_state_fan78 said:
First thing they should do is limit Scholarships to 65 or ???; and, the roster to a max of 70 or 80. That has been the best way to level the playing field. Way back in the 70's they signed like 35 or 40 a year or something crazy like that. uo would give scholarships to players just so they would not go to OSU. The 25 and 85 rule helped a lot to level the playing field. With NIL and open transfer limits need to go lower to spread the talent out and help competition.
The Presidents don't want to be in charge of some minor league teams. There is nothing in the works to indicate any kind of move to some orderly super league. It's not even in the discussions except by sports journalists and their fanatical followers on message boards.CaliforniaCowboy said:
limiting scholarships could be very effective, but since the "rules" are made up by the Presidents, not the NCAA, I don't see how that could ever be approved.
I think we'll see either 2 leagues (or more), or the complete elimination of the NCAA, possibly replaced by some other yet to be created organization that we can all get behind and hate and blame everything one, much like the NCAA.
I don't think Unionization would ever work, because of the business model, which is nonprofit. Sure there are Universities that have employee unions, but the employees at OSU are not going to go on strike because the employees at Fresno State are not pleased with their negotiated deals. They might be able to create some over-arching legal entity, like the NFL, or some crap, but I don't think it's possible because of all the State legislatures that would be involved (that govern higher education).
this whole thing should collapse on itself in 4-5 years.... heck it didn't take very long for the play-off nonsense to collapse in to the SEC playoff committee.
College football has been broken since the day BCS was created.... it should have been left alone then.
I agree.NJAggie said:
The Presidents don't want to be in charge of some minor league teams. There is nothing in the works to indicate any kind of move to some orderly super league. It's not even in the discussions except by sports journalists and their fanatical followers on message boards.
Limiting the # of scholarships cuts expenses and limits the transferring. All very doable and something many of the Presidents probably already wanted to do. Coaches like the big rosters not the Presidents.
