There is no doubt that the transfer portal has drastically changed the nature of building a roster in college athletics.
There is freedom of movement for players, and pay-for-play is no longer considered as taboo as it once was—it's expected.
Whether or not that's good for college sports is one thing, but the reality is that this is how the environment is going to be moving forward. Changes are expected soon with the impending House settlement that will allow direct payment from schools to players, but the future of the landscape is anybody's guess.
Albany men's basketball coach Dwayne Killings understands how the portal operates. As a mid-major coach, he is in the unenviable spot of trying to keep his best players from making the jump to a high major program, where they'll find greater exposure, and a much bigger paycheck. In most cases, that's a losing battle at a small basketball school like Albany.
But Killings has an interesting proposal that may help mid-major schools like Albany, according to a report from Matt Norlander of CBS Sports. What if there were two-way contracts between mid-major and high-major schools that allowed players to move between programs based on a mutual agreement?
Killings's proposal is centered around the premise that high-major schools frequently recruit prospects out of high school that aren't ready to play at the power conference level. Those players generally transfer to a mid-major program for a better path to playing time. Once they develop later in their career, they enter the transfer portal in pursuit of a high-major program once again.
Killings's idea is that players from bigger schools should transfer down to schools like Albany. The program will develop the players and help them pursue their college degrees, with the understanding that they will eventually transfer back to the high-major programs that they came from once they are older and better developed.
It's a great idea from Killings and certainly outside the box. There would be plenty to sort out, like what the contracts would look like, how the pay would work, and how it would be rolled out across the college basketball landscape.
But it's certainly innovative, and a clever idea to solve some of the current issues that are plaguing the sport thanks to the transfer portal.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Albany Men's Basketball Coach Proposes Two-Way Contracts As Way to Navigate Transfer Portal.
