Way-Too-Early Rankings, Early Commits, and Thoughts on NIL, Transfer Portal

Your daily dose of offseason chatter, and opinionated content

Orleans Arena, site of the 2024 WAC Tournament. Courtesy Western Athletic Confernce.

Last week, I thought about putting together a column to share my thoughts on NIL, the transfer portal, and where college athletics happens to be at this time.

It was challenging…still is…to put thoughts to words. Part of that is knowing it may touch a nerve with some. The other part is that no amount of rambling on about it, for better or worse, will change where the landscape of college athletics is currently sitting.

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Another thing I did last week was ask for some questions for a mailbag. There weren’t many responses.

However, I did get two DM’s asking for a WACky Way-Too-Early-Rankings.

Well, I am not sure, at this point and time, I can give one.

At least not to the fullest extent.

Here are the top-5 at the moment.

1. GCU

2. SFA

3. CBU

4. Seattle U

5. UT Arlington

After that, it is hard to say.

Abilene Christian lost its leading scorer to the transfer portal in Ali Dibba. However, over the past week, Brette Tanner got a pair of commits in Oklahoma State guard Quion Williams along with Liberty transfer Joseph Venzant.

Southern Utah has some key pieces back in Dominique Ford, and Jamir Simpson.

After losing to Grand Canyon in the WAC Tournament title game, former UT Arlington guard Makaih Williams decided to transfer to GCU. Courtesy Western Athletic Conference.

After its record-setting season, Tarleton has to replace basically everyone that played significant minutes, including all five starters. KiAndre Gaddy, Lue Williams, and Jakorie Smith are out of eligibility. Emmanuel Innocenti is in the transfer portal as is point guard Devon Barnes. Plus, WAC Coach of the Year Joseph Jones is headed to UTSA as an assistant.

Utah Tech lost nearly everyone except Noa Gonsalves.

Utah Valley will be interesting to watch. Todd Phillips lost Drake Allen to Utah State and Caleb Stone-Carrawell to LMU. Tanner Toolson and Ethan Potter are both set to return for the Wolverines. And Phillips got a commit from JUCO transfer Kylin Green this past week.

As you can see, it is a mess. We will see over the coming weeks what the teams will look like heading into 2024-25.

List of Early Commits to WAC Schools

Abilene Christian

• Quion Williams (Oklahoma State)

• Joseph Venzant (Liberty)

California Baptist

• Adam Moussa (Tarleton)

• Sam Silverstein (Harvard)

• Martel Williams (Utah State Eastern, Southern Utah)

Grand Canyon

• Dennis Evans (Louisville)

• Makaih Williams (UT Arlington)

• Jakobe Coles (TCU)

Seattle U

• DaSean Stevens (San Jacinto College)

• Maleek Arington (Idaho State)

• Matthew-Alexander Moncrieffe (Oklahoma State)

Southern Utah

• Tavi Jackson (Colorado State)

• Xavier Sykes

Stephen F. Austin

• Chris Johnson (Texas)

• Keon Thompson (UMass)

Tarleton

• Freddy Hicks (Arkansas State, Tarleton)

UT Arlington

• Jaden Wells (Central Oklahoma)

• Raysean Seamster (Eastern Arizona)

• Jarren Cook (Midland College, Sam Houston)

• Diante Smith (Nicholls State)

• Brody Robinson (Garden City CC, Chattanooga)

Utah Tech

• Dallin Grant (Utah State)

• Justin Bieker (San Francisco)

Utah Valley

• Kylin Green (Daytona State)

Thoughts on NIL, Transfer Portal

Okay, this is where it gets tricky. Say the wrong thing and the mob mentality will come out.

So, I will just say this. I am in favor of NIL. Why shouldn’t student-athletes be able to make money off their Name, Image, and Likeness? Universities have made a killing off these student-athletes.

But, what does that mean? As it is right now, it means pay-for-play. And anyone disagreeing with that perhaps hasn’t been paying attention.

We have so-called ‘NIL Agents’ roaming social media looking for student-athletes who they can represent in order to make some money. Now, those agents, or even the student-athletes themselves, go into recruiting with a mindset of, ‘how much can you offer me?’, and then use the negotiation tactic, ‘well, this school offered me this much…’, in order to get a bigger payout.

Seattle U forward Kobe Williamson has played his entire collegiate career in a Redhawk uniform…something out of the ordinary in today’s college hoops landscape. Courtesy Western Athletic Conference.

This, in my own opinion, is not what NIL was supposed to be. A local Utah company, Taco Time, created a bean burrito, and paid former Utah State forward Justin Bean to market it, even going so far as putting his name on it.

That is NIL.

Unfortunately, with no safeguards in place, college athletics has become the Wild, Wild, West in terms of the pay-for-play mentality now that there are no real restrictions in place.

Right now, the SMU alums from the 80’s are rolling over laughing…I mean, they lost their football program for two years…and it really still hasn’t recovered.

But now, going out and offering players money, housing, and so forth, is allowed in collegiate athletics.

Go figure.

Again, I am all for NIL. But, pay-for-play is an entirely different thing than NIL.

Without any regulations on NIL, teams are taking advantage, as well as the student-athletes. Why wouldn’t you? You get paid to play college basketball, as a future in professional basketball is not a guarantee.

This leads into the next point…the transfer portal.

Allowing student-athletes to choose where they want to play basketball year in and year out…I am okay with. They should have that right.

Allowing student-athletes to transfer freely without any repercussions…that might be a different narrative, too.

There is a point guard who played at a WAC school in 2023-24. Following the season, that same point guard entered the transfer portal, and will play for his fourth school in four years.

Another point guard very quietly entered the transfer portal, only to commit to another school almost immediately. Here is the interesting part…that point guard started every game for his team in 2023-24…now, he goes to a school with multiple guards, especially point guards, and will have to compete for a backup spot.

Why not stay at your current school, keep working hard, and continue to be the starting point guard…or at the very least, know your minutes are guaranteed compared to not knowing if you will see the floor at all your new schools?

Let’s go back to the whole, ‘four schools in four years’ thing.

If you are being honest with yourself…both biased and unbiased, as a college basketball fan…can you really say that is good for the game?

Granted, a player may start at the JUCO level, then sign with a Division I school, and then become a grad transfer…thus playing at three schools in a three-year span.

But, let’s put it this way…player A plays at his first Division I school as a freshman or sophomore. Following a decent year at his first stop, player A transfers to another Division I school.

Rules in place mean he doesn’t have to sit out a year. Following that second year at a second school where minutes may have been hard to come by, player A jumps in the portal again, then commits to his third school in three years.

Well, things didn’t go as planned and player A jumps into the portal again where he transfers to his fourth Division I school in four years.

Is that honestly good for college basketball?

If a coach takes another job, yes, players on the coaches’ former team should be able to leave without any repercussions.

But, to just transfer freely from school to school…well, I have my thoughts on that, but will leave it to you the fans to decide how you feel about it.

‘It is a new era, man.’

‘It is just wild.’

Yep, to some coaches who said those exact things to me…I totally agree.