Embrace the Portal

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

John Calipari famously has pictures (posters) of his NBA'ers hanging in his office when he meets with recruits. Sitting across a kid with Rose/Wall/Davis in the background is quite the convincer that you are in the right place. Calipari has struggled recently, but he has a title, and has had great success with the one and done strategy. Players go there because they believe he will make them NBA ready. His character and he himself aren't relevant to this topic, just using as an example.

Wardle is starting to have quite the collection of players that have left to the next level. Why not embrace it and become the program players want to go to because we have a culture of "moving up".

Wardle clearly has a great ability to develop players.

I'd bet you could attract great players with this philosophy, year in and year out.

Maybe the entire Valley could be the "Gateway" to the P5, and Bradley can be the start of that reputation.

I know it's not the ideal scenario. It's just that I don't see this ever changing back to any type of scenario that a program of our size will feel is "fair".

Maybe you don't fight it. I actually think these types of programs will start to sprout up over the next few years, and get that reputation (I'm looking at you, Utah State) and continue to be very relevant and competitive.

Wardle resharing Connors message to the fans made me think of this. Maybe If I'm him, I'm not demanding loyalty. I'm telling the kids I'm going to do the best I can to make you better and advance your life, whether I'm a beneficiary or not.

 

[Da Coach]

Re-tweeting Connor's message- OK
Embrace losing our best player to a Power Conference team every year- maybe it would work with some kids
Interesting suggestion. But I am not sure that promoting Bradley as "Stepping Stone U." is going to work. Nor do I think Coach Wardle would go for it.

 

[Big Mike]

As a Bradley fan I hate it....PERIOD!

 

[Tommy]

Yeah, I appreciate the sentiment, but if we turn into nothing more than a minor league for the PC’s, I’ll be checking out.

 

[Dub]

I appreciate the take. It’s a no from me.

 

[Canton BU fan]

Promoting the ability to get players into pro ball is a good thing but not to move on to other schools.

 

[Mikovio]

I don’t concede that Georgia, Rhode Island and Nebraska are better than here. If Rienk stays we’re probably in and Nebraska out.

I do think the portal isn’t all bad. It did get us Duke Deen.

 

[BU freak]

The portal is doing its best to ruin mid-major hoops so hard pass

 

[tomahawk chop]

I hate the portal because I dislike players can transfer more then one time without being penalized. I am also against the NIL because I thought what I first heard about it was the players would be compensated for something like doing a commercial and promoting a business . The way it actually works is pay to play period. I have been a Braves club member for a very long time and will continue to be but I do not believe in this pay to play crap and refuse to throw money into that pot.

 

[yoda]

A point can be made that we heard promises that Bradley’ s NIL would keep our best players here!

Well, our best players have left every single year. So tell me again how well it’s working? In fact, our least used scholarship players hung around & I am sure got more NIL here than they would had they transferred or gone DII. So unavailability of those scholarships may well have hurt us.

 

[BraveSince09]

A point can be made that we heard promises that Bradley’ s NIL would keep our best players here!

Well, our best players have left every single year. So tell me again how well it’s working? In fact, our least used scholarship players hung around & I am sure got more NIL here than they would had they transferred or gone DII. So unavailability of those scholarships may well have hurt us.

If Darius comes back, which it sounds like he will, then 6 of our top 7 potential returners are coming back. Last year we were able to keep Malevy. Yes it’s disappointing to see Hickman and Mast leave, but it’s a new world and you’re not going to keep every player. I think our NIL collective is doing a good job to keep players around.

 

[traveler]

the NCAA has ruined college basketball with NIL and the transfer portal. MidMajors and D2 may as well play club ball

 

[Jim]

I hate the portal because I dislike players can transfer more then one time without being penalized. I am also against the NIL because I thought what I first heard about it was the players would be compensated for something like doing a commercial and promoting a business . The way it actually works is pay to play period. I have been a Braves club member for a very long time and will continue to be but I do not believe in this pay to play crap and refuse to throw money into that pot.

Well said, I agree with you 100%.

 

[tomahawk chop]

the NCAA has ruined college basketball with NIL and the transfer portal. MidMajors and D2 may as well play club ball

The court system was responsible for this mess with your liberal judges. The NCAA had nothing to do with players getting paid for their services. The court system is also responsible for letting players transfer as much as they like without penalty. The NCAA makes rules and when certain individuals do not like them they go to court , fight the rules and get their way. I think as long as the courts are involved the NCAA has little hope as far as rule enforcement.

 

[bradleyfan124]

The court system was responsible for this mess with your liberal judges. The NCAA had nothing to do with players getting paid for their services. The court system is also responsible for letting players transfer as much as they like without penalty. The NCAA makes rules and when certain individuals do not like them they go to court , fight the rules and get their way. I think as long as the courts are involved the NCAA has little hope as far as rule enforcement.

Agree but I would think there is a loop hole no one has thought of yet to start regulating this wild west scenario

 

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

A point can be made that we heard promises that Bradley’ s NIL would keep our best players here!

Well, our best players have left every single year. So tell me again how well it’s working? In fact, our least used scholarship players hung around & I am sure got more NIL here than they would had they transferred or gone DII. So unavailability of those scholarships may well have hurt us.

I believe they are trying. But our best players are getting high 6 figure opportunities elsewhere I believe. The reality is, as good as our NIL may be, I'm not sure we can compete with the larger universities and Alumni writing 7 figure checks, but maybe I am wrong.

 

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

The court system was responsible for this mess with your liberal judges. The NCAA had nothing to do with players getting paid for their services. The court system is also responsible for letting players transfer as much as they like without penalty. The NCAA makes rules and when certain individuals do not like them they go to court , fight the rules and get their way. I think as long as the courts are involved the NCAA has little hope as far as rule enforcement.

I am unsure that politics are necessary to bring into this. In fact, opening up and allowing players to move as opposed to being regulated doesn't actually sound very liberal. With that said, I would be interested in seeing a transcript from the actual judgement itself and the political affiliation of the Judge who condoned the ruling to see if it follows your claims, not that that is even really relevant.

Remember, the kids are allowed to in essence do whatever they want - free market - so to speak. What many of us would want is to restrict that movement. The NCAA is a very true form of a free market right now, which will allow capitalism at its truest form to take hold.

 

[Peoria_bradley_fan]

And for record. I am not saying I like or agree with the Portal or NIL.

I just simply don't believe it's going backwards to a place we would all deem acceptable or "fair". So I believe you either get with the times or will be subject to death spiral.

I think VERY good teams can be fielded at our level within the portal, and Bradley basketball could have some very relevant teams in the future. And who knows, embracing this just might be the way to prevent players from actually leaving.

Look at what Utah State did last year. What many of us wouldn't do to have a season where we were ranked and made the tournament. All off of transfers.

 

[egib52]

A point can be made that we heard promises that Bradley’ s NIL would keep our best players here!

Well, our best players have left every single year. So tell me again how well it’s working? In fact, our least used scholarship players hung around & I am sure got more NIL here than they would had they transferred or gone DII. So unavailability of those scholarships may well have hurt us.

Well it is tough to compete with schools that can offer more money

 

[Stryker]

If Darius comes back, which it sounds like he will, then 6 of our top 7 potential returners are coming back. Last year we were able to keep Malevy. Yes it’s disappointing to see Hickman and Mast leave, but it’s a new world and you’re not going to keep every player. I think our NIL collective is doing a good job to keep players around.

Exactly. We have basically lost two players in the last couple of years, Roberts and Hickman. I don't count Mast, he had graduated and frankly I think Malevy ended up being more valuable to the team than Mast was, so I don't think it could be said that we lost our best player last year.

The only, and I mean the only way that things could be equalized at all in men's college basketball is if the government stepped in and made NCAA D-1 basketball a league like the NFL (Which I don't think could be done at this point due to access, ownership laws, etc) and then split all revenue equally between all D-1 programs, just like the NFL. So a small market team can compete with a large power program. At least when it comes to TV revenue.

It all comes back to TV revenue imo. The 1970s when it started is when we saw the end to the smaller market teams like Bradley being national programs. The difference in TV revenue completely changed the dynamics of college basketball. If all of that revenue went into a pool and was distributed evenly it would equalize things in a big way. Big schools would still have an advantage with merchandise sales and other marketing and NIL deals, but it would be a much smaller difference than there is now.

However this is all a pipe dream.