04-11-2023, 10:30 AM
Let me expand a bit on my post.
We can make an intelligent guess about what's going on right now. The three who have put their names in the portal are waiting to see what offers are made to them. Stanford coaches know these athletes and are still communicating with them. TVD is certainly telling them that she wants them to stay at Stanford, but recognizes their right to enter the portal and accept a transfer offer. It's likely that she has offered to provide each athlete her take on the good and the bad associated with any offer that comes in. I have no inside info and, like everyone else, will follow this with great interest.
Coach VanDerveer has been able, more than other top teams like U Conn, to maintain a large roster of highly ranked recruits. A Stanford education may be part of the reason she has made this work. But the transfer portal and the NIL business has stirred the pot and may make it more difficult to hold on to highly ranked recruits that don't get a lot of playing time.
As far as the NIL business, I don't think the Supreme Court is responsible for the mess. I teach antitrust law, and have plenty of complaints about what the Supreme Court has done to antitrust law, but the Alston decision (which affirmed a lower court ruling requiring NIL) was a responsible application of the Sherman Antitrust Act. It gives well known athletes a chance to profit from NIL, but the decision doesn't require the NCAA to wear blinders or look the other way when things get out of control.
The NCAA, after the Alston decision, has punted on the issue, leaving individual schools and conferences to do whatever they wish. The NCAA's action may reflect the lack of consensus among the schools and conferences. Some limits on NIL compensation would be helpful, but that's unlikely to happen without a consensus. Congress could (and perhaps should) step in, but that too seems unlikely in the near term.
So yes, things are chaotic right now, and that contributes to what's happening with the transfer portal.
We can make an intelligent guess about what's going on right now. The three who have put their names in the portal are waiting to see what offers are made to them. Stanford coaches know these athletes and are still communicating with them. TVD is certainly telling them that she wants them to stay at Stanford, but recognizes their right to enter the portal and accept a transfer offer. It's likely that she has offered to provide each athlete her take on the good and the bad associated with any offer that comes in. I have no inside info and, like everyone else, will follow this with great interest.
Coach VanDerveer has been able, more than other top teams like U Conn, to maintain a large roster of highly ranked recruits. A Stanford education may be part of the reason she has made this work. But the transfer portal and the NIL business has stirred the pot and may make it more difficult to hold on to highly ranked recruits that don't get a lot of playing time.
As far as the NIL business, I don't think the Supreme Court is responsible for the mess. I teach antitrust law, and have plenty of complaints about what the Supreme Court has done to antitrust law, but the Alston decision (which affirmed a lower court ruling requiring NIL) was a responsible application of the Sherman Antitrust Act. It gives well known athletes a chance to profit from NIL, but the decision doesn't require the NCAA to wear blinders or look the other way when things get out of control.
The NCAA, after the Alston decision, has punted on the issue, leaving individual schools and conferences to do whatever they wish. The NCAA's action may reflect the lack of consensus among the schools and conferences. Some limits on NIL compensation would be helpful, but that's unlikely to happen without a consensus. Congress could (and perhaps should) step in, but that too seems unlikely in the near term.
So yes, things are chaotic right now, and that contributes to what's happening with the transfer portal.