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4 hours ago
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With the recent changes in college athletics, there could be a change to the transfer rules for athletes.
West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker is a proponent for change in college athletics regarding the transfer portal rules, and he hopes it can be a single period.
"I think January is when it makes the most sense. Listen, people talk about, well, there's a disadvantage and advantage if you're on a quarter system. Those schools get an advantage. Well, what got us here in the first place is trying to create something that was equal there, but it's impossible to do that. And so I think you have to look at what makes sense for the greater good," Baker said on the recent 3 Guys Before The Game Podcast.
The recent house settlement gives schools $20.5 million to share with their student-athletes, however, some schools tried to pay athletes before the settlement goes into effect.
"We had this unregulated period before the settlement went into place, and so everybody was doing these deals where they paid athletes up front. It exploded the market, like all of these things. Different people did different amounts of front-loading. We've done some front-loading, but not as much as some other institutions. Some institutions have done the vast majority of their roster is all front-loaded. So they're sitting on their 20.5 million dollar revenue share, and particularly their football portion, and they're thinking, hey, we're going to clean up in this portal because we haven't used any of that. We've reserved some of our rev share, but not nearly as much as some other institutions. We've had to use a lot of it, too," Baker said.
Baker said a lot of this happened throughout the SEC, for example, where this unregulated period before the settlement went into place made these schools put deals into place.
The effect of this concept means that there is some pushback on when the portal period is open for football, with the Big Ten going for an April portal period. Baker said he's all for a winter portal period, and that's where he thinks this ends up.
"I think if you just look holistically at what is the best date, take that aside. I think most people would say January makes the most sense. I think that's where this lands. I don't believe you can create rules and a system for what is a one-time kind of anomaly that we're already having to deal with it. Let's just get through this next year and put the portal period where it makes the most sense. And I think where it makes the most sense is in that December-January timeline," Baker said.
Baker said this is the spot that makes the most sense for both schools as well as the student-athletes, and recognizes no system is going to be perfect.
"And what makes sense for the greater good is one portal window. And probably what's most fair to the student-athletes is it being in January," Baker said.
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