About that Transfer Portal...

As many of you know, it has been a rough couple weeks for the Oregon State in the transfer portal world. Large swathes of the successful women's basketball team and less successful men's team are headed out of Corvallis, and in recent days the news broke that running back Damien Martinez has decided there is a better fit for him elsewhere.

If you are looking for late-breaking news about transfers, there are many out there that are doing great work keeping tabs on that information. As for myself, I would rather focus on the game on the field. Personally, it has always been strange to me that coaches can leave whenever a better opportunity arises, or that a school can revoke a scholarship to a player for any reason, but players were the ones who could not be paid and had to sit out a year before playing elsewhere.

I had plenty of friends during my years at Oregon State that transferred both in and out of Corvallis for a variety of reasons, and when you step back from an understandable desire to see the Beavs succeed on the field its reasonable that student athletes have that same ability. Add in financial incentives that are only available to many of these students for the limited time they are in college it makes complete sense that what is right one year may not be the next.

Photo by Ali Gradischer/Getty Images

There is certainly much more to come for college athletics in the coming years. No one believes the current structure is sustainable, but the transfer portal and NIL genies are not going back in the bottle, and it’s no surprise that Oregon State is not going to keep up with deep pocketed donors at other schools who have decided the best use of wealth is to pay large sums of money to college students for them to wear a jersey with the right colors on it.

That leaves me with two thoughts:

1. Oregon State has always been a school at the lower end of recruiting or ‘talent’ rankings. The programs that have been successful have been known for the culture and providing the environment and coaching to allow players to develop beyond the potential recruiting agencies tagged on them in high school. That identity doesn’t change based on conference re-alignment or transfer portal. If anything, it makes that culture and approach all the more important.
2. I am left remembering a quote from Mike Shanahan in the aftermath of this year’s Super Bowl. Commenting on the second close loss his son’s team had suffered in as many attempts, Shannahan was quoted as saying “You keep fighting. That’s f—-ing life. I don’t care what job you’ve got. When things happen, you’ve got to fight through it. You want to get to the mountaintop—what, you’re gonna feel sorry for yourself?�. It’s a similar vibe to what Trent Bray brought to his introductory press conference, and one that’s worth keeping in mind the next time something in the college sports world doesn't go OSU’s way. There are easier programs in sports to root for, but I don’t think many of us root for OSU because we were looking for a frontrunner.

There will be more to say on rosters and conference re-alignment in the offseason as the dust settles on the portal (keep in mind that entering the portal does not eliminate a player's ability to return to their original school) and 2024-25 schedules come into shape. For now, better to focus on a baseball team playing for a college world series and the players wearing black and orange playing for championships this spring.

Go Beavs!