NIL deals and the transfer portal have taken over the game, preventing mid-majors from serious having championship aspirations.

There were a few upsets in the first two rounds of the 2025 NCAA Tournament and only one or two mid-majors in the Sweet Sixteen.

Sweet 16 by conference

SEC: 7
Big 12: 4
Big Ten: 4
ACC: Duke

A record-low four conferences represented.

— Jeff Borzello (@jeffborzello) March 24, 2025

Could this year have been an anomaly of a year, with only one double-digit seed in the Sweet Sixteen?

While there is a 23-million-dollar salary cap on schools, power conference schools bring in more revenue than mid-major schools. This allows them to offer more money to athletes.

Old school

Taking this into a bigger lens, having players stay with one college program serves the purpose of the coaching staff teaching life lessons to college students.

The starting five of Villanova’s 2016 title team spent their entire college career at Villanova. The team that lost to them at the buzzer in the title game. North Carolina, who won the championship the next year, and their starting five spent their entire college career at UNC.

After becoming the first team to lose to a 16-seed, Virginia won it all in 2019, and their starting five only wore one jersey. All these teams had college kids go through heartbreak every year before finally breaking through.

Before NIL was installed, programs could not pay students-athletes to play for them.

In 2018, then-University of Arizona head coach Sean Miller offered future number-one overall pick Deandre Ayton money as leverage to secure Ayton’s commitment.

Put that situation in today’s NIL era, this is now legal.

What once was a controversial issue is now the norm.

New school

The transfer portal has opened up a lane for players, like quarterbacks, to change schools because they did not win the starting job as a true freshman.

Quinn Ewers, the top overall recruit in 2022, rode the bench as a freshman at Ohio State.

He transferred to the University of Texas and was named the starter.

Ironically, Ewers had committed and decommitted to the University of Texas as a high school recruit.

Noah Lugo, a three-star prospect, sat at the bottom of the depth chart at BYU as a freshman quarterback. He’s in the transfer portal, looking for an opportunity to play. “There used to be college programs,” seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady said.

“Now, there are college teams. You’re no longer learning a program. You’re learning a playbook.”

Players are transferring after not playing in their first year. Meanwhile, in the pros, it’s normal for some rookies to ride the bench their first year before earning playing time.

In fact, professional rookie standard contracts have players on one team for three to four years before they can become a free agent.

At the college level, student-athletes are mercifully transferring after one year. Sometimes, they leave as soon as their sport ends so they can become eligible to play for their next school as soon as possible.

The one transfer rule

A rule that lasted from 2021-2024, students-athletes were allowed to transfer once without sitting out a year.

In 2024, the rule changed, allowing student-athletes to transfer as many times as possible, and they can play immediately.

The main motive for student-athletes changing schools is for the money and a better opportunity to win a championship. Because of the money, student-athletes can stay in school and get their degree before putting their name into the draft pool. Some may even earn enough money to have their finances covered that the pros’ incentives are additional cash. Remember, many of these athletes are on athletic scholarships where school is covered for them.

Transfer portal is free agency

The transfer portal is becoming like a free agency.

SDSU had Lamont Butler, a former Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year, for four seasons before losing him to Kentucky, a blue-blood program.

So, the NCAA, as a whole, is trending in the wrong direction.

It’s become a farming system.

The mid-major schools produce solid NBA prospects and then these players transfer, believing they have a better shot of going pro by going to a school with a strong reputation at that particular sport.

And the money, too, of course.

The mid-major schools, through revenue, have lower-income athletic programs and, therefore, cannot close the gap with schools that bring in significantly more revenue.

The latest SDSU victim to the portal, Magoon Gwath.

The Mountain West Defensive Player of the Year is now looking into the transfer portal and potentially the NBA draft.

Mac Pham

Mac Pham, a San Diego State alum, graduated with a distinction in Cum Laude and a Bachelor’s degree in journalism and communications. He formally served as the vice president for SDSU’s Asian American Journalist Association chapter.