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Dan Wetzel
College football’s transfer portal is as popular as a flooded basement. It has been blamed for almost every problem with the game. No loyalty. All about money. chaos! Confusion!
All this is not baseless. There is room for improvement, although laws against adults making bad decisions have never really worked in any section of society.
Yet sometimes, like Monday at Hard Rock Stadium, the portal works perfectly even in this case.
The 16-0 Indiana national champions simply weren’t a fun, great team to watch, and they didn’t change the chances for teams throughout the game. He also highlighted the benefits of a meritocracy that reflected the ethos of the American dream.
It is a national title for every person.
Consider Fernando Mendoza, who grew up 2 miles from the University of Miami campus, the son of two graduates and dreamed of playing for the Hurricanes.
But the two-star quarterback recruit couldn’t get a scholarship from the former coaching staff.
He committed to Yale, then signed with Cal. He redshirted his first season, then did not see the field until the middle of his second season, when he threw almost as many interceptions (10) as touchdowns (14).
He developed into a promising prospect, even as the Cal program continued to struggle (having five consecutive losing seasons). He then ignored offers from Miami the previous winter and relocated to what he believed had ideal developmental conditions, this rocket ship known as Curt Cignetti’s Indiana.
Or consider Mikel Kamara, who grew up in Ashburn, Virginia and spent his high school years attending soccer camps, hoping to get the attention of someone who could believe in him. Almost no one did.
A zero-star recruit, he ended up signing with James Madison, which played FCS football at the time. He put his head to work, got stronger and faster, overcame an injury and helped lead the Dukes in FBS football.
Before his redshirt junior season, he followed his head coach and transferred to a once-disappointing IU.
On Monday night, in a national title game that no one ever saw coming, the once-overlooked Mendoza and the once-unknown Kamara delivered two of the most memorable plays (an extended QB sneak touchdown and a blocked punt that was recovered for another score) as Indiana defeated Miami 27-21.
This was Indiana’s first national title, and the first time college football has had a first-time champion since 1996, when Florida won.
It was a game of gate-keeping bourgeoisie, where no matter how good you were 40 or 60 or 80 years ago, where established brands and facilities attracted so many top recruits that a handful of schools could overwhelm the rest with their depth. Get enough talent (and starve other schools of it) and the margin for error is considerable.
If an upstart program really started to take off, the coach would be immediately hired and order would be restored. After all, the coaching transfer portal was established and accepted long ago.
Who your daddy is mattered, at least to these Hoosier daddies.
“You get it done with the right people, under the right leadership,” Cignetti said.
The portal has changed everything, and maybe it would be better appreciated if the people running college football actually wanted to promote college football instead of complaining, lobbying Congress, and telling the public how terrible and unsustainable everything is.
The game is now about the players who work hardest, who develop the most, who take advantage of opportunities to get better until they get better. How many stars you had at 16 doesn’t matter much anymore. Making the Elite 11 sometime after the age of 11 is of little significance.
Were you overlooked because you weren’t in the right high school, or in a big city, or because everyone overlooked your potential, your heart, your dedication? Being a late bloomer doesn’t mean you’re doomed. You just have to prove it.
Who is against him? Yes, players leave lower programs for bigger programs (often swapping places with hyped recruits who don’t pan out). However, almost every player wanted to be in the biggest games in the biggest conferences, chasing championships.
That’s part of the deal. Big tests too.
Cignetti did not get a Power 4 head coaching job until he was 62. They worked their way up from D-II to the FCS and became arguably the worst program in the Big Ten. This is because their hard work contributed to an understanding of not only how the portal might work but also who it might work best for.
“There’s a lot to be said for what this guy is made of,” Cignetti said. “His intangibles and his likeability or coachability, what kind of teammate he’s going to be… you get the right group of guys that come together as a team.”
This Indiana team was loaded with grinders and chips on its shoulders. They were a tireless group of outcasts and misfits. There were only 8 players who were ranked four stars or better in high school. Five years ago, that mix was a one-way ticket to a bowl game in Shreveport.
Not anymore, not with the transfer portal.
Cignetti is an astute evaluator not only of talent, but also of expensive additions. He assembled a roster of two-stars and Sun Belt transfers, each with a greater appetite than the next. They defeated Ohio State to win the Big Ten title. They defeated Alabama, Oregon, and Miami to win the national championship.
The transfer portal has no public relations team or marketing campaign, nor many public supporters.
However, Portal has a national champion, a completely imperfect Hoosiers team that could not exist without it, but it did give it a chance to prove its individual and collective worth on the field.
All the so-called blue bloods are now looking at him.
