For those of you now following the dizzying transfer portal activity for CU Lions players and players all across the league...
Consider yourselves lucky.
Because the activity is frantic and also... in many ways... sad.
First off, here's a list of some of the bigger names from the Lions 2021 roster who have entered the transfer portal. (Some of them have no Ivy eligibility left, and some have one year left)
Jordan Colbert
Ryan Young
Mike Roussos
Dante Miller
Cam Dillon
There are probably others, but these are the headline names.
The kicker is that from what I've seen so far for CU's potential transfers and for all the Ivy players from all the schools is that the offers they're getting are... unimpressive.
Now, for someone like me who's had 20 different addresses in his life from all my moving around over the years, it may seem hypocritical if I simply pour cold water on CU students leaving the city for Kentucky Christian or UConn. So I won't make it about locales. I will make it about the fact that I think too many Ivy players with eligibility are making a mistake based on rare experiences like the one being enjoyed by former Dartmouth WR Drew Estrada at Baylor and former CU punter Cam Nizialek's experience at Georgia a few years ago. The fact is, their experiences came at a time when the transfer ranks were much smaller and the chances much better to hook up with an exciting and national championship caliber team.
That is not the case now.
I fear a lot of our former players and others will be disappointed by their options in the portal. More importantly, I fear they will regret missing out on that final semester or two on campus with their friends and classmates that you can never get back.
And again, this is not sour grapes because a lot of the players above could not come back to CU Football anyway because of Ivy rules.
This is just a weird COVID-related development that presents a little false "gold" for a lot of Ivy players.
UPDATE: I should also mention that I think the Ivy League's rules for potential 5th year players, even during this COVID era, are still way too cumbersome and costly for the scholar-athletes and their families. Maybe if these rules were relaxed, some semblance of continuity could be achieved now and in the future.
On the OTHER hand...
There is a chance the transfer portals could be filled with eligible players from smaller schools who might want to COME TO Columbia or the other Ivy schools and make an impact.
With the exception of the good players the Ivy schools recruited during high school and lost to those other schools, the process may also turn out to be a disappointment. But hope probably springs eternal at some of the schools that are struggling football-wise right now. If I had to guess, Brown and maybe Penn will make a run at some top transfer talent in the coming weeks.
