Good post from @Underminer right there. Sometimes I say this to my kids - understanding it is not the same as liking it. Plenty of folks don't like the current system, but the one's who adapt and learn to take advantage of the new environment, they usually find success. BP at FSU is certainly one of them. I am not a fan of how he runs his program, but you can't argue with the results. These days if you had a poor season in the P4 in FB, or MBB and WBB, you are likely starting completely over building your roster. Saw a post that went around that Tennessee WBB at one point when the season ended had Zero players on their roster! The roster turnover/portal recruiting environment is not as bad in some Olympic sports but look around at P4 volleyball, softball, lacrosse. Tons of transfers. Baseball has always had lots. If you are looking for the "traditional" recruit 25% freshmen and build your team over 4 years, you should look at D2 and D3. Plenty of turnover at some d2s though as well. I feel like I saw a post put out recently bragging that the program had every player returning. It was something like "transfer portal = Zero in, Zero out" I thought it was Ohio State but could be wrong. Maybe someone saw that. Pretty rare these days in the P4.
Yes I saw that too and thought it was an interesting thing to tout as a P4 program. If you’re not dipping into the portal are you giving your program the best chance of winning? Or is it just a sign of extreme confidence in their entire roster of 28 players? I feel like if it was a Football or Basketball team posting that, fans would be up in arms.
Going back to 2016, to cover the last 10 years (but without looking at Covid-affected 2020), the teams in the NCAA Tournament every year are: Arkansas Florida State Georgetown North Carolina Penn State South Carolina Stanford UCLA
I think that’s what makes programs like Stanford, Duke, Wake Forest and Notre Dame particularly attractive to players. Along with the so called “public ivies” like UNC, Berkeley and UVA. You get the best of both worlds: an elite private school (or prestigious public) education with robust alumni networks that mean something outside of athletics plus you’re still competing for national championships at the highest level.
60 of the 67 football 4/marketing 4 programs have NOT made the NCAA Tourney each of the past 10 years. Wow. Actual facts vs marketing. Then the question would be breaking thar down even more into percentages teams male and miss the tourney. And the tourney is set up to reward football four teams with bids. Saint Louis for example should have been 8 for 8 or 8/10 last season. Xavier the year prior. How many schools made it xyz percent of the time? And so forth.
I feel like I saw a post put out recently bragging that the program had every player returning. It was something like "transfer portal = Zero in, Zero out" I thought it was Ohio State but could be wrong. Maybe someone saw that. Pretty rare these days in the P4.[/QUOTE] It was OSU and it was an interesting "flex". It is not like they haven't had movement in and out a nunmber of times over the portal era. Seems a bit odd but it is social media and marketing.
Portal closes today, which I think means no players can enter the portal after today but players can continue to be signed out of the portal, correct?
I am not trolling in any way. This is what someone says when facts are not on their side. I am not a mindless sheep. I will not use the marketing term Power 4 when many of the programs in football four leagues are not powerful in any way. That’s too bad if that bothers you.
Using the most accurate rating system in terms of actual team strength, the Balanced RPI, for the Automony Conferences in 2025, the teams with the poorest ranks were: ACC #127 Big 10 #147 Big 12 #120 SEC #130 There were 350 teams altogether. Looking at the Top 57 (because historically all NCAA Tournament at large positions have gone to the Top 57 under the rating system it uses, the NCAA RPI), in terms of true strength the Autonomy Conferences had the following numbers in that group: ACC 10 Big 10 11 Big 12 11 SEC 10 That makes 42 teams from the Autonomy Conferences and 15 from the Other Conferences. So roughly speaking, of the top teams 3/4 are from the Automony Conferences andd 1/4 are from the Other Conferences.
Not all ACC teams are at the same or similar level. Same for SEC, Big Ten, Big 12. Each year we can name quite a few teams that are bad or mediocre. Many are not powers in any way.
The good non football four programs don’t have rhe opportunity to play football four programs in the middle and later parts of the season.
The level of desperation from so many schools in the portal is laughable. Teams are cutting better players than their signing.
Really great analysis. Pretty funny, really from the top down. There were lots of schools reaching in the fall portal, but there have been some desperate desperate signings this Spring. Although I think it’s a lot of coaches just snatching players to get to 28.
it doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is you are not informed at all about the subject. It’s not a marketing ploy. The power 4 are called that because they have the autonomy (or “power”) to create certain rules without needing approval from the ncaa (such as when cost of attendance came in, and NIL etc). They also have about 65% of the legislative voting power in ncaa division 1. on top of that, they are so “powerful” they got the non p4 (except Oregon State and Wazzu) to pay for 60% of the 1.65 Billion owed by schools as a result of the house settlement (p4 is only paying 40%) despite the fact that ZERO non power 4 schools were even named in the lawsuit. So while you may find some p4 soccer teams are not as “powerful” on the field as say the St. Louis Billikens or Georgetown Hoyas — they do have way more power legislatively and financially. also, for those keeping score at home, NO the new pac-12 will not create a power 5 again. They are not receiving autonomy status.
The Syracuse football coach said it the best I've ever heard when talking about the portal. Panic, and then everyone is just swapping 2s.... So what's the point. Meaning all these schools, for the majority of the kids, are just trading backups.