Multi-year contracts? How Utah is trying to convince some athletes to stay out of the transfer portal

Multi-year revenue-sharing contracts with buyout penalties are the new way athletic departments are trying to curb transfers.

In the transfer portal age of college athletics, it’s become common to see some players on your favorite team leave every year.

For Utah this offseason, defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa left for BYU, cornerback Cam Calhoun left for Alabama and wide receiver Zacharyus Williams left for USC.

On the other hand, the Utes utilized the portal to get players such as New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier, Washington State running back Wayshawn Parker and UC Davis cornerback Blake Cotton, all of whom are projected to start this season.

Utah also got running back NaQuari Rogers and wide receiver Ryan Davis from New Mexico, along with Lobos offensive coordinator Jason Beck.

“I mean listen, New Mexico is probably not thrilled with the Utes right now. We’ve got their coach and their quarterback and their running back,” Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said on Saturday.

For all the positives of the transfer portal — allowing teams to completely revamp their roster in an offseason, allowing players the freedom to go wherever they want — there’s drawbacks as well.

Teams have a lot of turnover — new players, between freshmen and transfers, make up about half of Utah’s roster this season — every year. Fans, meanwhile, aren’t as connected to new players as they used to be after watching them develop in the program for three or four years.

Prior to the advent of the portal, the NCAA rule made it so players could transfer, but they’d have to sit out a “year in residency” before being allowed to play. That wasn’t that long ago; Cam Rising had to sit out his first season in Salt Lake City after transferring from Texas in 2019.

Then, the rules shifted to one transfer without having to sit out a year, but the year in residency rule would apply to the second transfer.

That’s what happened to Runnin’ Utes guard Deivon Smith, who transferred from Georgia Tech. Then, during the middle of the basketball season, a West Virginia judge struck down the NCAA’s transfer rules, clearing the way for Smith to immediately play.

Smith, by the way, transferred again after a successful season at Utah to play at St. John’s.

The NCAA could no longer enforce its own rules, and relented. Now, every player is immediately eligible to play, no matter how many times they transfer schools.

Unlimited free agency has turned the college sports world on its head. In no other sports league in the world does free agency happen every season. Imagine if LeBron James or Patrick Mahomes were able to sign with a new team every year. That’s what’s currently happening in college sports.

While unlimited transfers can have some positive aspects for players and teams, those in charge of collegiate athletics are clear that it’s a net negative.

The question is, how do you fix it?

The NCAA is powerless in its ability to enforce transfer rules struck down by the legal system. During the landmark House v. NCAA settlement, which allowed universities to directly pay players for the first time ever, any attempt to restrict transfers was denied.

The reasoning from the courts is simple — college players are students of a university, and it’s not legal to block a student from transferring to another school.

The only way to truly solve the issue is with federal legislation or collective bargaining (players forming a union and negotiating with a league).

Right now, federal legislation seems to be the path forward. Last month, members of the House of Representatives introduced a bipartisan bill — the SCORE act — that attempts to set some guardrails on college sports.

The bill covers a wide range of important issues, with rules for transfers being one of them. The bill shields participating institutions from antitrust lawsuits, meaning the NCAA could once again set parameters for “the manner in which a student-athlete may transfer between institutions, if such rules provide that at least one occasion each student-athlete may transfer between institutions and be immediately eligible.”

In essence, that would mean the return of the year in residency requirements for athletes that transfer more than one time.

“Listen, it is a tough deal. I do think … this is going to have to be solved by federal legislation. I will say there’s more momentum there than there has been. We expect a bill to pass in the House here shortly. In the Senate, it’s going to have some problems,” Harlan said.

“Both sides I think understand that the graduation rates are going to plummet and we’re going to be where we were in the 70s…where student-athletes were just not graduating, and it’s a shame.”

In the meantime, until federal legislation is enacted or collective bargaining happens, Utah is doing what it can to entice athletes to stay in Salt Lake City.

That includes signing some athletes to multi-year revenue sharing deals. The deals don’t prevent a player from leaving for another school but can include financial penalties such as buyout money a player (or their new school) has to pay to the university to exit the deal, just like coaches have to do when they get a new job.

Multi-year deals haven’t become commonplace for Utah, Harlan said, but the school has signed some with players.

“Well, we’re just starting, right? So it’ll be interesting to see, but there’s language in these contracts that talks about possible loss of value if they leave,” Harlan said.

“We’re just all going to play it out, and then how harsh is Jason (Greco, Utah’s executive senior associate athletics director for governance and brand strategy) is going to tell me to be. I love the kid and I don’t want to hold kids back. I’m not in the business for that, so we’re just going to have to kind of figure it out as we go.”

Until transfer limits are restored, more and more schools will roll out multi-year deals to try to keep athletes on their campus. The other hope for schools is that with the new revenue-sharing cap and a clearinghouse that will evaluate third-party NIL deals for “true market value,” there will be a more level financial playing field in the Power Four, which will in turn limit the volume of players transfers to new schools for a pay increase.

Source: Utah News