The NCAA transfer portal opens Friday, and Nick Saban warns that “chaos” is coming.
“Okay, so chaos in college football starts tomorrow, the portal,” the former Alabama and LSU head coach said Thursday on ESPN’s “GameDay.” “There’s all already been 120 starters say they’re getting in the portal from Big Power-4 schools.”
ESPN’s Pete Thamel pointed out that several key questions loom heading into portal season – which runs Jan. 2-16. Those include the NFL decisions involving Oregon’s Dante Moore and Alabama’s Ty Simpson, as well as the sixth-year redshirt request by Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss.
At the top of the market is Cincinnati quarterback Brendan Sorsby, who is being targeted by LSU, Texas Tech and Miami, per Thamel.
With Indiana quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Fernando Mendoza expected to declare for the NFL, Indiana is expected to target former TCU quarterback Josh Hoover, with Indiana and Kentucky also involved, Thamel reported.
Saban also painted a picture of how even more chaos could erupt.
“So what happens if Ole Miss wins and Oregon wins?” he asked. “So Oregon’s got two coordinators trying to take guys from their team to their team and guys from other teams to their team, and Ole Miss has got six coaches going to LSU trying to take guys to LSU from their team, but they got to play again. So now is that chaos, or is that chaos? This whole college football calendar needs to change.”
Both of Oregon’s coordinators – offensive coordinator Will Stein and defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi – have taken new head coaching jobs, with Stein going to Kentucky and Lupoi to Cal. Both are juggling duties with Oregon through the College Football Playoff.
Saban reiterated his earlier view that the calendar needs to be pushed so that the portal aligns with the academic school year and opens in May.
“Unless they make the portal in May, which I’ve said before, to kind of match up with the academic calendar, change spring practice till after that, so that you can get your team together and work over the summer, just like an NFL team does,” Saban said. “They don’t have their team together until after the draft, after free agency, it’s May. So do the same thing in college football, and you wouldn’t have these issues with coaches changing jobs, because everybody could finish the season with their team, which is what’s best for the players.”
Saban said the NCAA needs antitrust protection from Congress.
“We’ve got to get Congress to have some kind of antitrust legislation because the NCAA can’t enforce their own rules,” Saban said. “So even if they tried to change this, somebody might sue them and they might not be able to do it. That’s how we got where we are right now.”
When it was suggested by ESPN’s Kirk Herbstreit that the conference commissioners and powers-that-be listen to Saban on this issue, the ex-coach said he would be willing to have that discussion.
“I would really love to do it for the sake of the players in college football,” Saban said.