Up until this year( and we have no idea so far how that will turn out), it’s seems to me that the portal has been okay for Ohio. I’m not sure how long the official “transfer portal” has been in affect, but looking over the past 3-4 years or so I’m seeing the following:

Significant (?)Transfers out:
Vakos- big loss
Hooks- possible big loss
Blauser- 33 tackles his last year, a lot the year before
You can add more, I’m too lazy to look up everybody

Transfers in:
Wiglutz-big time gain
Bostic-big play guy, not many TD’s
Reynolds-67 tackles
Sanders-61 tackles
A Rogers- talented QB, runner
Navarro-?

I’m not counting JUCO guys.

I know there’s a lot more that I’ve left out, probably both ways.

So to me, this year has the potential to be a seismic shift in the transfer portal storyline for us. We’ll know a lot more in the next few weeks, but on balance it doesn’t look good.

Thinking aloud, I wonder how it would go if a program explicitly said we are not interested in transfers and sought out 4 year commits. Nothing enforceable, but a culture and expectation that says you are coming here to stay and we are not planning to replace you with anyone from the portal. Probably would be naive to think something like that would work, but you do have to wonder if it would be an attractive environment for a certain percentage of recruits.

it's a great plan until one of your best players leave for a competing program through the portal and you don't have a good replacement lined up. Your program is at an active disadvantage if you chose to ignore the recruits coming into the portal. It would turn the program into a place where you go to get your playing time and leave for a better program.

I don't particularly like what the portal has become, which is essentially a less regulated free-agency for the top P5 programs, but it's now deeply integral in the off-season prep for upcoming season. If you don't use the portal to your advantage, you're leaving the best players available for other programs to scoop up and leave you in the dust.

I'm confused on the message. Is it, "we're not recruiting over you through the portal once you're here" or "don't bother coming here if you're not going to stay"

Kind of both I guess?

I don't know, I just feel like there has to be lots of coaches and lots of players that long for the old days where they're committed to a group for their entire college experience, so what if those people got together and said let's commit to it from both sides. I realize it is unrealistic, just a hypothetical.

If we didn't have NIL as an evolving factor I would say the portal itself is a postitive factor and has attributed to more power conference recruits having to sign at G5 programs because of less slots in the P5.

For all I know the future could be scratch lotto tickets attached to offers in the G5 where you may get lucky with a 100,000 dollar NIL reward? Someone scratches 100,000 for Ohio and signs.

All jokes aside there is experience which seems to be most important upfront where it takes linemen time to develop physically but with skill players older players rack up injuries. Often times RBs have their best seasons early in their career for that reason and are damaged goods by their 4th year in the program.

Couldn't find much analytics on NIL to date but this one article says its causing 5 star recruits to spread around rather than concentrate in a few programs.

https://sports.yahoo.com/top-10-recruits-10-different-sch...

If more talent spreads around the P5 then it will create more parity which is disasterous for the very top brands. Coach loses in the first round of the playoffs and the NIL collective can shut off the contributions. Resulting in less TV ratings and universities on the hook for 25 million dollar buyouts.