When the NCAA allowed college athletes to transfer once without the penalty of having to sit out a year, players were offered an opportunity to seek fresh starts elsewhere while benefitting from the kind of unrestrained mobility coaches had enjoyed for decades.
One of the effects of that change, though, has been a widening gulf between college football’s haves and have nots, with programs from the sport’s biggest, most powerful conferences routinely plucking standouts from lower-level schools that don’t have the platform or financial resources to hold on to them.
It’s a reality that has caused frustration for many, particularly those outside of the Power Four conferences.
This week, one coach gave a loud, passionate voice to those feelings.
During a news conference on August 13, Northern Illinois coach Thomas Hammock said the ability to move from program to program has led to misplaced priorities from players and their parents, who he believes increasingly don’t value some of the non-monetary benefits that college can provide.
“I enjoyed my college experience,” Hammock said. “I didn’t get one dime. But the lessons I learned were more valuable than any money you could ever pay me. I appreciate that because that’s long term. People are losing the fact this is short term…Don’t lose focus of the long term. Get your degree and learn valuable lessons that are going to help you in the long term of your life. That’s the whole purpose. This is a transition from being a kid to a grown up. I hope people don’t lose focus of that.
“Everyone’s talking about everything else besides the most important thing of going to college. Because if you’re going to college to get a couple of dollars, you might as well go get a job. This is too hard to go get a couple of dollars. Learn the lessons that you need to learn to be successful in life for the next 40 or 50 years of your life. I would do it again for free because of the things I learned. That’s why I’m standing here today, because of what I learned in college. Not because of how much someone gave me.”
Hammock is entering his seventh season as the head coach at Northern Illinois, where he was a two-time academic All-American as a running back in the early 2000s. His Huskies teams have made bowl games in three of the past four seasons, including last season, when they went 8-5 and earned a stunning road win against eventual national runner-up Notre Dame.
That team was raided in the offseason, losing its starting quarterback, top three pass-catchers and many of its top defensive players to the portal, where many of them ended up at Power Four schools.
While Hammock said he loves the challenge of rebuilding a roster — his longer answer had come in response to a question about making the portal “more fair” — he wonders if the greener pastures players seek end up being any better than the places they just left.
“In life, you’re going to make decisions,” Hammock said. “Sometimes, it’s going to work in your favor. Sometimes, it’s not. I told our team the other day, we lost all these guys. Let’s see who plays. It’s all good when people put on Twitter ‘All glory to God, I’m going in the transfer portal.’ Let’s see if they play. How many of them guys are going to play or travel or get snaps?”
Hammock also believes some of the onus for portal decisions falls on the parents of players.
“Parents, they need to learn that lesson, too,” he said. “Stop trying to live through your kids. Teach your kids the things they need to learn to be successful. That’s what I’m telling my kids. I don’t care about no NIL or revenue sharing. I could care less. You need to learn things in college to get you prepared for life, to be a father, a husband, to work, everything else. Those are the most important things. That’s what people are missing.”