Here is Something For All Your Portal Lovers to Consider (LONG)

Aug 14, 2024, 1:11 PM

The portal is essentially comprised of 2 classes of player:

1) The Dip In and Out Player - These are the portal successes that many here think the portal is loaded with and that are just there for the taking to upgrade a program instantly. The ugly truth is that most of this type player is a pre-arranged or tampered player that hops into the portal to maintain the appearance of an honesty and integrity to go collect his payday.

2) Everyone Else - Here is where the rejected, injured, failed and ignorant go to end their college journey. Yes a few gems lie in the refuse and detritus pile of CFP, but another ugly truth is here is where many kids go to lose their scholarship and chance at an education as a result of greed (teams, players, fanbases). I will concede some players will find homes, often a downgrade of competitive quality, but there are currently almost 4,000 players homeless in the portal. That equates to 15 players for each of the combined 263 FBS and FCS schools.

My personal take on this, I'm sure is oversimplified, but mostly on target is that Clemson has chosen not to play in this dirty arena. My sense is that Dabo is guided by a very strong sense of right/wrong/justice and his program is not going to participate in Item #1 the tampering space (maybe I am wrong and Clemson does it, but I don't see it) so the portal would have very limited value for his approach. A last comment on the expansion to 12 in the CFP and 105 scholarship change will have huge repercussions when combined w/NIL and Portal. I truly don't think the universe settles down to a #### or common model until 2030s.

Dabo has always done it differently and I am more than happy to give him the latitude to use his approach to the Portal and it's interactions with NIL. This phase of the CFB experience is still new and changing so I trust in his past track record. I do expect him to deliver an ACC Championship this year or at least a playoff berth and am not buying in to all the naysayers who are just looking for hottakes and clickbait. It feels like a bad Middle School experience out there, where anyone not wearing the cool kid clothes get ridiculed, but often the kid wearing funny clothes becomes your boss 10 years later so my faith is in the funny looking boy named Dabo.

Go Tigers!!