Tulane Green Wave football head coach Jon Sumrall has approached the NIL and transfer portal era of college football with a positive, flexible attitude, but it continues to cause chaos in the spring.
Prior to the second portal window even opening, Sumrall is down three crucial players with previously unforeseen holes to now have to fill.
The departure of punter Will Karoll leaves a huge question mark on special teams that the team can’t afford not to answer.
However, there’s only so much NIL money left over for additional talent after the larger haul in the December portal window that has way more player movement.
Teams are looking to add talent where needs become clearer as spring camp unfolds—not as players suddenly depart with one week of practices remaining.
Sumrall has supported player movement publicly, despite losing his starting quarterback, running back, tight end, nose tackle, kickoff returner, punter, and more across the roster.
However, it’s hard to remain upbeat when there’s no real forest for the trees to be seen in the current state of college football.
Sumrall joined Josh Pate’s College Football Show back in February and had posed a solution for Group of Five programs to recoup loss of talent that feels more relevant than ever.
“I think there should be some restrictions, maybe, on the movement,” Sumrall said. “If a coach wants to leave a job, there’s a buyout involved. Well, how about we have maybe a buyout on a player if he decides to leave? So, if he wants to transfer up, then they have to monetarily pay us to get him out of the deal.”
While the destinations of the players in the portal are not yet decided, Sumrall highlighted the obvious signs of tampering when it came to Karoll.
As it stands, the solution is to suck it up and simply look for another starter in a limited portal window with more holes to spread funds across.
In the case of Karoll, it’s an interesting one, as the Australian is currently ineligible for NIL on an international student visa. That future is a bit different with revenue sharing and making these athletes eligible.
However, once he transfers, his new school is better positioned, while the Green Wave has nothing to show for it.
These instances make it clear that some sort of buyout would greatly aid Group of Five programs in particular that continue to get poached by higher-level programs with more resources.
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