In the New World of the Portal: Here are 4 Themes to Follow

Four Themes to Watch as the Portal Opens:

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The portal names started to drip with grad transfers the past week or so, and then today, Izzy made it official and joined the portal.  Although it was expected for some time, having Starck back in the picture gives it LIFE! 

Rather than speculate on who and where I want to give you 4 main themes to follow that will answer some bigger questions and also give you some insight into the mind of the Coaches, the athletes in the portal and even the athletes that one day are happy in their campus apartment hanging with college friends......and then their social media blows up and all of the sudden they may have a career and life choice to make!  Depending on what role you play in the college volleyball spectrum, the portal means completely different things.  Here are four themes to watch and examine in the early portal window.

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The Izzy Starck Domino Affect: 

I talked about this on my last podcast, but depending on how soon Izzy decides, it will shake up a whole lot in college volleyball, and it could set off a Setter Chain reaction. You don’t need me to tell you some of the favorites you are hearing about, too: Pitt, Texas, SMU…Well, if she goes to school X and has 3 years, that will put some doubt in the committed setters at each school, I would think? I’m not giving my opinion on the odds, and I'm sure there will be other schools in the mix. What I’ve heard is that Winning is important to Izzy, but if you can win and get paid, that’s great, too. So the Stark transfer is the initial story as it could lead to a few moves because, when she moves, it could move a few other setters because of her move that could go into the Spring! So this could be a 3-4 school Setter switch (or SMU, it might not change at all)

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2.  Major coaching changes: 

I do feel like this is going to be a year where there are actually several P4 programs that make head coaching changes as soon as their seasons end. Now, out of respect to the programs again, I won’t say some that are being rumored, but if major conference programs make changes, that probably means BIG ROSTER TURNOVER. So it would mean a few extra entries than normal from those conferences in January.

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3.   How does Rev Share start to affect the portal? 

If you have watched college basketball at all over the last year or two, you have seen much more poaching of mid-major athletes who have dominated their league play to make the big jump up. 

I am still not sure volleyball is at that step yet. One speed is still a little different between divisions, and coaches need to be sure a transfer can perform before giving them “a big check” to join a squad as a for-sure starter. Second, I believe several mid-major programs have done a very nice job of building a nest egg to make lucrative offers to 1-2 top players to entice them to stick around. Several top mid-major programs simply have better facilities than some of the lower P4 programs, where volleyball isn’t a priority. So you are either jumping to a Top 20 program, or you are taking a huge increase?

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4. The Deep Squads: Who has patience? Who wants to play and who needs to leave?

When you look at next season, it could potentially be an epic one in college volleyball (depending on how this portal thing shakes out). Look at the Veteran Dominated lineups for Nebraska, Texas, Kentucky, Pitt, Stanford, just to name a few, right at the very top that will all be 1-2 players away from a team for the ages. That is awesome for fan bases and for TV, but what about the star freshman waiting for playing time, and they have a 2-time All-American ahead of them, they can’t beat out, or the incoming freshman who finally realizes I’m not playing for a while? Then you have the reality of the business side of the game. You have waited your turn, busted your butt for two years, and some All-American or Overseas prospect becomes available, and your team signs them because they are a 1-year sure thing to go with an already veteran squad. These are all things to start looking for in the portal puzzle; depth charts like that….teams that are one player away, and they don’t have a proven player coming back. Not fair, but reality sometimes.