Josh Pate: The 2024 Spring Transfer Window is ‘Gonna Completely Gut Some of Your Teams’
For those of you out there who haven’t been paying attention, the spring transfer portal window is quickly approaching, and it’s going to leave a lot of college football fans feeling much different about their 2024 seasons than they are right now.
With the NCAA losing any credibility it had left with the Tennessee situation, there are quite literally no rules left to keep the transfer portal in check. Add to that the ruling that the NCAA can’t tell players when and where they cannot transfer, and it’s a complete free-for-all.
247Sports’ Josh Pate has diligently warned anyone who will listen that this is going to be an unprecedented era in college football and that some of the names that we will see enter the portal will leave fans with their jaws on the ground. In fact, Pate went as far as to insinuate that the Kadyn Proctor situation would be an afterthought once everything was said and done.
In his latest episode of “Late Kick,” the No. 1 college football podcast in America, Pate doubled down on the impending storm and was extremely candid about what will happen when the portal opens on Monday.
Spring, to me, is both more different than it’s ever been but also more important than it’s ever been,” Pate said on Sunday. “You are about to see the harsh, violent reality of the no-rules transfer portal era on full display later this month. I am not overstating this: It will be the wildest transfer portal era that you’ve ever seen. And it’s gonna completely gut some of your teams. Just calling it like it is.
“Some of you are going to become national championship contenders that don’t think you are coming out of spring football, and it’s gonna be amazing. Well, it’s gonna be amazing to witness. It’s gonna be a nightmare to be a part of.
He then goes into the turmoil that college football coaches are dealing with right now and what their biggest worries are heading into the back half of spring football and the portal window opening up.
“So, imagine the paranoia amongst college football coaches right now,” Pate said. “I’ve been knee-deep in it lately because I’ve been talking to them nonstop. Think about the idea that spring is the most crucial team-building portion of your season, and you don’t know who your team is. You may be giving first or second tight-end reps to a guy who, unbeknownst to you, has been in contact with half a dozen schools, and he’s on his way out the door after spring. “After spring” being the key words there. When the hay’s already in the barn, the next thing you’re gonna do is summer workouts, which you are “not allowed to observe.” Then you have some time with them, but by then, it’s fall camp on the horizon, and all of a sudden, Gary is out the door because he got a better offer from somewhere else.
“Is it legal? Yes, it is.
“It is wonderful for the kid’s short-term? Financially, I suppose it is.
“Is it good for the sport? No, unequivocally, I would argue, it’s not for anyone, the players included, because there’s more to becoming an elite football player than getting paid in college.”
