Jackrabbit Illustrated

Author | Kyle Sheehan, @HoboHSTL

As post season play rapidly approaches for all college football subdivisions (FBS, FCS, DII), the chaos that is the transfer process has frost bitten teams and fan bases across the country.  Inevitably, with the disruption of a global pandemic and a rules overhaul, many universities were bound to be left in the cold with respect to roster turnover.  At the time of publishing on Sunday, November 27, 2022, ‘Redshirt Sports’ is reporting 338 current FCS players in the portal.  That figure is the equivalent of outfitting 6.3 full, 53-man travel squads—essentially the size of an FCS conference by itself! This article will examine some of the finer points of the ‘new-ish’ ‘Transfer Portal’, review ways in which it may impact the South Dakota State Jackrabbits and explore how it’s shifted the landscape of college football.

Historically, there were other scenarios but transfers generally took the form of junior college student athletes. Whether it was under recruitment, developmental needs athletically, or the more typical need to qualify academically (think Netflix’s Last Chance U), players enrolled at an institution within in one of the college football subdivisions (Division III, Division II, Division I AA, Division I) after completing coursework at a two year school. For frame of reference, the naming of the Division I Subdivisions changed several years ago to Division I FBS (Bowl Subdivision) and FCS (Championship Subdivision).  Division III and Division II don’t have an intra-division split so they maintained the same labels.

The nomenclature conversation is relevant because of the distinction between the number of scholarships offered within the Division I subdivisions.  Scholarship dollars ties directly to classical conditions for roster shake ups.  The current FBS format provides 85 scholarships for athletes attending top tier Division I schools, while the FCS subdivision only provides 63.  Another crucial point of note is the 85 scholarships at the FBS levels come in complete packages.  Scholarships at the FCS level are budgeted in such a way that allow for breaking up a ‘full ride’ into any combination of fulls and partials a staff sees fit. 

To localize the relevance even more, among the many strong traits Coach Stig has as a collegiate ball coach, perhaps one of his strongest qualities comes in the form of roster assembly. Instead of offering tons of full ride scholarships, he deploys discernment on whom to give what and at which percentage.  This provides richer depth when competing for conference and national titles. Covid year notwithstanding, this attribute has been on full display for the Jacks since about 2007—the Jacks first Division I Conference Championship year in program history! Depth has only increased across the board for the Jacks since the ‘00s and ‘10s.  This is a rather tough feat to accomplish in the FCS.

Now that we’ve addressed the subdivisions labeling and scholarships allotment, we can cover some other historical trends that paved the way for the today’s ‘portal system’.  Conventionally speaking, it was normal for players to transfer down, or laterally if you prefer, to Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) because it was customary for a player to be eligible to see the field right away.  Contrary to players who might have their sights set on loftier goals, transferring up from Division II ranks to FCS, or the more usual FCS to FBS, one was subject to a redshirt year or even a loss of a year entirely.  This was due to the fact that transferring ‘up’ meant being ineligible to participate right away.  According to an article (written for an SB Nation subsidiary) on the history of college transfer rules author, Alex Kirshner, points out this rule tweak went into effect in 1993.

               Relevance abounds from here for regional fans of the Minnesota Vikings.  Yes, I just worked in a Vikings reference to a Jackrabbits Illustrated article.  No I don’t have any shame, but bear with me.  Randy Moss, you may know the name, originally committed to Notre Dame to play for Lou Holtz.  However, a physical altercation left him in legal trouble and looking for a new home.  That home became Florida State due to Bobby Bowden’s reputation working with troubled youths.  Because Moss signed an Letter Of Intent (LOI) the NCAA deemed him a transfer student.  And because FSU is in the same Division I Subdivision as Notre Dame, Moss had to Redshirt the 1995 football season.  Ultimately, Moss landed at then I-AA Marshall University and was eligible immediately under the ’93 rules provision previously highlighted.

               Similar transfer rules impacted role players like myself, too.  While I’m unfit to hold Randy Moss’ water bottle, like Randy, I was a Division I-A to Division I-AA transfer.  While I’m blessed to have been a part of Jacks teams that consistently played for conference titles from ’06-’11, it’s a story that probably never would have been written in today’s world.  Aside from the national regulations, there’s also conference covenants to consider.  Most of my offers were in the Big Ten, which at the time, prevented me from being put back on scholarship had I transferred within the conference.  Having graduated early with dual credit from high school, JUCO wasn’t on the table either. That essentially left me with Vanderbilt and SDSU as my scholarship choices.  And no offense to Clark Lea’s Commodores, but they would’ve had a very tough time competing with the Mitch Ericksons, the Justin Kubeshes, the Danny Battens and the JaRon Harrises of that SDSU era.  SDSU became home for me because of the relationships I built with their staff at a Summer team camp and due to the waiver permitting immediate participation for Division I-A to Division I-AA transfers.

               While Coach Stig and company don’t build rosters that lean heavily on transfers, SDSU has been the beneficiary of several solid ones throughout its transition to the FCS echelon. I’m sure some will escape my mind, but several key transfers included Jared Blum (Nebraska to SDSU), Cody Hazelett (NIU to SDSU), and my teammate/fan favorite, Winston Wright (Missouri to SDSU).  General Parnell was a big get for the Jacks when he left Idaho for the Jackrabbits squad in ’07. Another transfer of merit is the ‘Alaska Kid’ and current SDSU Offensive Coordinator, Zach Lujan, who quarterbacked the Jacks to their first FBS victory over the Jayhawks of Kansas in 2015 (Chabot Community College to SDSU).  The next victory at the FBS level came at the hands of the most pure quarterback talent the Jackrabbits have probably ever seen in Chris Oladokun.  What a treat that NFL draft pick was to watch in blue and yellow! 

I’d also be remiss if I didn’t highlight transfers like Jason Schlautman and David Hettiger who were forced to find new homes when University of Nebraska Omaha dropped its football program in 2011.  While I grew up with a respect for the Cornhuskers, and I’m purely speculating here, maybe karma is coming to collect in Lincoln after some UNL folks on the board of regents likely weren’t falling over themselves to assist the Mavericks’ program from getting the axe. I mean why compete in recruiting with a potential FCS program (UNO is in the Division I Summit League for sports now) when you can just kill a program. But I digress.  While transfers have been a ‘nice to have’ compliment to Jacks teams of old, the makeup of present and future teams is likely to see them as a vital necessity.

               Look no further than Isaiah Stalbird’s contributions in his first game in blue and yellow to recognize the trajectory of the Jacks and the FCS writ large.  Stalbird, a Nebraska Cornhuskers transfer, blocked a punt and had four tackles in his first career game.  Couple that with a solid, second-year showing that included four tackles and a forced fumble in the FCS Semis a year ago, and the transfer effect is undeniable! Sprinkle in the emergence of Jason Freeman, John O’Brian, and when healthy, the burgeoning of Landon Wolf, and you have quite the savory transfer recipe.  Not only is on-field-play a metric for evaluation but also locker room fit must be a consideration in the transfer process.

According to Coach Stig and his staff, the Oklahoma State transfer has been a quality voice for leadership and cohesion despite battling a litany of injuries in his time in Brookings.  While that’s a welcome indication for the success of transfer athletes, that’s not been the M.O. for them over the years.  Many coaches, regardless of classification, have long been apprehensive of signing too many transfers for fear they’d disrupt existing cultures.  This reservation has been founded at times.  Nonetheless, the coaching carousel that’s become commonplace across the NCAA makes statements of culture disruption seem hypocritical.  To me remarks of the kind often read like pure satire.

               Coaches and institutions have long held leverage over the present and future careers of amateur athletes.  From gaudy coaching and administrative contracts to huge postseason bonuses and payouts (namely FBS) to disallowing athletes release from their scholarships to placing specific schools on ‘no transfer lists’, the tables have finally been turned.  Or more fittingly, mutual autonomy over career choice has been implemented.  For the lay reader, I’m specifically pointing to the advent of the NCAA transfer portal and the introduction of the Name Image and Likeness (NIL) opportunities for athletes. 

Wonder what the transfer portal is exactly? According to an article published by on3.com the NCAA transfer portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public. Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.  A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The NIL nuances probably deserve its own article but suffice it to say it allows athletes to cash in on, at minimum, their abilities—an overhaul of amateurism laws of old!  Given the billions of dollars flowing through collegiate athletics (again, namely at FBS blue bloods institutions), it seems a little less slimy to allow the on-field and on-court talent to benefit financially from their likeness & production. After all, an academic scholarship recipient could work a job to fund the demands of their lives, yet an athlete who had a scholarship was subject to a cascade of financial earnings stipulations?!? That just didn’t ever sit right with me.  Turns out I wasn’t the only one.

               While the shift in rules certainly awards the student athlete more mobility, autonomy and opportunity financially, there’s no free lunch as they say.  A quote by economist Thomas Sowell encapsulates the situation nicely.  He said, “There are no solutions; there are only tradeoffs.”  This applies quite nicely to the guy who really blew the doors off the whole postgraduate transfer movement, Russell Wilson.  Russell earned his degree from NC State University.  Given he met the undergraduate conditions required of him prior to the expiration of his eligibility on the field, and because NC State didn’t offer the graduate program in which he wanted to enroll (this is what we’d call a technicality), he was able to enroll at Wisconsin without a forfeiture of eligibility.  The tradeoff for Wisconsin being they didn’t know how he’d fit in with the team, nor did they know how he’d perform.  The tradeoff for Wilson being he was leaving a program in which he’d already been ingratiated and would need to develop new chemistry and learn a new offense fast.  These days, that’s a tradeoff programs and upperclassmen sign up for with regularity—especially on teams tailored for title runs with only a few missing pieces.

               But we’re over a decade removed from the early falling dominoes of the grad transfer movement.  Now, in some ways, the tradeoffs for all athletes entering the portal pose a slippery slope of a different kind.  Postseason play only allots a 45-day window from championship selection day onward to enter the portal and re-open recruitment.  The same rules do not apply to athletes who’ve already earned their degree.  Phoenix Sproles, former NDSU wideout, entering the portal in October is evidence of graduates not being subject to the same constraints as those still in pursuit of their degrees.  Another tradeoff is finding a home when the market is absolutely flooded with players—both high school and collegiate. As is usually the case with transferring, it’s a roll of the dice to try to find a home.  But unlike in the past when it was perhaps a slightly more intimate process without athletes flooding the portal en masse, young men and women are subject to getting lost in the shuffle and without a home.  The catalyst for such a flood is without question the introduction of the ‘one-time-transfer-rule’ that went into play in April 2021.  This permits a player to transfer anywhere in the country to any classification without penalty, one time.

               Lastly, fan bases and institutions, the FCS in particular, will be subject to poaching from the deep pockets of the affluent, top tier institutions.  Right, wrong or indifferent, why wouldn’t you expect an SEC program or Ohio State to go after a player like a Jabril Cox (NDSU to LSU) or Tucker Kraft?  It’s not like they don’t have the resources to set a kid up financially.  Recent valuations of OSU from the Wall Street Journal show their overall ‘football brand’ valuation to be upwards of $1 billion.  In FY 2021 which runs from June 2020 to July 2021 the Buckeyes football program generated $107,000,000 in revenue.  In fact, the program lost more money from FY 2020 to FY 2021 ($127 million; 54.4% decrease) than SDSU football would likely generate over a two-decade span.  You read that right.  Read it again.

               At risk of simply shelling out numbers, let me add some context.  Essentially money talks. And boy does it have a lot to say!  This means the decisions of guys like Kraft and prominent players at other institutions have become resoundingly more difficult.  Take NIL money and drastically change your financial situation. Or, you could stay the course, and bet on yourself and your future financial potential through the draft.  Either way, one wouldn’t fault a kid for changing his financial future—whether it be at the collegiate level or beyond.  But not every guy gets to be a ‘dude’. Some of these athletes will leave the schools they initially attended in search of the currency of playing time to simply continue their pursuit of a game they love. This puts the onus on coaching staffs to learn to mine the portal for talent, to continue developing the people behind the facemasks, and to feverishly discover various ways to differentiate themselves and their value to maintain a complete and cohesive roster.

               Currently, the culture of South Dakota State Football is tried and true.  The recent news of All-Americans Mason McCormick and Garret Greenfield returning for the year they lost due to Covid to continue to grow as players is a testament to that fact.  Coach Lujan earning an opportunity to play and now move up the coaching ranks without looking elsewhere is another nod to that point.  That reality is further compounded by the return of Jesse Bobbitt and Joshua Davis to their alma mater.  Look no further than the heir apparent, Jimmy Rogers, who has put on an absolute clinic of game plans and adjustments from the defensive side of the ball, for the final co-sign that the Jackrabbits culture is in great integrity.

Even so, taking all the above into account, it’s not a matter of if but when prominent players will depart SDSU.  It’s the law of averages.  Players and coaches alike will pursue other opportunities for a plethora of reasons. When that time comes, as an alumni and fan you simply need to consider the reality that these are young men developing their identities, maturing in life and trying their best to find a fit a university to continue playing the game we all love.  Slights against their character, even when founded is still the exception not the rule, is more of a confession of the cynic’s character than it is an indictment of the athlete’s.  I think we’d all be best served to remember that fact.  Finally, whether it be the 9-man kid from the prairie, the inner city QB to DB convert from Chicago, the walk-on transfer from an FBS blue blood or the All-American transfer from the NAIA, this Jack’s squad is simply built different!

Twitter 1k Follower Giveaway Update: Check tweets throughout the week to see if you won tickets to the Second Round FCS Playoff Game against Delaware. GoJacks! Run Rabbits!