[Goose]

No...the transfer portal is an issue for Stanford because the portal door only swings one way. Free agency and NIL are not our friends.

Agree. NIL is a problem for sure, but maybe not a big one. That situation is yet to play out. If NIL becomes just a ubiquitous way to funnel money to players, I am sure Stanford can play that game every bit as well as other programs do. It will be a question of how much payola the University is willing to allow. The one-way transfer portal will affect Stanford a lot. It will decrease our depth, just as it will everybody's. But, we will be unable to compensate by getting incoming players to compensate. Most importantly, we will not be able to admit the "missing piece" to fix a glaring deficiency caused by injury, transfer, or whiffing on recruiting. Others can do so and that IMHO is a real killer.

[Goose]

No...the transfer portal is an issue for Stanford because the portal door only swings one way. Free agency and NIL are not our friends.

Agree. NIL is a problem for sure, but maybe not a big one. That situation is yet to play out. If NIL becomes just a ubiquitous way to funnel money to players, I am sure Stanford can play that game every bit as well as other programs do. It will be a question of how much payola the University is willing to allow. The one-way transfer portal will affect Stanford a lot. It will decrease our depth, just as it will everybody's. But, we will be unable to compensate by getting incoming players to compensate. Most importantly, we will not be able to admit the "missing piece" to fix a glaring deficiency caused by injury, transfer, or whiffing on recruiting. Others can do so and that IMHO is a real killer.