Herbstreit – Answer to transfer portal tampering is union

Over the weekend, ESPN College Football Analyst Kirk Herbstreit shared his view of how to combat the lawlessness of the transfer portal and tampering that so many Clemson football fans are concerned about.

His answer? Big conferences break away and create a “new world” and players create a union once realignment is settled.

Herbstreit believes that the SEC and Big Ten are not done making moves and once that’s done, the next step would be for the players to form a union.

"“Ultimately, the only answer to all this, in my opinion, is you’re going into this new playoff—the 12-team playoff—you create a new world,” he said. “That’s the reality. We still have realignment issues. We’re still not settled with what the Big Ten’s going to be, with what the SEC’s going to be. So once that gets finished, you create a new governing body. You create your own world. You go to the players and you say, ‘You form a union.’”"

As for a time frame when this will happen, Herbstreit believes that it’ll occur within the next year, because of the upcoming 12-team playoff.

"That’s the only way this thing can land, and it’s going to have to be within the next year, once we head to that 12-team playoff. If you have a CBA like the NFL does, you know the rules of engagement. Right now, it’s chaos. There’s no rules."

My first reaction is to find it hard to believe that something of this magnitude will happen in the next year.

On the other hand, Texas and Oklahoma left the SEC seemingly overnight, with a similar situation occurring with UCLA and USC leaving the PAC-12 for the Big Ten.

Things can happen quickly in college football these days.

One thing for sure, something has to change, as the transfer portal as it currently exists is not serving the majority of players or teams in a positive manner, in my opinion.

There are currently over 1,000 players, most of who have given up a scholarship, in the portal looking for a new home (and scholarship), while teams that lose players overnight are left without superstars that they counted on, some having left in suspicious circumstances.

The portal has been good for a very few at the top and a failure for the vast majority of players who have entered.

For Clemson football, rules around the transfer portal will have little effect as long as Dabo Swinney is running the program

For Clemson football, as long as Dabo Swinney is in charge of the program I find it difficult to believe that rules around the portal and tampering will have much of an impact, because of how Dabo uses the portal.

I’m unsure of how a union would effect Clemson or college players in general.

The bigger question for me, and what was secondary to Herbstreit’s portal and tampering concerns, is his belief that the SEC and Big Ten are not done changing and what that means.

Long term, I believe the ACC is in trouble, at least as a power conference.  The teams can’t continue to have their revenue dwarfed by the SEC and Big Ten indefinitely and hope to compete and defections from the ACC may spell the end of the conference as we know it.

The change in college football is far from over.