Look up the words “tampering” and “transfer portal” together in your favorite search engine real quick.
See that?
If you check the news section of the site you’re on, you may or may not be shocked at just how widespread program-to-program interference has become in college sports. Although, if you’re regular readers at this particular site, you had an inkling. Still, it’s a bit jarring to see just how intense the war of words is surrounding the problem.
Crutchfield’s Return Home Is a Telling Sign
Losing a ton of players through the transfer portal, as Arkansas has, usually means you’re the victim of tampering, not its instigator. Razorbacks offensive lineman Fernando Carmona said other schools were contacting him, through intermediaries, during the middle of the 2023 football season. Even though that happened last year with SJSU, it’s still very much in the same vein of what some assumed had happened with Patrick Kutas and Jaylon Braxton this year.
On the heels of former Missouri wide receiver Courtney Crutchfield signing with Arkansas on Christmas Day, however, it’s worth looking at how one insider is accusing Arkansas – and the rest of the posse – of sticking its hands in the cookie jar, too.
Missouri football beat writer Gabe DeArmond recently said the issue is widespread throughout the two biggest conferences in the country. Nebraska’s poaching of a player from Mizzou, defensive end Williams Nwaneri, sparked some ire.
“This was obviously done beforehand. So were many of the deals Missouri has with people,” he added, making it clear that the Tigers aren’t blameless in this regard. “I literally was told last week, if you’re not talking to representation for players that are good enough to play at the SEC, Big Ten level, then it’s already too late.”
On that Dec. 13 “New Day with SSJ” podcast, DeArmond added that essentially all programs at the highest levels are tampering to a degree.
Transfer Portal Tampering Rules the Day
I know most readers here aren’t fans of Big Government, but c’mon. A little regulation for the transfer portal and NIL negotiations would, at least, force schools to disclose more information. Instead, it’s the Wild West out there and we have no Virgil Earp available to set laws. The fat cats will get fatter and the rest will languish. What’s true in America is true in college football.
The game’s acceleration toward de facto professionalism has only hastened in the post-COVID era. Many programs now utilize general managers, the same way the NBA, NFL, MLB and NHL do. A general manager’s job is to construct the best quality roster for the best possible price within a team’s budget. Among other things, of course, but to the layperson, that’s the gig.
It’s a bit more complicated at the college level right now than the professional ranks, though, because of the lack of standardization. The gulf between the haves and have-nots is exacerbated, too, because some schools simply don’t have GMs yet, something that is also changing quickly, at least among teams with enough capital to create a new position.
Domino Effect Affects Arkansas
Crutchfield’s movement, for example, creates a domino effect. By cutting bait with a former four-star receiver who couldn’t crack the Tigers’ rotation but seemingly commanded an outsize cut of NIL funds, Missouri freed up some of their – ahem – salary space to go after a bigger prize: a quarterback to replace Brady Cook, arguably the most successful signal-caller in school history. His $1.2 million valuation kept him in his home state and now the Tigers have landed former Penn State back-up Beau Pribula.
It was clear how good Mizzou was when Cook was healthy versus how mediocre the Tigers were when he was not. Getting Crutchfield off the books allowed the program to pursue greater replacement options at a more important position. Pribula appears to mend the wound: he threw for five touchdowns and 275 yards in spot duty for the Nittany Lions, clearly establishing himself as legitimate.
Arkansas has its quarterback already in Taylen Green, who announced his return a few weeks back. Green lost or will have lost every notable wide receiver off of this 2024 roster, however. Andrew Armstrong and Isaac TeSlaa run out of eligibility after the Liberty Bowl (Armstrong isn’t playing in the game, regardless). Jordan Anthony and Tyrone Broden aren’t listed on the depth chart for the bowl, suggesting their exit. Davion Dozier hit the portal midseason. The Hogs have 29-year-old Monte Harrison and 19-year-old CJ Brown at the top of the depth chart right now, just ahead of a massive offseason.
Crutchfield, unless he’s severely worse than his four-star grade coming out of Pine Bluff High School, could immediately slot into Arkansas’ top four upon arrival. He didn’t catch a single pass this year.
Sam Pittman Is Focused On Key Positions
Meanwhile, Pittman is recruiting his favorite position mightily. Kavion Broussard signed with Arkansas the day before Christmas Eve. Central Florida center Cayden Kitler signed with Arkansas earlier. And Georgia Tech tackle Corey Robinson is expected to, as well. The first offensive lineman out of the portal was former Oregon offensive lineman Shaq McRoy, literally the biggest get at 6-foot-8, 375 pounds. Considering each player’s pedigree, all four will almost certainly crack the two-deep and will compete as potential starters on a line that lost Patrick Kutas, Addison Nichols and Josh Braun to the portal. With Carmona’s return, the Hogs should be just as good in 2025 as they were in 2024 up front. With health, they should be better, even.
If Arkansas is taking the Missouri approach of shedding cost at one position in order to upgrade another, then some of the money gained by Luke Hasz’s exit should go to running back. Braylen Russell entered and exited the transfer portal twice, but is set to play for the Razorbacks next year. For now. Behind him, the Hogs are severely undermanned in the backfield with Rodney Hill and his 103 yards the only experience returning, though New Mexico State transfer Mike Washington ran for 600-plus yards last year for a perennially poor team. The Hogs also boast a bare-bones high-school recruiting class that features only three-star Cameron Settles, who isn’t nationally ranked. Besides, high-school recruiting is almost pointless except for the short term. Players who don’t see the field quickly – like Crutchfield – are hitting the road before development can even happen.
It’s All Projection and Conjecture
Really, it’s a fool’s game projecting anything in the middle of December anymore. Players opt out of bowl games; they enter, exit and re-enter the transfer portal; they negotiate deals through representation. Teams haggle and jockey, spurred by an insatiable fan base all too eager to cast aspersions on exiting players while glorifying entering ones. Take note of how the online crowd has treated Russell, a Benton native, in his transfer portal saga. Now, just look at the exchange between the two below.
It’s no Christmas miracle that Crutchfield has gone from persona non grata to embraced Prodigal Son in mere days.
It’s all par for the course in modern college football, where year by year players come packaged and delivered anew to differing fanbases, like so many glistening presents under the tree.
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