Alabama football: NCAA admits that transfer portal is unenforceable

Happy Monday, everyone. It was a stellar bounceback weekend on the hardwood. The men rolled into Rupp and knocked off a top ten Kentucky squad on Saturday, which is never easy. The women then went to Fayetteville yesterday and throttled Arkansas by 32.

It was a joint effort as Alabama shot 50% from field goal range and 50% from deep. Zaay Green, Karly Weathers, Essence Cody, and JeAnna Cunningham all finished with double digits. In addition, every single player on the team finished with a point or more.

Weathers went 5-6 on shots from deep and finished with a season-high 19 points. Green also went 3-6 on shots from deep with nine rebounds.

“On the defense end and the offense end, rebounding, assists, it was just a good overall team win,” Green said.

Alabama and Arkansas played competitively in the first half. A big difference in the first half was rebounds as Alabama finished with 22 while Arkansas only finished with 14.

Alabama pulled away in the second half as the team scored 31 points in the third quarter alone and went on a 16-4 run.

Sarah Ashlee Barker is still missing, but Kristy Curry has the ladies playing great basketball. They were as competitive with South Carolina as anyone has been all season, and sandwiched that loss with road wins. There are still some tough games left on the always difficult SEC schedule, but they are in great position at 17-3 overall and 4-2 in league play, projected as a NCAA 4-seed currently by CBS.

Alabama is now written about as a potential playoff party crasher, which should serve as motivation for the 2025 squad.

Don’t write off Kalen DeBoer too quickly. His Alabama debut flopped. Absolutely, it did. But, consider Alabama’s No. 4-ranked recruiting class, which includes three five-star prospects. DeBoer’s transfer prizes include Miami’s Isaiah Horton, who will polish the receiving corps. Now, consider the schedule in which Alabama will play host for swing games against Tennessee, LSU and Oklahoma. Let’s not bury the DeBoer era just yet. The key question – and it’s a biggie – is how Alabama will fill its quarterback opening. Backups Ty Simpson and Austin Mack return, and blue-chip freshman Keelon Russell is inbound. The committee nearly awarded a bid for three-loss Alabama this season, and it will boast a sturdy schedule strength again in 2025, upping its at-large qualification chances.

Alabama doesn’t belong on lists like this when 12 teams are allowed into the field.

Colin Gay notes that 2025 Alabama, like the Ohio State squad that will likely win the national title tonight, returns a lion’s share of its defensive production with a couple of key pieces added.

Alabama’s offseason has been defined by the defensive players who are set to return.

Players like linebacker Deontae Lawson, cornerback Domani Jackson, defensive lineman LT Overton and safety Keon Sabb, players who shined in the first year under Kane Wommack’s ball-hawking scheme, who helped the Crimson Tide to its best scoring defense since 2017 and to a total defense that has matched the production of the prior six seasons under Saban.

In 2025, Alabama has a defense with a multitude of returning starters, each looking to take a next step in a scheme heading into year two while adding supplemental pieces like former Colorado linebacker Nikhai Hill-Green, former Utah cornerback Cameron Calhoun and former Florida defensive lineman Kelby Collins to fill out the two-deep.

Alabama’s defense has potential. The Crimson Tide will see if it turns into production.

Seth McLaughlin won’t get to play tonight, but he was asked about the cigar he was seen with after Ohio State beat Tennessee.

“I didn’t want to jinx it, so I put one in my bag,” McLaughlin said. “We were up big at halftime, so I went in and slipped it in my overalls, and I broke it out of it. I wasn’t gonna smoke it. I was just gonna chew on it.”

But then McLaughlin noticed there was a nearby flame from a space heater on the sideline during the December game in Columbus, Ohio.

“Put in front of that,” he continued. “Had a good time. I didn’t expect them to put it on TV, but that was really funny. We had a good time with it. My teammates thought it was funny.”

That included some of McLaughlin’s former Alabama teammates, too.

“A few of them reached out and they were laughing about it,” he said. “It was just cool to see the reaction like the Alabama fans. I spent four years there and enjoyed my time there. I’m an Alabama guy, I’m also a Buckeyes guy. So it was fun.”

The playoff seeding is likely to change for next season. As usual, money is the hangup.

Commissioners of the Big 12 and Mountain West — the chief benefactors of the bye rule this year — as well as the ACC say they are open to discussing the matter, but expressed skepticism in making changes so soon into this version of the expanded playoff.

“I’m open to a healthy discussion on the topic,” Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark told Yahoo Sports. “I certainly have a point of view that will be expressed in the room, but I do not have the appetite to give up any financial reward that comes with a bye.”

There is a sizable financial incentive tethered to those receiving a first-round bye: $8 million. Teams advancing to the playoff each receive $4 million. Those playing in quarterfinals — the four first-round winners and the four top seeds — receive another $4 million.

The SEC and Big Ten won’t continue to willingly share forever.

Last, we got another transfer portal bombshell this weekend. Apparently DB Xavier Lucas had signed a two-year NIL agreement with Wisconsin out of high school. One year into that agreement, he decided he wanted to transfer to Miami. Wisconsin refused to enter him into the portal, so he disenrolled and announced through his attorney that he is headed to Miami anyway. The attorney correctly cites that NIL agreements cannot bind a player to a particular school under NCAA rules, even though explicit pay for play is happening all over the country. Wisconsin is directing most of the ire toward Miami, accusing the ‘Canes of tampering.

Wisconsin said in its statement: “Badger student-athletes who have signed these agreements expect Wisconsin Athletics to honor the terms. In turn, Wisconsin Athletics relies on the student-athlete representations in signing these agreements that they will do the same. A request to enter the transfer portal after entering into such an agreement is inconsistent with the representations and mutual understanding of the agreement and explains the reason for not processing a transfer portal request under these circumstances.”

The Big Ten, in a statement released soon after Wisconsin’s, said it is “critical that agreed-to obligations be respected, honored and enforced.” The league also said that the situation highlights the need for “substantive governance reform” in college athletics.

“These actions [by Miami] undermine the efforts of its own conference as the ACC continues its collaboration with the other A4 conferences in developing a sustainable framework for college sports,” the Big Ten said in its statement.

The worst part of all of this? The NCAA has now acknowledged that the transfer portal means absolutely nothing.

So, players can transfer whenever they damn well please. The portal is nothing more than a courtesy. The NCAA did add that there is still a rule preventing players from competing for two different schools in the same season, but it seems only a matter of time before someone challenges that one in court as well.

What a mess.

That’s about it for today, Have a great week.

Roll Tide.