How many?

[VimSince03]

Vigen has got to really pick up his internal recruiting pitch and convince guys their NFL chances are better staying than leaving. Looking at what happened to Ifanse and Glessner this year, that's a case you can make. Our guys are good but none of them are so good that they are going to be some massive $ transfer. Take a guy like Seabass-- if he stays here he will continue to star, and he is already on the NFL radar. If he transfers to a Power 5 school, maybe he gets lost in a depth shuffle or gets in the wrong system and hurts his stock. For guys with Pro Futures, I think the portal is overrated.

Would you turn down $100,000 as a college senior to go play football at a Power 5?

[ThoughtUKnew14]

This is still a fairly young team. I think if anyone goes into the portal, it is most likely going to be players that aren’t on the two deep roster.

We have a few very good juniors who are going to get NIL offers to go FBS. That's how this works now. It sucks for FCS fans.

Um isn't that against the rules? I thought other teams boosters couldn't contact another team's players?

Come on man, you can’t be serious…there’s a hundred ways programs work around that rule.

[iaafan]

You have to be good at working the portal. It’s part of the job. MSU isn’t the only school with good players.

[Helcat72]

This is still a fairly young team. I think if anyone goes into the portal, it is most likely going to be players that aren’t on the two deep roster.

We have a few very good juniors who are going to get NIL offers to go FBS. That's how this works now. It sucks for FCS fans.

Um isn't that against the rules? I thought other teams boosters couldn't contact another team's players?

Ya sure.
They find ways around it, such as contact through a third party.
And rules aren't always followed. Plenty of examples of that over the last 40 years of college football.

Well sure it happens some but we are making it sound like the top 3-5 kids on every team are being approached. Pretty sure someone would report that.

Look no further than last year's kicker for MSU. Within about 3 days, he hit the portal, had an offer from UCLA, and committed to them.

If the kicker at MSU is being approached I'm about 99% sure that the top 3-5 other players are as well.

After the Cal game, Glessner might want to come back here!

[Helcat72]

Young players need to sign a two year contract, and if they don't transfer after the first two years, then sign another two year deal. If they don't become a "franchise player" or starter, they can get free agency again

Hell the NFL doesn't have unrestricted free agency...why should college?

[Bobcat4Ever]

I would like to see the NIL change. All the NIL money would go in huge pot. This money would then be shared based on FBS, FCS, Div II, etc. it could even be broken down by position or number of plays on the field. If changes aren't made then the teams with the most NIL money will just continue to buy better players. The portal needs to go back to sitting out a season to change teams.

The professional leagues call it “revenue sharing.” They realized early on with the advent of free-agency that the money (certain parts of it) needed to be spread around or they’d end up with a fanbase-destroying stratification. The NFL has been pretty successful with it. Now mis-management, not lack of revenue, is the easiest way to become inconsequential.

[ThoughtUKnew14]

Young players need to sign a two year contract, and if they don't transfer after the first two years, then sign another two year deal. If they don't become a "franchise player" or starter, they can get free agency again

Hell the NFL doesn't have unrestricted free agency...why should college?

So you want a player to commit for 2 yrs but you do know that University’s scholarship are only for 1 year at a time…

[onceacat]

Young players need to sign a two year contract, and if they don't transfer after the first two years, then sign another two year deal. If they don't become a "franchise player" or starter, they can get free agency again

Hell the NFL doesn't have unrestricted free agency...why should college?

The NCAA screwed this up a decade ago by preventing colleges from offering 4-5 year guaranteed scholarships. Guys routinely would lose their scholarships (and chance at a good education) if they suffered an injury. This problem is 100% a creation of the NCAA.

That said, I think there might be a case now to offer guaranteed 5 year scholarships with some sort of clawback provisions.

[onceacat]

I would like to see the NIL change. All the NIL money would go in huge pot. This money would then be shared based on FBS, FCS, Div II, etc. it could even be broken down by position or number of plays on the field. If changes aren't made then the teams with the most NIL money will just continue to buy better players. The portal needs to go back to sitting out a season to change teams.

The professional leagues call it “revenue sharing.” They realized early on with the advent of free-agency that the money (certain parts of it) needed to be spread around or they’d end up with a fanbase-destroying stratification. The NFL has been pretty successful with it. Now mis-management, not lack of revenue, is the easiest way to become inconsequential.

And its part of what makes the NFL fun. It hard to assemble a super team year in & out...hell, all of a sudden the Lions are good again as a result of the way the contracts are structured.

NCAA needs to figure out a similar structure so we dont have to watch yet another Michigan Alabama (or Texas, or Ohio State, or Georgia) national championship game.

[PapaG]

I worry most about Oline and two Dline guys.

Losing Seabass and Grebe would catastrophic.

That would be terrible! Likely?

Probably more likely than we'd like to think. If we lose tomorrow I could see our team get gutted.

If we win tomorrow, we'll still likely lose several to NIL madness.

Other than maybe Valdez and an OL, who is going to get NIL money from a FBS school? I may be totally wrong, but I just don’t see a large exodus of players from a decent but not elite FCS team getting money left and right. If so, then the coaching that this team received needs to be closely reviewed starting at the top.

[GoGriz1023]

You don't want the players that bolt. Does nothing for the Cats. Let em go. I STILL say the Cats had ****** tons of talent. Why what happened this year, I'll leave to the Cat fans, but having a QB that runs EVERYTHING is a serious problem - and the offense relied way too heavy on the QB.. And I feel so fricking bad for Tommy - such a great dude. It just f'ing sucks - it seriously does. Tommy is such a neat true Montana kid and it just sucks to see his season end like it did.

[GoGriz1023]

Cats lose their entire team...that is all... but Cats will be damn tough and should win it all in 2024. That's what I'm told anyways....and that's after the entire Griz team is declared academically inelgible for the degree of 'Hottest Cheerleaders'. Seriously, have you compared them? Griz win easily. Just like a couple weeks ago...

[nanacat]

You don't want the players that bolt. Does nothing for the Cats. Let em go. I STILL say the Cats had ****** tons of talent. Why what happened this year, I'll leave to the Cat fans, but having a QB that runs EVERYTHING is a serious problem - and the offense relied way too heavy on the QB.. And I feel so fricking bad for Tommy - such a great dude. It just f'ing sucks - it seriously does. Tommy is such a neat true Montana kid and it just sucks to see his season end like it did.

This is a good post. Should have stopped with this one.

[MinnesotaBobcat]

I was watching the Idaho game last night, and the announcer kept highlighting some of the young Idaho talent (a couple really good freshman). I kept thinking Idaho fans must must be cringing because he was advertising good young players with three years of eligibility.

Sad fact is we will lose a few good players a year to the portal with the money being thrown their way. This is the reality for every FCS team. The key moving forward will to retain most of your players, and to be able to add talent from the portal when the opportunity arises.

[91catAlum]

I worry most about Oline and two Dline guys.

Losing Seabass and Grebe would catastrophic.

That would be terrible! Likely?

Probably more likely than we'd like to think. If we lose tomorrow I could see our team get gutted.

If we win tomorrow, we'll still likely lose several to NIL madness.

Other than maybe Valdez and an OL, who is going to get NIL money from a FBS school? I may be totally wrong, but I just don’t see a large exodus of players from a decent but not elite FCS team getting money left and right. If so, then the coaching that this team received needs to be closely reviewed starting at the top.

Omar and Rush could both get offers. Valdez for sure. Grebe has the size to play at the next level and led the conference in sacks. Not saying they would all leave for sure but they are good enough.
Also have a couple young RBs with some very nice game film now who will get better looks than maybe they did in HS.

[technoCat]

So when I said I was worried about the portal, I didn't just mean guys moving up for NIL or exposure. I was also worried about losing a ton of depth guys. Part of that was this just general feeling that there are quite of few guys not happy with their utilization or not clicking with the coaches. All the swirling rumors of team discontent might be baseless but remind me painfully of the end of the Ash Era and I shutter to think what would have happened if the portal had been around then.

[Catsrgrood]

So do we think we start hearing anything today on some guys going to the portal? Is today the last day to enter during this period?

We’ll lose someone, probably a few, I’m just holding out hope it’s not as bad as some speculate.

There will be a lot of returning talent no matter what, hopefully we can add some real contributors as well and have a net gain, or at least net neutral outcome to the whole portal business.

[VimSince03]

So do we think we start hearing anything today on some guys going to the portal? Is today the last day to enter during this period?

We’ll lose someone, probably a few, I’m just holding out hope it’s not as bad as some speculate.

There will be a lot of returning talent no matter what, hopefully we can add some real contributors as well and have a net gain, or at least net neutral outcome to the whole portal business.

I expect we lose anywhere from 5-8 players with the majority being backups not getting the playing time they expected and they're either going into their junior or senior seasons. I do expect that group to also include 2-3 of our best players going into their senior seasons who will have NIL decisions to make.

[wbtfg]

[Catsrgrood]

So do we think we start hearing anything today on some guys going to the portal? Is today the last day to enter during this period?

We’ll lose someone, probably a few, I’m just holding out hope it’s not as bad as some speculate.

There will be a lot of returning talent no matter what, hopefully we can add some real contributors as well and have a net gain, or at least net neutral outcome to the whole portal business.

I expect we lose anywhere from 5-8 players with the majority being backups not getting the playing time they expected and they're either going into their junior or senior seasons. I do expect that group to also include 2-3 of our best players going into their senior seasons who will have NIL decisions to make.

I don’t expect actual answers here, we’ll know soon enough, but just speculating on who some likely targets will be.

If we’re thinking we lose a couple of our best players, that will be seniors, I’d say a short list of possibilities would be:

Simeon Woodard
Grebe
Danny U
Reimer
Wehr
Valdez

I’d consider those our best, biggest contributors that will be seniors next year.
I’d hate to lose any of those guys, but reality is we likely do.

Davis and Hall will be seniors also and are huge contributors, but I’d be surprised if they turned around and left again after one year of being here and having great seasons.

*Edit: don’t want to leave out Tommy, he’s obviously as important as any of them, but between being such a MT guy and the now unknown injury/recovery status, I’d be very surprised if he was one to leave as well.
*Edit 2: Ortt is a top contributor entering his senior year as well. I’d be surprised to see him leave being a MT kid, but he belongs on my short list.