Is Deion Sanders ruining college football as we know it?
Sanders hasn’t been shy about using the transfer portal to overhaul his Colorado roster, but Pittsburgh coach Pat Narduzzi is calling foul.
“That’s not what the [transfer portal] rule intended to be,” Narduzzi told Brandon Marcello at ACC spring meetings. “It was not to overhaul your roster. We’ll see how it works out, but that, to me, looks bad on college football coaches across the country.”
Multiple reports suggest upwards of 70 players have left or been told to leave the Colorado Buffaloes program, with at least 34 new players coming in and counting.
Sanders has fueled this exodus since the moment he was introduced as the new head coach in December.
“So I want y’all to get ready to go ahead and jump in that portal and do whatever you’re gonna get because more of you jump in, the more room you make,” Sanders told his now mostly former players.
Narduzzi believes that this trend might not end at Sanders, though.
Which could be a tough-to-stomach trend in college football.
“The reflection is on one guy right now, but when you look at it overall — those kids that have moms and dads and brothers and sisters and goals in life — I don’t know how many of those 70 that left really wanted to leave or they were kicked in the butt to get out,” Narduzzi explained.
The sports business has always been cut-throat, but the transfer portal being used in this manner is seeing an uglier side manifest itself at the college level.
“When I got to Pitt back in 2015, I didn’t kick anybody off. Zero,” Narduzzi said. “Those are your guys. When you become a head coach, you inherit that team, and you coach that team. If someone wants to leave, that’s great. You don’t kick them out. I disagree with that whole process. That’s not why I got in the game.”