Josh Pate wants transfer portal rules to "incentivize" staying but not end up "punishing" leaving
Josh Pate has criticized the NCAA transfer portal system on X. On Friday, he posted a video on his YouTube channel reacting to ESPN's Scott Van Pelt's sharing his issues with the NCAA, allowing college basketball players to leave their team before the March Madness men's and women's basketball tournament.
Pate and Van Pelt agreed that the transfer portal system should be fixed. In his reaction video, the podcast host called the NCAA rules for how a player can leave for another team every season "stupid." Pate also pointed out in his reaction video that over 2,600 college football players have left their team in the 2024 season.
He tweeted a snippet of the reaction on X. A fan replied that he believes the NCAA should only allow players to transfer once in their career. Pate responded that he wanted the NCAA to help incentivize players to stay with a program rather than punish them.
"I'm more interested in building a structure that incentivizes staying instead of one that punishes leaving," Pate tweeted.
Another fan called for the NCAA to prevent players from competing for a year if they want to transfer out.
A fan wrote: "Start by regulating NIL with a cap and forcing transfers to sit for a year... really not that hard to come up with a base for improvement. Also get more media players involved."
The college football insider disagreed and said they should incentivize players to stay because they can profit from revenue-sharing.
"Nobody needs to sit out for a year - they just need to know they're guaranteed to earn more via rev sharing the longer they remain in the same program at that point it's up to them," Pate wrote.
Key players that entered the transfer portal during the 2024 college football season
Several noteworthy players have switched teams following the 2024 season. One of the players that shocked fans by entering the transfer portal was Carson Beck. Last year, he completed 290 passes for 3,485 yards and 28 touchdowns in his fourth season with the Georgia Bulldogs.
Beck was expected to enter the 2025 NFL draft. However, he left Georgia to sign with the Miami Hurricanes for the 2025 season to finish his final year of eligibility.
Another key player in the league who signed with a new team is linebacker Marques Watson-Trent. He placed 14th in the league in tackles last season with 120 total tackles (52 solo), 1.5 sacks and four forced fumbles. Watson-Trent decided to transfer out of Georgia Southern Eagles to join the Nebraska Cornhuskers for the upcoming season.
Several teams could see other players join or leave as the spring window for the transfer portal will open from April 16 to 25.