Sports

How is college football trying to rein in ‘wild West’ of transfers? Make players pay to leave

Published

9 months ago

March 15, 2025

How is college football trying to rein in ‘wild West’ of transfers? Make players pay to leave

For four years, college coaches and administrators have lamented the “wild, wild West” nature of the transfer portal, with athletes hopping from school to school in search of more money, more playing time or a better fit. Now, some universities are invoking a new threat to keep their players: Leave, and you’ll owe us money.

Programs are chasing that kind of leverage under the assumption that they will soon be in a position to directly sign athletes to NIL deals without having to depend on outside collectives or individual donors to make arrangements. They would gain that ability with the landmark House v. NCAA settlement, which would permit schools to share as much as $20.5 million in revenue with their athletes in the next school year if the settlement is approved by a federal judge in California. A hearing is scheduled for April 7.

Many schools during the recent winter portal cycle used that anticipated revenue to make school-funded NIL deals that would go into effect only if the House settlement is approved. The Athletic reviewed redacted copies or was briefed on the terms of several Power 4 schools’ proposed or finalized contracts, which were shared on the condition of anonymity due to the private nature of the contracts.

While there is no such thing as a standardized NIL contract, all contained language intended to deter the player from entering the portal.

“You’re seeing some stuff similar to coaching contracts with the buyout language in there,” said agent Joe Hernandez of Just Win Management Group. “Which is something that you wouldn’t really see in an NFL player-team contract.”

One Big 12 school required the athlete to pay a buyout equal to 50 percent of his remaining compensation if he transferred before the end of the deal’s term. An ACC school required the athlete to pay back 100 percent of his earnings if he transferred before Jan. 31, 2026.

One Big Ten player’s contract, based on a suggested template the conference sent to all of its members, requires the athlete to pay liquidated damages in the event he transfers. Another defers two-thirds of the athlete’s payments for the coming season until the end of January — after the winter portal window closes.

“They can’t stop players from moving from school to school,” said NIL attorney Mit Winter. “But the buyout clause is an attempt to limit that by making the player have to pay back money to the school if they want to get out of that contract.”

Shane Burnham, a former FBS defensive line coach who is now director of football for Ascension Sports Consulting, said he recently reviewed the contract of a player who signed with an ACC school in January. The deal included a clause where the player would have to forfeit 50 percent of the money he’d received if he entered the portal in April.

“It’s predatory what these schools are doing,” Burnham said.

Industry sources say the practice did not become prevalent until the most recent transfer portal cycle, when programs’ general managers began negotiating NIL contracts directly. In the past, schools were more mindful of maintaining separation between the school and an outside collective, but that’s gone by the wayside with the advent of revenue sharing.

“There’s just so much money,” said Walker Jones, executive director of The Grove Collective, which supports Ole Miss. “It got to the point where collectives and schools felt they had to be protected.”

It remains to be seen whether that protection is realistic.

Wisconsin set the tone for this new era in January when it refused to enter cornerback Xavier Lucas’ name into the transfer portal after Lucas had signed a two-year NIL deal. Lucas still left the program and enrolled at Miami, which Wisconsin subsequently accused of tampering with Lucas.

“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,” Wisconsin said in a statement, which also hinted at potential legal action. “Under the terms of the agreement between Xavier and Wisconsin Athletics, it remains in effect and enforceable.”

The schools are asserting that these contracts are licensing agreements that don’t make the athletes employees, echoing a red line for the NCAA and universities. They also say that the payments are not for athletes to attend the university or to play for it, even as they try to disincentivize players from leaving.

Several figures interviewed for this story speculated or assumed that schools that sign transfers, rather than the players themselves, would be expected to pick up the tab for a buyout.

“It’s basically a carbon copy of what happens with coaches,” said Winter. “They all have employment contracts that say, ‘You can’t coach anywhere else, but if you want to break the contract, here’s what you have to pay.’ And it’s almost always the new school that pays the buyout.”

In interviews with several athletic directors, football general managers and lawyers, all sounded skeptical that the buyout provisions concerning transferring could actually be enforced.

“Our preference wouldn’t be to be the first school to have to take a kid to court to chase down your $25,000 or $50,000,” said an ACC football administrator. “But … the student-athlete would be aware that, ‘Hey, I signed this contract and if I go in the portal, there’s a chance I might owe this money back.’”

“Theoretically, this kid isn’t getting paid to play still,” said a Big 12 general manager whose program did not include a buyout, “so when push comes to shove, if it gets litigated, you’re not going to win that. Now, I see the advantage of potentially using it as a scare tactic to keep players. They don’t know better. But the second any agent gets involved, they’ll just bypass it.”

“The first team that sues a kid — I’d like to see their next recruiting class,” said a second Big 12 GM.

Three agents told The Athletic they’ve insisted the buyouts be removed or reduced from their clients’ deals. However, many players do not have agents and may be unaware that this is a possibility.

Winter said schools need to be careful not to insist on such a high buyout that it might be deemed a penalty, which a court would not enforce, rather than a reasonable estimate of damages.

Meanwhile, it’s believed that most schools’ NIL contracts this cycle were only one-year deals. (Star quarterbacks may be a notable exception.) If there are buyout clauses, the remaining payments owed might be minimal. Multi-year contracts would make the buyouts more prohibitive and, in theory, decrease roster attrition. But as tempting as it may sound to lock down players, in reality, schools may want their own roster flexibility.

“If there’s a buyout, it’s usually both ways,” said the first Big 12 GM. “So it would limit our freedom to just cut the kid if he doesn’t turn out to be good.”

Which would be especially pronounced at a school with a coaching change. A new football hire will invariably want to bring in “his guys,” but may be stuck with some well-paid underperformers who know they won’t make more elsewhere.

After four years of seemingly never-ending chaos and relentless legal challenges, NCAA president Charlie Baker and others have been hoping the House settlement will bring much-needed stability to the NIL space. Collectives are not likely to disappear — if anything, they may help programs spend more than $20.5 million — but the Power 4 conferences have enlisted Deloitte to serve as a clearinghouse for all deals above $600.

As it pertains to transfers, though, any sense of order does not feel imminent.

“I’m not sure my expectation is that the current revenue sharing contracts will change the (transfer) flow,” said Nebraska AD Troy Dannen. “It hasn’t shown to be that way yet.”

— The Athletic’s Jesse Temple contributed to this report.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Alex Slitz / Getty Images, AP Photo / Michael Conroy)

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Sports

Lindsey Vonn qualifies for fifth Winter Olympics

Published

4 minutes ago

December 23, 2025

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Lindsey Vonn qualifies for fifth Winter Olympics

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As Philip Rivers has shown he could still tear up the NFL at age 44, American Olympic legend Lindsey Vonn has also proven that age is just a number.

Vonn, 41, qualified for the 2026 Milan Cortina Games, Team USA announced on Tuesday. It will be the fifth Winter Olympics that she competes in.

United States’ Lindsey Vonn reacts at the finish area of an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in Val D’Isere, France, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

Vonn had an impressive run at the World Cup in France over the weekend. She was third in super-G, hitting a high speed of 71 mph. It was her second consecutive podium finish after she was third in downhill. It was the 142nd podium finish in her World Cup career.

“I am honored to be able to represent my country one more time, in my 5th and final Olympics!” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “When I made the decision to return to ski racing, I always had one eye on Cortina because it’s a place that is very, very special to me. Although I can’t guarantee any outcomes, I can guarantee that I will give my absolute best every time l kick out of the starting gate. No matter how these games end up, I feel like I’ve already won.

US OLYMPIANS MADISON CHOCK, EVAN BATES SEND MESSAGE TO OPPONENT WHO TOOK THEIR GOLD BEFORE DISQUALIFICATION

United States’ Lindsey Vonn celebrates on the podium after taking third place in an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, in Val D’Isere, France, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

“I am grateful for how the season has gone so far, but I am just getting started. See you in Cortina!”

Vonn has already put together an enviable career in skiing.

She won a gold medal in the 2010 Vancouver Games and two bronze medals in Pyeongchang in 2018. She’s also taken home two gold, three silver and two bronze medals in the World Championships.

The Minnesota native also has 83 World Cup wins and several International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) Crystal Globes.

Notably, she’s back competing for gold after being away from the sport for five years.

Austria’s Cornelia Huetter, left, winner of an alpine ski, women’s World Cup downhill, celebrates on the podium with second-placed Germany’s Kira Weidle Winkelmann, left, and third-placed United States’ Lindsey Vonn, in Val D’Isere, France, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/Pier Marco Tacca)

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The Winter Olympics will begin on Feb. 6 and run through Feb. 22.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.

Sports

Nearly a century ago, the first World Cup went off with many hitches

Published

46 minutes ago

December 23, 2025

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Nearly a century ago, the first World Cup went off with many hitches

Next summer’s World Cup will be the largest, most complex and most lucrative sporting event in history, with 48 teams playing 104 games in three countries. The tournament is expected to draw a global TV audience of nearly 5 billion and FIFA, the event’s organizer, is hoping for revenues of between $10 billion-$14 billion — which is why lower-bowl tickets for Iran-New Zealand at SoFi Stadium cost nearly $700.

All that seemed unlikely after the first tournament in 1930, when the idea of a soccer World Cup was nearly killed in the cradle, the victim from lack of planning, lack of money and lack of interest. That the competition survived, much less thrived, is nothing short of a miracle, says English writer and podcaster Jonathan Wilson, author of the deeply researched “The Power and Glory: The History of the World Cup.”

“1930, it’s incredibly amateurish in many ways,” Wilson said. “It’s got that sort of almost like a school sports day feel to it.”

Only 13 countries took part in the first tournament; it was supposed to be 16 but the Egyptian team missed its boat to Uruguay while Japan and Siam (now Thailand) couldn’t afford the travel costs and pulled out. England, meanwhile, not only refused to play, but the British press ignored the event, as did much of Europe.

That seemed like a wise decision at the time since the first two matches of the inaugural tournament were affected by snow, with one of the opening games drawing just 4,444 fans. The smallest crowd in World Cup history, estimated at about 300, showed up for another first-round game between Romania and Peru and the TV audience … well, there was none since TV had yet to be invented.

The officiating was beyond suspect — Romania’s manager, Constantin Radulescu, also worked two games as a linesman — and the U.S. trainer, Jack Coll, had to be stretchered off the field during his team’s semifinal — yes, the U.S. made the semifinals! — with Argentina when he lost consciousness after inhaling the fumes from a bottle of chloroform that shattered in his pocket.

In another game, the penalty spots were mistakenly marked 16 yards from goal instead of the regulation 12 — and nobody noticed.

“Some of the details don’t make sense,” Wilson said. “The whole thing is so sort of low grade compared to today.”

When Argentine captain Nolo Ferreira left the tournament and returned home to take his law exams his replacement, Guillermo Stábile, scored a tournament-high eight goals in four games — then never played for the national team again (although he did coach it, leading the La Albiceleste to six South American titles and the 1958 World Cup).

Given the farcical nature of the 1930 World Cup, the tournament probably should have ended right there. Instead, 1930 has become the foundation on which next year’s competition was built.

The origins of the tournament, however, actually make sense. Before 1930, FIFA recognized the winner of the Olympic competition as the world champion. But that event was for amateurs, a point on which the International Olympic Committee would not budge.

With professional soccer growing in popularity, FIFA decided to stage its own breakaway event and play it in Uruguay, the country that had won the last two Olympic titles.

Argentina’s goalkeeper can’t stop a shot by Uruguay during the 1930 World Cup final against Argentina in Montevideo, Uruguay.

(Associated Press)

That quickly proved to be a big mistake. The growing effects of the Great Depression left many countries unable to afford the long, slow steamship trip to South America. The first tournament was open to any country that wanted to play, yet two months before the first game no European teams had agreed to come.

“It was taken very seriously by Uruguay and Argentina,” Wilson said, but not by many others.

That changed shortly after Romania’s King Carol II, who ascended to the throne in a coup that deposed his son, personally selected his country’s World Cup roster and sent it on its way. France quickly agreed to go too, entering a makeshift team under pressure from FIFA president Jules Rimet, a Frenchman. Belgium also buckled under FIFA pressure and all three teams boarded the same ship for the trip to Uruguay, working out together on the 15-day voyage aboard the SS Conte Verde, an Italian ocean liner.

“Even the four European nations who go it’s not entirely clear how seriously they took it,” Wilson said. “The French and Romanians, they kept diaries. They seem to have regarded this as a laugh. We’ll try to win but it doesn’t really matter.”

Things didn’t really get loony until the tournament began. The Bolivian team, for example, played in berets, as did an Argentine midfielder, while the 15 referees who worked the games, some of whom had traveled and socialized with the players on the long boat ride from Europe, dressed formally in knickers, long-sleeve shirts, blazers and ties.

The well-dressed officials spent much of the tournament working with police to break up fights; play was so violent at least two players sustained broken legs and the U.S.-Argentina semifinal descended into a full-out brawl, with one American having four teeth knocked out and another hospitalized with injuries to his stomach.

The tournament finally finished with the hosts beating Argentina 4-2, after which the Argentines broke off diplomatic relations with their neighbor and an angry mob in Buenos Aires stoned the Uruguayan embassy.

Uraguay's team before the 1930 World Cup final against Argentina.

Argentina's soccer team before preparing for the 1930 World Cup final.

“It ended,” Wilson said of the tournament, “with everybody sort of fighting each other.”

Few disagreed with the Argentine magazine El Gráfico, which seemed to predict there was little future for the fledgling event. “The World Cup is over,” it wrote. “The development of this competition brought not only an unpleasant atmosphere, but also an ungrateful one.”

Yet nearly a century later, the World Cup is still here. And that, too, was foretold in 1930 in the story of Romanian midfielder Alfred Eisenbeisser (who was also known as Fredi Fieraru because, why not?).

On the journey home from the first World Cup, Eisenbeisser contracted pneumonia and a priest was called to administer the last rites. The ship eventually docked in Genoa and he was taken to a sanatorium while the rest of the team continued on to Romania.

Assuming her son had perished in Italy, Eisenbeisser’s mother arranged a wake — only to have her son stroll into the ceremony very much alive, causing the woman to faint. Eisenbeisser would play 12 more years of professional soccer and compete in figure skating in the 1936 Winter Olympics, where he finished 13th in the pairs competition.

Turns out the reports of Eisenbeisser’s demise, like those of the World Cup, were greatly exaggerated.

⚽ You have read the latest installment of On Soccer with Kevin Baxter. The weekly column takes you behind the scenes and shines a spotlight on unique stories. Listen to Baxter on this week’s episode of the “Corner of the Galaxy” podcast.

Sports

Philip Rivers delivers vintage first half performance for Colts, delighting NFL fans

Published

12 hours ago

December 22, 2025

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Philip Rivers delivers vintage first half performance for Colts, delighting NFL fans

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Philip Rivers’ return to the NFL has many former quarterbacks over the age of 40 wondering if they could turn back the clock and perform at a similarly high level.

If anything, they should at least take note of what Rivers did in the first half for the Indianapolis Colts against the San Francisco 49ers.

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) passes as San Francisco 49ers defensive lineman Keion White (56) applies pressure during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

The Pro Football Hall of Fame Class of 2026 semifinalist put on a vintage performance in the first half against the 49ers, delighting NFL fans who tuned into the game on Monday night.

He started the night coming out to cheers from Colts fans at Lucas Oil Stadium – his family also in attendance. The Colts went nine plays, 72 yards and Rivers found wide receiver Alec Pierce for a 20-yard touchdown. Indianapolis jumped out to a 7-0 lead.

NFL SUSPENDS STEELERS’ DK METCALF FOR 2 GAMES AFTER ALTERCATION WITH LIONS FAN

Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers (17) passes against the San Francisco 49ers during the first half of an NFL football game, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/AJ Mast)

San Francisco scored on back-to-back drives thanks to Brock Purdy hooking up with Demarcus Robinson, the special teams forcing a turnover, and then Purdy throwing a touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey. When Rivers got the ball back, he drove down the field again.

The Colts scored on a 16-yard touchdown pass from Rivers to Pierce to end a 12-play, 66-yard drive. The game was tied with a lot of time to go in the first half.

Indianapolis trailed 24-17 at the half. But the attention was on Rivers.

He was 14-of-21 with 175 passing yards and two touchdown passes. The last time he threw multiple touchdown passes in the regular season was on Dec. 20, 2020, against the Houston Texans.

Rivers came back to the Colts last week at the age of 44. He had a solid performance against the Seattle Seahawks for someone who hadn’t thrown a ball in nearly five years.

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Now, the Colts’ playoff hopes rest on his shoulders.

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Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.