2026 Transfer Portal Chaos/Madness Thread

Texas Hawk 10

@approxinfinity said in 2026 Transfer Portal Chaos/Madness Thread:

There's a consistent theme here. Bill Self is sawft.

What would the roster and staff have looked like if this hadn't happened? https://kualumni.org/news/kansas-signs-mens-basketball-head-coach-bill-self-to-lifetime-contract/

Do we still win a championship in 2022?

Should you ever give a coach a lifetime contract in NIL era? Does this undermine natural tension and accountability? Expectations dont change.

Mike Krzyzewski signed a "lifetime" contract with Duke University on November 14, 2001 immediately after winning a title, and then won in 2015 ~~and 2021~~. Not all coaches can get 10 McD AAs every year and the Dukie whistle. So, thats anomolous.

As of March 2026, there are only 2? lifetime ie rolling year-to-year-contracts in college basketball: Bill Self (Kansas) and Rick Barnes (Tennessee). Barnes signed his in 2025.

Duke didn't win in 2021, Baylor did. Duke didn't even make the NCAA Tournament in 2021.

Texas Hawk 10

@approxinfinity said in 2026 Transfer Portal Chaos/Madness Thread:

@rockchalkjayhawk you said it well.

The big unknown factor to me is locker room demeanor. Work ethic. Team identity. This year we had a kid who wasnt a leader getting paid the most. Scorer, good kid, smart. DP was all these things but not a leader. Probably will be with time and if he is graced with good health.

I think Flory could be a leader next year. Lets make sure we at least have our highest paid guys be leaders.

Highest paid players don't have to be the leader of a team. It doesn't even have to be the best player that's the leader of a team. Using the NBA as an example, there's a reason why Nick Collison was kept around by the Thunder for so many years and retired his jersey. Same thing with Udonis Haslam and the Miami Heat. Those two were never the best players on those teams, but they were the leaders.

The ideal leadership situation for Kansas next year is the slim possibility of Melvin Council getting one more year of eligibility.

nuleafjhawk

@HoraceZontal What if law enforcement/ firefighters/ EMT's were paid like athletes? Oh wait.....sports is way more important than that foolishness.

approxinfinity

@Texas-Hawk-10 Nick Collison won zero rings as a player. This supports my theory.

approxinfinity

@Texas-Hawk-10 lol. Ive been hallucinated upon in 2021. Thanks.

approxinfinity

As far as Haslem, I'd say Lebron was one of the leaders as well, barking orders at Mario and doing his talcum powder thing. Things people accept because you're the best player on the team.

BShark

Zoom Diallo is interesting.

HoraceZontal

@nuleafjhawk yup. Exactly. Or teachers and journalists (real ones)

crimsonblu22

@BShark his first name is zoom?

rockchalkjayhawk

Not trying to bring politics to the thread, but El Jefe has issued an executive order to regulate college sports.

It includes a one time transfer rule. A second attempt requires the player to sit out a year.

I’m gonna guess most college sports fans really dislike the yearly free agency and wouldn’t mind seeing the executive order stick.

(I can make this a separate thread if anybody cares to weigh in)

BShark

@crimsonblu22 Yes we recruited him out of highschool and Tony Bland recruited him to Washington. Pretty good player. Kind of like a deluxe version of Council.

BShark

@rockchalkjayhawk said in 2026 Transfer Portal Chaos/Madness Thread:

Not trying to bring politics to the thread, but El Jefe has issued an executive order to regulate college sports.

It includes a one time transfer rule. A second attempt requires the player to sit out a year.

I’m gonna guess most college sports fans really dislike the yearly free agency and wouldn’t mind seeing the executive order stick.

(I can make this a separate thread if anybody cares to weigh in)

I read some stuff that said it will basically amount to nothing and is completely unenforceable. It is just showing Congress what the NCAA and others want in a federal bill by using Trump as a proxy.

rockchalkjayhawk

Yea, much of it already shot down in previous court battles.

But the “stick” is the threat to pull federal funding from schools.

But it does sound like an attempt to get NCAA leaders to rethink their sh*t.

Jayhawk_69

@rockchalkjayhawk I will not make any comments (as of yet) about my opinions about our current political state of affairs. But I am in favor of this bill.

mayjay

@Jayhawk_69 There is no bill, only the executive orders. As is his custom, President Trump is attempting to create another wide swath of executive authority by fiat rather than by making a legislative proposal to Congress. He cannot revise antitrust law by executive order, nor can he demand concessions by funding cutoffs not related to the authorizations creating those funds. He can try, but courts are curtailing his reach in doing so right and left. As with the law firms who capitulated, some schools will try to voluntarily impose these limits on their students but there is no hope that courts will not continue to find liability. An EA is no defense. More likely, schools will realize they face legal substantial liability if they comply and will sue to enjoin enforcement by DOJ. Bottom line, the president cannot compel people to break numerous laws.

BShark

https://x.com/thefieldof68/status/2040848178342150451

My first portal obsession. This guy REBOUND. This guy winner.

Texas Hawk 10

@approxinfinity said in 2026 Transfer Portal Chaos/Madness Thread:

As far as Haslem, I'd say Lebron was one of the leaders as well, barking orders at Mario and doing his talcum powder thing. Things people accept because you're the best player on the team.

You're only focusing on what you see on the court. Team and franchise leadership also includes practices and off court stuff that the general public never sees. Guys like Collison and Haslem didn't spend their entire careers including many as DNP's for no reason. There's a reason why despite not being star players, each franchise retired their numbers. That doesn't happen without those guys being viewed as franchise leaders for many years.

approxinfinity

@Texas-Hawk-10 alright. We have bifurcated the original point here. You make compelling arguments about Haslem and Collison being team leaders. And honesty, a positive team culture should be something we as fans value more than we do. We tend to focus on rings and devalue the more human side of professional sports.

However, if we are talking about rings, I would stick by my assertion (and maybe frame it a little better) that if we are so lucky, our most talented players being leaders is a recipe for success. Especially when dealing with a more limited budget and with younger players in the mix, like in college.

I believe you would be hard pressed to find championship teams in ncaa that didnt have top guys who gravitated toward the microphone. Im talking about the kind of leader that leads you into battle but if the troops cant do it, they do it themselves. Thats the kind of guy that takes the pressure off and whose presence gets the most out of everyone else. In that St johns game, melvin was 6-15, Darryn was 5-15 and Tiller and White were non existant. Flory was 6-9. Zuby was 6-14 to put things in perspective, but got the job done down the stretch. Didnt feel like 6-14.

That 6-9 from Flory is tantalizing. Could that have been 9-13?

kjayhawks2.0

@HoraceZontal said in 2026 Transfer Portal Chaos/Madness Thread:

@nuleafjhawk yup. Exactly. Or teachers and journalists (real ones)

Are there real journalists anymore? Asking for a friend lol

kjayhawks2.0

So Michigan had a starting five of transfer all older guys, one was 25. Does that change a little bit how people recruit? I hate agree with Cal but if similar keeps happening HS kids will suffer because teams will stop spending the time and the money on them. I could honestly see it turning the lower tier teams in CBB to a minor league. It already had in some cases.