Are college basketball bluebloods endangered in today's NIL, transfer portal world?
Bluebloods are already an endangered species in this NCAA Tournament – and we’re only halfway through round one.
Fourteen-seeded Oakland’s jaw-dropping upset over third-seeded Kentucky left Big Blue Nation gobsmacked, underscoring tradition-rich schools’ diminished dominance in the NIL and transfer portal era.
In college sports’ new world, is the basketball blueblood era over?
One prominent former coach, Jay Wright, says we can indeed close the book on the sport’s blueblood chapter, and here’s why:
In the past, Wright said recently, a freshman at a school like Kansas might not play a lot and realize as a sophomore, “I still might not play, but if I transfer I’ve got to sit out a year. I’m in a great program, so I’ll just stay at Kansas.”
“Next thing you know he’s a junior and is a superstar,” Wright told USA Today. “That same player now, as a sophomore, can go to TCU, play in the same conference, and be a sophomore outstanding player. Stays at TCU as a junior. Next thing you know, they’ve got the same talent that Kansas does. So, the transfer portal and NIL have really made it possible for anybody to invest enough to be a blueblood.”
NIL, transfer portal reshaped college basketball
On the heels of Oakland’s 40-year coach Greg Kampe engineering the biggest win in school history over Kentucky – now 1-4 in its last five NCAA tournament games – this much is crystal clear: NIL and the portal have flattened the competitive landscape.
This year’s men’s NCAA tournament included four undisputed traditional bluebloods: Kentucky, Kansas, Duke and North Carolina. And considering their victory in the heavily watched 1979 national title game and coach Tom Izzo’s decades-long run of excellence, it’s fair to welcome Michigan State into that exclusive fraternity as well.
Make no mistake, these are unsettling times for several bluebloods. UCLA and Indiana did not even approach the NCAA Tournament bubble.
This has been an atypical year for Kansas and Michigan State, two underwhelming teams that were ranked in the top five of the Associated Press preseason Top 25.
For fourth-seeded Kansas, the absence of injured leading scorer Kevin McCullar in the tournament has only exacerbated the team’s alarming lack of depth. By no means is this a vintage Kansas team, whose defeat of 13th-seeded Samford did little to alter their long-term prospects in this tournament.
High-profile Michigan transfer Hunter Dickinson received what was viewed as a lucrative Roster Value financial package when he arrived in Lawrence. Whether investing so much in one player left the bench too thin will continue to be popular fodder on Kansas City sports talk radio.
Despite ninth-seeded Michigan State’s first-round victory Thursday, it will be a daunting task for Izzo, long hailed as Mr. March, to orchestrate another Sweet 16 run.
“It was an old-school win for us,” Izzo said.
Get to know college basketball’s newbloods
But bluebloods are now navigating a new-school NIL/portal world.
North Carolina encountered no turbulence Thursday. Duke plays today. Yet, their collective success is no longer the near certainty that it appeared to be a generation ago.
This tournament may well be a UConn coronation. But don’t count the five-time national champs as a blueblood. Jim Calhoun built the program from a scrap heap beginning in 1986 and didn’t reach his first Final Four until 1999.
The Huskies, seeking to be the first repeat national champions since Florida in 206-07, are a newblood. And given that traditional bluebloods are an endangered species in the new NIL/portal landscape, more newbloods could soon be all the rage.