Couldn't disagree more with statements on this video that somehow the transfer portal is so bad and statement that a coach isn't good if they take program like SMU to top 10 by getting a team with transfers to play well to beat the two top teams in the country I can't stand the arrogance and ignorance of saying that a player can't have the freedom to play where they want without penalty. To say players can't get as much money as they can or unfair to get NIL or make more than just the scholarship is stupid. The judgmental arrogance is ridiculous of saying if a player leaves for a better experience is somehow bad. Go ask the players at Penn State or Texas that transferred if they didn't work hard as a team to achieve their championships Just look at Merrit Beason who developed a ton. Or the two players at Penn state that transferred from Nebraska and developed way more in playing and winning a championship. than never playing on Nebraska. Kennedy Orr made a choice but also sacrificed becoming a good setters, which is fine for her but major of players want to play and that's not wrong Coaches and other older adults leave jobs and schools for better opportunities every year and that's good. John Cook Wisconsin for Nebraska and worked out great for all involved, not that he wasn't loyal or couldn't handle adversity Couldn't not disagree more with the old time thinking and arrogance in the video in telling people what is best for them

Why Stanford's not picking up any players in the transfer portal?

Wow , great call out on the Deley situation, not making SemiFinals list but then makes the Finalists list??!!!! WHAT?

you realy know grace lopez? she has been making more than 20 points agains national teams! she literally was the star of PR last season. She coul be one of the best but she have bad relationship with the dominican szetter

I actually was in agreement with your picks. I love that you went with Melanie Parra. I think she's a really neat player, and I was so bummed her team wasn't able to go further.

it looks so smooth when u do it

I'm happy for all the women at San Jose for saying adios to their rotten coach. She did those girls dirty and will have face to consequences.

I don’t like this loyalty thing…these college programs don’t have loyalty to the athletes, and will replace them a second. I didn’t like how you kept insinuating that these portal athletes have this idea they are better than their team. This discourse is problematic as you have bo idea what their thought process or experience was in their respective programs. Also, to literally say that a player is not a big ten player and will struggle blah blah blah, wtf? Major hateraide

Hot takes?

Loving this podcast.

Thank you to Sarah for saying it. A lot of coaches want easy fixes, the transfer portals is one of the examples for players to cop out thinking the grass is greener on the other side, and these coaches snatch up these players only for a season or two. That is not building a program from the ground up. And players without any loyalties, with the "I'm better than this program" attitude.

I was a fan of your show until you bring up the entire San Jose ST business and then fail to address the impact of having a man on a woman's VB team. You want to share a locker room with a dude? Destroy an entire program for one to live out a fantasy. Trying to be PC? OK. Maybe I'll try to watch again next year. GBR☠️☠️☠️☠️🌽🌽🌽🌽

Y’all are awesome

Wow you bozos not try to show Texas no love

And alot of these players in US Leagues have families and jobs

Where can we see the NCAA Volleyball transfer portal?

We can’t forget Kennadi Orr was the number recruit in her class and to think she never started her whole career and when given access to transfer she chose to stay loyal, that speaks volumes

I wonder if in your next episode if you guys are going to talk about the Stafford transfer. So disappointing

Who's watching in 2025? Hahah. Btw, this season is beautiful in a way that it tells us that we should wait for our time to shine. That we should patiently wait and work harder to get our goals. I'm rewatching together with you Sarah🫶🏻

Jess Murzik is so incredibly underrated even with everything she's done late on this season :-/

Also, loyalty, to me, is such an odd place to put the conversation when the adults in culture are the ones screaming that winning abd wealth are the only supreme values. It isnt the student that changed. Everyone else in the system has been rewarded for disloyalty and exploitation. Those must not be the problems, they seem to be the rules. What i am curious about is how many schools will go bankrupt trying to win, and how many more young people are going to have to sue in order to be paid.

First off, Sarah, your agent should go looking for endorsements in Nebraska. Regardless of missing out on NIL during your days, your name imagine and likeness would def still sell, and... You could probably get a LOVB contract, couldnt you? Loved the player lists, question on libero: I've seen both Scott and Rodriguez and agree on the points - ES was a setter until college - but I'm wondering about the relationship with blocking - both Nebraska and Louisville are statistically good blocking teams - which do you feel makes their block better? Or which would you prefer to block in front of?

I really get how the portal sucks from the point of view of program-building and skill-building. It maybe sucks for fans who see promising teams blown up. But from the player's standpoint it's kind of exciting. Especially for these world-class players. Why not spend a year in John Cook's program and, if you don't see a future there, see what you can do at Penn State? Or take a degree from Kentucky and then go earn a master's somewhere else while playing on a championship team? After graduation volleyball is very much a year-to-year thing. Maybe you can play for US national sometimes, or you play in Italy for a different team every year. It's a hard life but it's a very exciting life for a young person. And then by your mid-20s (maybe earlier) it's over and maybe you're coaching (which is also an itinerant life). And now thanks to NIL you may be able to make a little bit of money. For top players I don't see a lot of downside. Plus, players who want to spend 4 years at one place and have the traditional college experience can do that. All the portal means is, if they don't want to spend 4 years at the same place, they're no longer required to do so.

I feel for the san jose athlete and program

Wasn’t there a true freshman match up in the nattys last year with Bergen and ella swindle?

The transfer portal is chaotic, no thanks to the NCAA. Im hopeful when the Big10 & SEC take control of college athletics. Possibly in 5 to 7 years, according to insiders. THe P$ will still get the elite, near elite talent but we wont see players jumping to one team after their Fr season to only move again after their Jr or Sr year. I feel so sorry for the coaching staffs who have to spin their wheels and keep their heads on swivel , worrying if they are going to keep their recruiting classes. It is so difficult to establish culture.

Great conversation. Appreciate the honest dialogue.

Thoughts on Torrey stafford in the portal

no not true lol

Love the love for Parra! That girl carried that team, literally dragged them by her ponytail as they dug their heels in behind her… to the NCAA tournament….

I think Elnady has one more year left. She played in 2020/2021 but not 2021. So she has not used up her 5 years.

Another part of the transfer portal discussion is the impact of the new revenue-sharing model. Texas is a good example since they had 20 players on their roster last season with 5 graduate departures and 5 incoming freshmen. My guess is some of the players transferring out would have left anyway, but if not, some would have had to be asked to leave so Texas could be below the anticipated roster cap of 18 players under the new model. I think the roster cap partially explains why they've been quite as active in picking up new transfers (as well as their top incoming recruiting classes).

Texas is actually losing 10 players in total with 5 graduating seniors, and 5 players in the transfer but, are getting their best recruiting class in the country with 5 incoming freshmen

S: Starck(Really good high ball setter and great at handling tight passes, makes the right decisions in tough moments) L: Scott(Insane defense and best out of system sets) MB1: Jackson(Unreal attacking in the middle and good blocker) MB2: Colvin(One of the best blockers in the NCAA and pretty good attacker) OH1: DeBeer(Consistent all round outside and elevates the play of teammates, great under pressure) OH2: DeLeye(Highly physical hitter with a very strong serve, good passing and defense) RS: Martin(Just better than the other two options)

There are still a handful of players with Covid years left. The reason they still have another year is they played during the Covid spring season but then took a redshirt year (usually medical) during a different season. Examples off the top of my head are Landfair, Elnady, Kiara Reinhardt, Audrey Pak, and possibly PK from Louisville (I'm not certain on PK though). Players who used their redshirt year during the covid season did not get another season. By the way, Creighton does have a player transferring out (Audrey Clark) and they had 7 seniors graduate with only 2 incoming freshmen so I wasn't surprised to see them use the portal a little more this year.

I'm a Purdue alum. Raven and their libero Ali Hornung graduated. Eva and Chloe are chasing a ring. Remember that in '23 Purdue and Penn State had the exact same record and were eliminated in the round of 16. Purdue didn't get better, while Penn State shot past them and won the title. Don't want to be stuck on a good but not elite team. Purdue needs to get with the times, and not just with volleyball.

Actually I think the injury to DeBeer had more of a negative effect on Pitt than Louisville. I don’t know or can’t explain why but congratulations to Penn State!

Completely agree with the portal and the mercenary mentality of young athletes. I was amazed to see nearly entire squads leaving their commuted schools. But in this day and age, so many are worried about a brand over teammates. Curious who you think some up and comers are going to be in 2025? Lastly, Mauch or Cholboy getting the jersey next year? (If you had to pick today)

I`m curious Sarah, what do you study in college? In another more important things: It seems that the volley world in northamerica is shaking! Having new things comming, that is excited! I hope that that help the community!

I’m about 22 minutes in and it’s hard to listen to the analysis of player movement when that analysis completely ignores how much money is getting offered to the players AND how many players are told from the team that they want to move in a different direction. If we look at Nebraska, I don’t think Alley “chose”‘to enter the portal as much as she could see the writing on the wall, if they didn’t outright tell her, we are moving in another direction. Taylor got a big pay day. Maggie wanted to play basketball too. And Caroline, we’ll, they didn’t want to let her go; but they didn’t intend to play her this year either. Not sure PSU paid her last year, she had a family connection, but they probably gonna have to pay her now… Anyhow, all those players, each had a different situation, some money, some the teams decision, some the reality of competition. I don’t fault players on top teams (Alley) for saying, I’d rather play my final year than sit. I don’t fault players on mid teams (the Miami and Purdue types) who are competitors and say I want a chance to compete at the top against the top. 4 (or 6) years is fast. Most won’t play beyond college so this is their one shot to test themselves. All that aside, it’s money. And lots of it. Any analysis of player movement that doesn’t include how much money these deals are for is going to miss the point which I think is why the pod seems so perplexed by the player choices. Looking at Nebraska again, only one of the three starting pins for 2025 is on their roster now (Harps), no way they can roll with Skylar and Taylor in some combination of oppo and O2. Skylar won’t be ready to compete for a championship and Taylor showed her ceiling and it’s not enough. Nebraska too will have to go into the portal. Cook talked about the changing game after the Texas loss last year. The game changed with players getting paid. As for SMU, the coach wants 6 rotation players and wants to play a professional/international style. I applaud that; the college game is going to go that way in the next few years. It already is. Until more players enter the college ranks ready for it, SMU type schools will have to find it through the portal.

Also Lexi Rodriguez and Elena Scott are both phenomenal. I think Lexi is better reading the game and in serve receive. But I think Elena Scott is better in setting and athleticism

I wonder where Torrey Stafford will go, maybe Texas?? Since Texas lost Madi Skinner and Jenna Wenaas

People can complain all they want about the portal, but remember what it was like when athletes were locked into programs with tyrant coaches (Woody Hayes, Bear Bryant, Bobby Knight) and the NCAA forced athletes to sit out if they transferred.... and the transfer came only after the losing school agreed to release the player. Nick Saban used to sign too many players, on purpose, then sit the excess players, who had no recourse but to sit at Alabama and take it. How was that fair to the athletes? ... Maybe the pendulum has swung a little too far in the other direction, but that's just a natural correction from the former one-sided system.

I'm a Nebraska homer (full disclosure) but I like Sarah's pick a player segment--very good analysis--Para for sure.

Will the pro leagues going to pay more than college NIL.

On SJS would Sarah (or another women out there) or someone with a daughter want to shower with a trans women (man)?!

Penn State is good and all, but they got a gimme against Louisville without DeBeer.

My Squad: Izzy Starck: I agree with what Sarah had to say. There is also this grit and gusto to her that a quarterback needs. It’s a variable that you can’t state sadly but you can see it the way the team played around her. Elena Scott: I think Elena has a higher ceiling! She unlike the other two came into DI with no background in the role she ended up playing. I agree with Sarah I think she makes better adjustments in real time (I attribute that to her constant growers mindset being “new” to the role in comparison to the other two). Fours years is a lot of time don’t misunderstand me but nowhere near enough to tire someone out of their role and beginners mindset. Andi Jackson: Attitude and fire power unmatched no question! 🔥🔥🔥🔥 Bre Kelley: I agree with Sarah Melanie Para: My heart belongs to DeBeer but Sarah’s reason really made me rethink. So then I consider what the other two outsides would look like if they had to do 90% of the workload and I don’t see it being as successful. Para managed her load well, numbers were solid, and the added bonus of serve doesn’t hurt! Jess Murzik: I might be biased post tournament but she was the only outside he found her will to SWING when the team needed swings. She’s grinds, grit, a will to win (passing may not be as good) but when you don’t back down from set or game winning swings I’m all in! Kennedy Martin: The only oppo you mentioned that plays six rotations. I agree with Sarah no brainer.

I can't understand why anyone would have a problem with student-athletes making money, especially when they’re the ones driving the immense popularity and revenue of college sports. If some student-athletes are earning more than certain professional athletes, that’s simply a reflection of market demand. College sports, in many cases, are more popular and attract larger audiences than some professional leagues, so it’s logical that the athletes generating that interest are rewarded accordingly. On the transfer portal, the system shouldn’t prioritize institutional loyalty over student well-being. Coaches can leave for better opportunities all the time without facing the same scrutiny. Athletes deserve flexibility to find programs that fit their personal, academic, and athletic goals.