Washington State head coach alleges tampering in transfer portal, NIL: ‘It’s stunning’

The new world of college athletics has its benefits and its downsides. 

The name, image, likeness (NIL) era and the introduction of the transfer portal in college sports have led to unprecedented movement by college athletes. 

No sport has experienced more movement than college football, with over 2,300 players entering their names into the transfer portal following the 2022 season, according to On3 Sports.

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With players now able to profit from their success, decisions on where to play are at least partly coming down to which university can provide opportunities to make the most money. 

But Washington State head coach Jake Dickert says not everyone is playing by the rules. 

“There’s more tampering going on than you could ever imagine,” Dickert said. “We’ve had guys contact our players’ parents. We had a coach from another school contact one of our players and offer him NIL. A coach. 

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“So, there’s more things going on behind the scenes that you can’t even imagine. You can’t even imagine the things that are happening to try and pry our players away from this place.” 

Recruiting players before their names have been entered into the transfer portal is not allowed.

“An athletics staff member or other representative of the institution’s athletics interests shall not make contact with the student-athlete of another NCAA Division I institution, directly or indirectly, without first obtaining authorization through the notification of transfer process,” the NCAA states. 

But Dickert says tampering is occurring, questioning who is in charge of regulating the new world of college athletics. 

“It’s stunning. It’s amazing,” Dickert said. “It’s the new thing that I guess comes with this portal transformation. But it’s not right. And who’s going to regulate it? Who’s regulating this stuff?

“There’s challenges that we’re facing that obviously we are extremely disappointed with — with what other teams and other programs and the collectives maybe acting on their own behalf. But to try to get to our players’ parents and offering money and opportunity, it’s unacceptable to me.” 

Washington State has had 12 players enter the transfer portal since the end of the season, according to The Seattle Times.