Transfer Portal 2026 + Other team movements
- Thread starter backdrft76-1
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I live near VT, but, am a PSU season ticket holder. My son-in-law is a VT guy. When he started piping up about Sir James this spring, I arranged all my PSU national championship t-shirts on my lawn. WVB, 82&86 football, and a load of wrestling shirts. When he came rolling in the driveway I said: “I wanted to show these to you because you’ve never seen one in Blacksburg.” He chuckled and tipped his cap!
The portal and NIL didn't drive PSU to their position. It helped OkieSt, but OkieSt has strong history. It has played a huge role in keeping Iowa relevant. Nebraska has benefited, but they too have a history. It seems to me the portal and NIL haven't changed the hierarchy much at all.
VATech is not amongst the elite until they step up and show it. All of the Hokie predictions of team greatness is premature. People are crowning them despite no history of greatness. Robie has a ton of talent, but he hasn't shown to date that he can accomplish great things with it.
you have Ohio State 7th?
and stanford 4th?
Knox, Valencia, Parco, Cardenas.... but if I put them head to head with VTech... can see them winning a dual and TBH feel like they struggle to place as many in the NCAAs
Wild for sure. It's been happening for a few years now but he's the first one I have seen it posted about
Caleb Henson, Vetresca, Gaj, Church, these guys have proven themselves. Bassett, Melvin, Mullen and more... these are legit additions..... even if they under perform slightly... we are still talking about a stout lineup from top to bottom. Nobody is crowning them champs but many are recognizing that they have a lineup which can compete for a spot between 3-7 this year and build from there. VTechs facilities are top notch, The portal helped them to bring Bassett from Iowa to Blacksburg- which brought melvin and more. and I 100% believe that had a lot to do with $$$$$$ so i think the protal and the NIL is causing the sand to shift beneath the feet of the NCAA landscape! JMO
For a non-national champion, in an NCAA sport that <1% of the adult population follows at all. Good for him for taking advantage, but what a freaking joke NIL has made collegiate sports.
Not sure but we have learned the NCAA isn't capable of stopping it
To kill the beast you have to remove the oxygen. These Universities seem to have deep pockets. Put caps on the NIL ... or put it into restricted funds for after graduation. Do something to prevent the instant gratification that is feeding the beast!
How does a once proud program like Edinboro or Clarion compete now. Look Cleveland State / Cal Baptist and more are folding. Northern Iowa, Ohio Univ, Kent State, Lock Haven= how can teams like this keep up?
IDK if the NCAA isnt capable of stopping it or just dont have the guts to stand up to the giant universities that are pumping the system dry
There are no answers, only compromises. I am pretty close to a free market absolutist; in theory, I am all for NIL. But, the overwhelming majority of college athletes have no "name, image, likeness value" at all, it's just pay-for-play from wealthy, jock-sniffing donors. I don't know what can be done outside of disassociating collegiate sports from the colleges (make them professional sports leagues), and the NCAA (and NFL, NBA) will never let that happen.
Merrill has to be making some serious money. I don't think any conventional bank is handing out mortgages to 19yr olds, with a single year of income history, whose income stream will almost assuredly be dead in 4yrs. Whatever property this is, Merrill either bought it in cash or put a huge percentage down. Good for him. How long is it viable for good, but not great guys in historically non-revenue collegiate sports to be getting bags like that?
Merrill probably paid more points on his down payment than he’ll score in any 3 matches this year
No reason to think anOSU won't crap the bed again. Stanford is a little bit of a homer pick.
Stanford is going to be very good. Knox, Provo, Consiglio, Valencia, Cardenas, Cholakyan, Garvin, Hanson, Parco, Posada. A couple of those guys won’t see the lineup. The only real question mark is 184 and heavy and they have quite a few good 184ers to choose from
Really good chance he's paying about 1/4 of the mortgage by renting the extra bedrooms to teammates.
Matt Brown did that years ago -- bought a house in State College and rented to some of his teammates. Though IIRC he did it in his first year after graduating (can't remember the exact timing, might have been his SR year).
Merrill can then sell the house when he leaves Stilly. It's a college town, so there will be a market for it, probably at a profit.
What year was Reggie Bush when he bought his mom a house using a USC donor's money?
Super common in any college town, I lived in several of these situations throughout my education journey (all were owned/bought by parents). It's super popular everywhere now, especially new builds. We live in a brand new community in a pretty affluent area and our home is an outlier because we don't have an ADU. That being said, unless it is strictly an investment/rental property (ie. the owner will not be living there and therefore pays a higher rate anyway) lenders almost never take into consideration planned/potential rental income. Owner has to qualify solely on their income. He could be paying 0% of the mortgage due to rental income and it would make no difference in regards to qualifying. It isn't 2005-2007 anymore; a 19yr old with likely no credit history, one year of proven income, and an unconventional "job" that ends in the next 4yrs better bring a big ol' bag to closing, regardless of the situation.
Who knows, maybe his parents threw him some dough or co-signed or OSU athletics has some relationship with a local lender? It's extremely rare for someone <20yrs old to be a home owner, so you have to wonder.
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Think Melvin followed Bo, but there’s still plenty of room for them bothWould Melvin Miller have still committed to VT with James there
After a year at VT, I still think Bo could portal and PSU post SVN is a likely target. 5% chance maybe, but not 0%.
I like VT but they don't exactly have a track record of killing it in March. Until they prove they can wrestle above their seeds at Nationals I'm skeptical of them getting a trophy.
LOL.... Ohio State is deeply talented but have struggled in the post season recently. I just dont see them repeating last year
I think if we learned anything about Bo it is that he will be more loyal to the $ and fame than any team!
I know what many of you are saying about VTech... it is a prove it approach and I get it. Heck I said the same thing about what Lehigh was building out there a couple of years ago. Then injuries and redshirts and chaos happened and it never came to fruition. Never thought they could knock PSU off but felt like they could have jumped into the top 5 with some degree of consistency.
It fell apart but I do think this with VTech is different. Feel like There is a ton of talent up and down the lineup and even an injury here or there and / or a underperfomer here or there... still leaves the easily a top 10 team... and probably better
Still not ready to compete for the top 2 spots but 3-7 should be realistic for them!
It fell apart but I do think this with VTech is different. Feel like There is a ton of talent up and down the lineup and even an injury here or there and / or a underperfomer here or there... still leaves the easily a top 10 team... and probably better
Still not ready to compete for the top 2 spots but 3-7 should be realistic for them!
His little brother and Melvin needs spots too.
The Bassett family leveraged PSU to get a better deal from Iowa.
Then after decommitting from Iowa, they leveraged PSU to get a better deal from VT.
Exactly.... Like I stated.... I think if we learned anything about Bo it is that he will be more loyal to the $ and fame than any team!The Bassett family leveraged PSU to get a better deal from Iowa.
Then after decommitting from Iowa, they leveraged PSU to get a better deal from VT.
I'm with JoeJit and think the Hokies will be legit challengers inside Tier 2.
We tend to do some of these squads a disservice when we compare them to PSU. Besides, it's way more fun to just exclude PSU (as alone in Tier 1 where all fanbases knows they live) and root for teams like Va Tech to challenge and overtake the pokes, hawks, huskers, trees and brutus.
We tend to do some of these squads a disservice when we compare them to PSU. Besides, it's way more fun to just exclude PSU (as alone in Tier 1 where all fanbases knows they live) and root for teams like Va Tech to challenge and overtake the pokes, hawks, huskers, trees and brutus.
Reggie Bush did not buy his parents a house with donor money, his parents lived rent-free - for less than a year - in a San Diego-area home that was in the name of a prospective agent (Lloyd Lake) who had no connection to USC. Lake was an associate of Bush's stepfather who had never attended USC, never donated money, and said he had never even attended a game. There was no evidence that anybody at USC knew of Lake or that he offered Bush (and his family) benefits beginning in his sophomore year, in hopes of enticing Bush to leave USC early and sign with him as his agent. Whether USC "should have known" about Bush's parents living situation is another matter, and that's ultimately what the NCAA concluded (lack of institutional control; that their compliance was insufficient and they should have known). Regardless of what you think about USC and Bush (IMO he's an a-hole of epic proportions), they got absolutely jobbed.
As a UCLA alum (this was all happening a few years after my career as a Bruin was done) I wanted it to be the most egregious donor pay-for-play ever, so I did a deep dive into it all several years ago. I was bummed that it was a huge nothing-burger.
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That is so painfully true for VT!
I am a PSU guy from birth (parents lived in Boalsburg and had season tickets to all sports for many years) who came up watching Prescott, Kolat, McCoy, etc and have lived in Virginia since 1996. I have watched the emergence of the VT program (my son is a 2012 VT grad) and I think everyone is selling them short this year. I will always bleed blue and white but I think they (VT) have 6 top 3 contenders and 4-5 of them could challenge for a title...
125 Ventresca
133 Seidel
141 Bassett
149/157 Henson
149/157 Gaj
165/174 Miller
and I would not rule out Burton as a top 4 sleeper.
This is a formidable lineup!
Agree 100%
They have always had what I thought was an overrated ranking across the board. That IS NOT the case this year...they are a top 4 loaded team if Miller goes the 2nd semester and they stay healthy
Miller is wrestling 70kg 154 he's not a 174 come January. I think he's a 157 maybe 165 but would be small
Here's my thing. Assuming good health with the talent they are going to run out there they should be a strong 3rd this year, and a 4th should be the basement. I just haven't seen what I need to see to believe a strong 3rd is doable. A 7th place finish should be seen as a total fail, but it is possible.
It is my opinion a non traditional power program becoming a power program is good for the sport. I wish there were 20 more programs stepping to the plate like the Hokies.
They won't have 4 or 5 in the finals challenging for a championship and they won't have 6 in the top 3.
Wrestlestat projections:
1 Penn State 159.9
2 Oklahoma State 115.3
3 Nebraska 91.5
4 Ohio State 60.3
5 Iowa 59.6
6 Virginia Tech 59
7 Stanford 58.3
8 Missouri 53.3
9 Minnesota 49.3
With Penn State and Oklahoma State clearly 1 &2 and Nebraska 30 pts above the crowd (20 pts of transfers), teams 4-7 are all clustered around 60 points. VT 59 pts does not include any points for Bo Bassett.
1 Penn State 159.9
2 Oklahoma State 115.3
3 Nebraska 91.5
4 Ohio State 60.3
5 Iowa 59.6
6 Virginia Tech 59
7 Stanford 58.3
8 Missouri 53.3
9 Minnesota 49.3
With Penn State and Oklahoma State clearly 1 &2 and Nebraska 30 pts above the crowd (20 pts of transfers), teams 4-7 are all clustered around 60 points. VT 59 pts does not include any points for Bo Bassett.