Albany's Coach's Idea Of Power Conference Teams Loaning Players To Mid-Majors On A Two-Way Contract Is So Insane That It's Actually Genius
You know it's the offseason when coaches start coming up with insane ideas. This is one of them, mostly because it will never work, but it's on the right path. This is what Albany's coach had to say:
[Source] - He wants down-transfers from bigger programs to come to UAlbany, with special favorable conditions attached for players: He'll develop them, help in their pursuit of a degree, and then after a year or two, send these players back to their initial high-major spot.
"The reason why this idea came about is become of my experience in the G League. During my time there, I watched a lot of players develop for the NBA. We're moving to a model like that in modern-day college basketball."
What about the money? The player would still get theirs. In Killings' vision, the high-major's NIL collective could/would donate to UAlbany's collective to help pay the player — perhaps at a rate they were getting to begin with, sort of like an insurance policy. The player would continue to earn on their NIL deal(s), provided they remain academically eligible and meet the standards of both programs that agreed to the swap.
Dare I say genius idea? Everyone loves to scream that the mid-majors are getting screwed with the transfer portal. They find the diamond in the rough, develop him, he blows up and transfers up. Well, at the same time there are a ton of guys throughout the last few years who could never really get going at a high-major program, transfer down and become a star at the mid-major level. You can look at guys at Grand Canyon and McNeese over the last two years as this. Even FAU had Vlad Goldin come in from Texas Tech, go to a Final Four and then leave with Dusty May. This helps everyone involved, to a degree. I know some players will get screwed who lose a spot at a mid-major to a high-major guy. But you know what the end goal is? Winning. That's what coaches care about, it's how they keep their job.
It's kind of a mix of what we see in soccer with loans and the G League two-way deal. The question I have is what happens if the teams play each other? Let's say Albany gets a player from Syracuse and they play a game, can that player play? I know in soccer there are rules that come into play when two clubs play each other and a loan is out there. Even more (can't use Syracuse here), what happens if they play in the NCAA Tournament? Feel like you just have to let everyone play and figure it out from there.
It's also smart for a team like Albany. Right now every team in the country is basically trying to build it's roster year-to-year. It's about re-tooling, the portal, all that shit we keep hearing about. Well, if you're a mid-major, why not take the best talent from the high-majors for the year? Gonna be better than doing all the work to get a high school kid who is under the radar and unexpectedly lose him.
If the NCAA isn't going to do anything besides lose battles in court, give us ideas like this. Can't go any worse than players transferring every single year.