MORGANTOWN -- The changes in the world of college athletics have impacted all levels.
The ability of student-athletes to earn money through their name, image and likeness -- and soon revenue-sharing -- is a brass ring all are reaching for.
That financial desire has brought about continual movement from one school to another. The programs with the most money have the resources to attract the best talent, and in the days of the portal, that includes landing transfers. Those transfers can come from all levels, from Power Four down to Division II and Division III.
For the schools that are not P4s, it’s simply part of their world now that their best underclassmen are usually going to move on to a bigger program.
“We’re minor league baseball basically because most of the best players from our level will look to move up,†stated Shawn Lutz, football head coach at Slippery Rock (Pennsylvania) University, which is a Division II powerhouse. “We understand that we may develop a player for a couple of years and then they may not be here anymore.â€
One of Lutz’s best players from this past season’s 12-2 team is headed to West Virginia, as wide receiver Logan Ramper committed to the Mountaineers this spring.
Lutz hates to lose his top players, though he’s not as upset with Ramper’s decision because WVU is also Lutz’s alma mater.
A native of Massillon, Ohio, Lutz was a tight end for Don Nehlen’s Mountaineers from 1992-95. He then got into coaching, landing a graduate assistant job at Slippery Rock in 1996.
He has never left The Rock, moving up the ladder from a position coach to defensive coordinator. In 2016, he took over as SRU’s head coach, replacing the legendary George Mihalik (185-109-4 from 1988-2015), who was retiring.
Mihalik was very good at Slippery Rock, but Lutz has been even better, leading the football program to an 82-21 record, six D-II playoff berths and two semifinal runs since moving into the head coaching role.
Lutz has witnessed plenty of changes in his 30 years in the college coaching profession -- not all for the good.
“You see it even at the highest level,†he explained. “Coaches are getting out of the big Power Four programs because they’re sick of it, and they’re going to the NFL. I’m friends with NFL coaches, and they get time off after the season. It’s nonstop at the college level, though.â€
Recruiting has always been a 365-day business, but now mining the portal has increased the workload for coaches and their staffs. Division I programs look elsewhere, even down to the D-II ranks, to find talent.
Division II teams also look to fill their own openings with transfers, but in addition on the positive side, they find a better recruit available to them out of high school because D-I colleges are using more and more of their scholarships on transfers and fewer and fewer on incoming freshmen from high schools.
“We’re going to portal ourselves,†noted Lutz. “And we’re also going to get high school kids because D-I schools aren’t recruiting as many of those because they’re taking so many transfers from the portal.
“What that does, though, is open better opportunities for us to recruit good high school players. We’re getting better high school football recruits because the Division I programs are in the portal so much.â€
Even the best Division II teams, like Slippery Rock, don’t have the resources to provide NIL money to their players like the D-I teams.
“We use the portal ourselves to fill immediate needs,†said Lutz. “We can’t provide the same amount of money to our student-athletes as the Division Is. Division I schools, and I’m not saying WVU, are coming in and poaching Division II guys, though.
“Any kid that gets an offer -- be it Division I, Division II or wherever -- should be excited about that. There are going to be a lot of kids that go into the portal and there won’t be any room left for them to get a scholarship.â€
Through it all, Slippery Rock remains a top-notch D-II, but the landscape has certainly shifted.
“It’s a crazy game right now where we’re at. I don’t know where the future is, but I know it’s crazy,†stated Lutz.
