In what feels like a real-life Moneyball scenario, college recruitment is shifting focus from undervalued young talent to a more immediate solution—the transfer portal. The rise of the portal has drastically changed the game, with colleges now prioritizing “ready-made” athletes over high school players. Why take a gamble on raw potential when you can get proven talent with just a click?

Signing day, once a marquee event, now feels like an afterthought. Unofficial visits and summer camps have become the proving grounds for high school athletes desperate to show they’re more than just benchwarmers. The stakes are high, and the pressure is even higher for these young players as coaches look for quick fixes to strengthen their teams.

Now, Ohio High School is feeling the heat ahead of its big signing day on December 4th. Reporter John McCallister sounded the alarm on X, tweeting, “Ohio 2026, please follow the contract signing tomorrow. As you know, major changes! Colleges don’t have to recruit nearly as hard as in the past. Unofficial visits in the offseason. Summer football camps are the next big evaluation. The portal is killing high school recruiting.” With the portal upending traditional recruiting, aspiring athletes need to adapt fast or risk being left behind. Well, the game is evolving, and so must the players who dream of making it big.

Also, this new protocol has made life worse for the young budding recruits, even if the pressure is off the head coaches, and they don’t have to struggle with all the visits and fall camps to test the players. Moreover, the schools used to wait for them to attend the class before getting the commitment, but now they can do it whenever and wherever they want. But is this the only thing to be concerned about?

Deion Sanders confronts the chaos of the recruiting portal

This new era of recruiting portals is where students are much more concerned about the deals and endorsements than working on their gameplay. Even universities are no less in the race to secure their favorite recruits; one prime example of that is the Michigan Wolverines, who doubled the NIL amount to get the commitment of Bryce Underwood from the LSU Tigers, and when everyone thought it wouldn’t work, it actually did, and they got him. Now it’s more like improving the face value of the team rather than focusing on what the players can actually bring into the team.

Even Buffs head coach Deion Sanders feels the same about the new recruiting portal challenges because of what the NIL brought into the system—it is not only reshaping the way coaches approach the process of recruitment but also making it difficult for all the players to get on their desired teams.

Imagine if teams only selected athletes with higher ranks and gave them more lucrative deals. What will the other students do? Coach Prime reflects on the same emotion, saying, “I feel bad for high school kids because we’re only taking like 4-5 high school kids this year. They’re getting the short end of the stick.” To see the bigger picture, let’s wait and see if high deals or high talent will prove sustainable in the long run.