THE CHEAP SEATS with STEVE CAMERON: Fix needed for the broken portal

You probably haven’t heard of Sterling Anderson Jr.

That is, not unless you’re a recruiter for a major college football program — like Washington State, for instance.

What you HAVE heard plenty about is the transfer portal, which essentially now means free agency for college athletes.

In fact, so many football and basketball players are zooming in and out of the portal that even coaches could lose track of who’s on the roster from day to day.

This mad rush to change schools, and the damage it’s doing to college athletics, is why you should meet Sterling Anderson Jr.

But first …

For the record, I have nothing against the portal itself, which was established in 2018 as a database to make the administrative side of changing schools easier on both athletes and the universities that were trying to oversee potential transfers.

However …

I truly, deeply DO detest the idea that these young people now have total freedom, and that they can use the portal to hustle off and become immediately eligible somewhere else.

Until 2021, most transfers were required to sit out a season at their new school before being allowed to play.

THEN CAME a rule change basically eliminating the mandatory “redshirt year.”

It only applied to football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey and baseball.

(Yes, the revenue sports.)

All other athletes had been allowed to transfer — with immediate eligibility — prior to 2021, as had anyone in divisions lower than D-I.

Nobody paid attention, really.

So, fast forward …

When you connect the dots from football or elite-level men’s basketball to college athletes’ ability to make money from “Name, Image and Likeness,” well, now we’re talking about professional sports.

Universities are sponsoring pro franchises.

Pure and simple.

It’s awful, and I can’t believe the suits at the NCAA didn’t see the train wreck coming.

Boosters and alums working on behalf of big-time schools get together and pool cash to lure the biggest stars, so why are we surprised when Washington State (a rural outlier in the Pac-12) sees a flood of its impact players hitting the transfer portal each year.

It's not that the grass is greener elsewhere — but the super-green NIL cash is a luscious meadow.

The bottom line is that the decision in 2021 to allow immediate eligibility was disastrous.

“The system of having kids sit out a year worked really well,” said Gonzaga boss Mark Few. “Basically, players didn’t just transfer on a whim.

“Changing that rule wasn’t well thought out. What’s happened is that with immediate eligibility somewhere else, they just take off. “It was never like that when you had the restriction on sitting out a year.”

Few hasn’t said this directly, but the inference is clear — athletes take off when they’re promised something at another school.

THE PORTAL obviously impacts those players you wind up seeing on TV, but having thousands (literally, thousands) of athletes signed up to transfer has a horrible impact on every facet of college sports.

That’s why you should meet Sterling Anderson Jr.

I came across Anderson, a high school football phenom in Detroit, through reporting by Yahoo Sports.

Rather than try a poor paraphrase here, I’m going to let you read a few paragraphs of a story that exposes so many MORE problems caused by having all these players in the transfer portal.

Give this some thought …

“Sterling Anderson Jr. scored 15 touchdowns in the state playoffs alone as he helped Detroit King High School win a Michigan state championship last month.

“Anderson, a senior running back/slot receiver/return man stands just 5-foot-8 and never expected colleges to flock to him like he was an elite five-star recruit -- not the way they did his King teammate, Oregon-bound quarterback Dante Moore. “But it was clear he had the talent to be an impact college player.

“As national signing day approached, Anderson was still awaiting a Division I offer.

“Blame the transfer portal. Blame the coaching carousel.

Blame a lack of leadership or foresight, but this is reality.

“The sport is currently trying to cram free agency (the portal), the draft (national signing day), the postseason (bowls run most of the month) and the coaching carousel (23 of the sport's 131 programs will have new head coaches) into a couple-week stretch in December.

“It’s not that D-I recruiters don’t think Anderson isn’t good enough. ‘What an absolute stud,’ said one Mid-American Conference assistant. ‘His athleticism is incredible,’ said another.

“It’s just that, due to the transfer portal, no coach is sure what their needs even are.

“Are their returning backs leaving? Are they staying? If they have an opening, should they offer Anderson, or could they have a shot at, say, an older, more established, high-major running back who might want to transfer down?

“Everyone is waiting on the portal.

“It’s left high school football full of Sterling Andersons, players who aren't expecting Alabama to call, but figure someone should.”

MOST FANS aren’t thinking about Sterling Anderson or the army of high school prospects who are caught in this ridiculous revolving door.

No, they focus on Jaden de Laura suddenly bolting to Arizona from WSU.

Or Washington landing quarterback Michael Penix Jr. from Indiana, changing a pretty ordinary team into one of the most explosive in the country.

The impact is even more dramatic in basketball, where a couple of players — maybe even one — can change a team’s fortunes almost overnight.

Kentucky got a lot better last season (and West Virginia took a real hit) when rebounding demon Oscar Tshiebwe changed schools — in mid-season.

And so on.

Face it …

Everything is wrong with the notion that athletes should be immediately eligible in revenue sports – in an era when they can rake in NIL income.

It was just a disgraceful idea, on so many levels.

And one redshirt year could fix it.

We have proof, too.

The portal was created in 2018, but true chaos only started with free agency in 2021.

Please, please …

Go back and fix this mess.

Email: [email protected]

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press four times each week, normally Tuesday through Friday unless, you know, stuff happens.

Steve suggests you take his opinions in the spirit of a Jimmy Buffett song: “Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On.”