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FAYETTEVILLE — The decisions by the Big Ten and Pac-12 conferences to postpone their fall sports to next spring has led to a domino effect of sorts across college football.
One of the main fears was that talented players on teams in those leagues would put their name in the transfer portal and move somewhere in the conferences still set to play this fall - the ACC, Big 12 and SEC.
Beyond the logistical issues teams would face when trying to add a player in that scenario, head coach Sam Pittman said it’s a “fine line” from a team chemistry standpoint, as well.
“The bottom line is these kids have been working out together for a long time, ever since we got here,” Pittman said. “If you bring in a grad transfer in and he’s here in June, or he’s here in January, and he’s part of the team, it’s a little bit different than bringing in a guy right now.”
If the Razorbacks brought in a player from another team, they’d be replacing someone who has gone through an entire offseason in the program and had their sights set on playing a certain amount of reps. That’d be a tough pill to swallow, especially already being several practices into camp and a month out from the Sept. 26 opener against Georgia.
That said, Pittman acknowledged there could be situations that called for at least looking into the portal and adding a player at this stage.
“Obviously, if we had the scholarship number to do it and it was a great player, we wouldn’t be very smart not to look at him,” Pittman said. “But there’s a fine line in there. He has to really come in and be the right kind of person and somebody that’s going to fit into the football team.”
Pittman was hesitant to name specific positions that might be worth exploring because he didn’t want to offend his players, but he pointed out that Arkansas is pretty thin at tight end and that skill positions - “somebody that’s dynamic with the ball in their hands” - would be the most likely.
However, a big reason there hasn’t been a mass exodus from the Big Ten and Pac-12 - as well as the MAC and Mountain West - into the portal is the aforementioned logistical issues that would accompany it.
First of all, the NCAA has said it will not grant athletes transferring from those conferences immediate eligibility. Unless a player has already finished their degree and can be a graduate transfer or has other grounds for a waiver, he wouldn’t be eligible to play in 2020 anyway.
Even if they meet one of those requirements and can play this season, finding a landing spot might be more difficult than you’d expect. Most of the teams have already maxed out their initial counters for the 2020 class and don’t have any of their 85 scholarships open.
The Razorbacks signed 19 high school players, one JUCO player and five graduate transfers in their 2020 class, filling all 25 initial counters. They found a loophole in that rule, though, when they also brought in Oklahoma wide receiver Jaquayln Crawford as a sit-out transfer this summer.
Although he counts toward Arkansas’ overall 85-man limit, he is essentially a blue shirt who will count forward to 2021. That means the Razorbacks can now bring in only 24 initial counters in the upcoming class.
It’s unclear if that loophole would apply to graduate transfers with only one year of eligibility remaining, but another problem Arkansas - and other schools - will run into is the start of the fall semester.
Students started class in Fayetteville on Monday and Friday is the deadline to register for or add a full semester class. Those dates are the same reason Isaiah Joe’s late decision to enter the NBA Draft likely made it difficult for Eric Musselman to find a replacement in the transfer portal.
College football teams have been known to find ways to make it work for great players in the past, but all of the obstacles in this unique offseason make it unlikely that the Razorbacks would be able to add players escaping the Big Ten or Pac-12.
