The more I think about it, the more I appreciate how Furman has handled the transfer portal.
1. I have long been of the opinion that a program's roster construction philosophy has to heavily rely on transfers or heavily rely on high school recruiting. You don't see many teams successfully do both. That is all the more so in the era of the transfer portal.
2. Furman never really wavered and has continued to stay committed through building their program through high school recruiting. These days, I'm not sure that isn't an advantage to Furman. We may have access to talented high school recruits that other programs are overlooking in favor of portal guys.
3. The times that we've used the portal (and it's almost a necessity in this era) is hasn't been for mercenaries. I believe all of our portal transfers are still on the roster.
4. At some point, I believe there are going to be some boundaries put up on the NIL and portal transfers. It's too much free agency at this point. If Furman has spent years in the high schools while other programs are spending the same time on their computers on campus, that may set us up well for the future when there are changes afoot.
5. We are retaining our players. The portal giveth and taketh away. However, it's not really taking away from Furman. Sure, some kids transfer. Most of those are guys going on to grad programs, which I believe most of us would do if given the opportunity. We aren't having to worry about trying to keep our roster together every offseason. I believe some of that is due to a program philosophy - we are committed to developing and retaining our players.
