As the transfer portal has put all of NCAA athletics in a game of musical chairs, one HBCU football coach suggests a compensation method to make everyone happy.
Grambling head coach Mickey Joseph says that a buyout payment to coaches and FCS programs who lose kids to the Power 4 level would help ease the pain a little bit.
“We understand and the kids understand that if they are sophomores and they have a big year, a Power 4 will approach them,” Joseph told KARD-14’s Jeremy Bryant Wednesday afternoon. “They have the finances and if I can’t match the finances, then the kids are going to go.”
WATCH: @GSUFootball01 HC Mickey Joseph on Transfer Portal and interesting solution🤔:
“There needs to be a buyout. If they move up from me and go G5 or P4 I should get compensation for that.”
Should there be a buyout method for the #NCAA Transfer portal? #Grambling #HBCU pic.twitter.com/xp7DNoDczC
— Jeremy Bryant 🎥 (@tvtimewithJB) April 2, 2025
Joseph, who has experience coaching at all levels of college football including a stint as Nebraska’s interim head coach, says that athletes are only doing what coaches have done long before the portal and the NIL movements began.
“Coaches have been doing it for years, so we shouldn’t be mad when these kids make decisions to take care of their families,” he says.
Joseph concluded by saying that coaches and programs at lower levels should receive financial compensation if the Power 4 raids their programs.
“If a kid leaves for a Group of 5 or Power 5, I need a buyout,” he said. “I need compensation for that, so NCAA if you’re listening, we need a buyout.”
Joseph will begin his second season as head coach with a huge task as Grambling will take on defending FBS national champion Ohio State Sept. 6 in Columbus.
Not gonna happen. It would make better sense for the football program to be compensated (not gonna happen), but who’s gonna get compensated if Coach Joseph gets a better offer from another school and decides to leave? His players?