Greg McElroy reveals honest thoughts of the transfer portal

While speaking on Three and Out, former Alabama star quarterback Greg McElroy gave his honest opinion of the NCAA Transfer Portal. McElroy stated multiple times that he has no problems with the portal giving players control of their college careers, but admitted that he didn’t expect players to use the portal without a traditional reason.

Greg McElroy on the Transfer Portal

McElroy was asked by host John Middlekauff what was his take on the transfer rule and the chaos caused by the transfer portal on the college football landscape — something that McElroy was mostly positive about.

“I’m in favor of — I don’t have any issues with transferring. I mean, we’ve talked about this for several years now and what I never envisioned — I thought that a lot of guys would leave, but those players would be disgruntled. Whether it be by playing time or relationship with a coach, I thought that there’d be a lot of movement but it would often be because a player’s circumstances weren’t great.

“That’s not the case. That’s something that I just didn’t really anticipate so, I’m good with it. The only thing that concerns me is that if you have a player, for instance that means a lot to a team, let’s use Jordan Addison as an example. At Pitt he won the Biletnikoff last year, had a ton of great looks. You would never think after a season like that he would be open to leaving the program that helped get him where he’s at in search of greener pastures. And that’s exactly what he did.

“I don’t have a problem with it, [but] it’s a little bit uncomfortable. But then again, if all things being equal for Jordan Addison and he still leaves, that’s one thing. But he lost his OC, he lost his quarterback and he lost his receiver coach. All things were not equal. He lost a lot of pieces that he relied on last year to get him where he was. So I’m not gonna be critical of a guy like Jordan Addison.”

McElroy then tied back to what actually upset him most about the portal, referring to a hypothetical involving his own alma mater. The former national champion pointed out that a player with the status of Bryce Young could use the portal to force NIL compensation or make demands of his school — if he was inclined to do so.

“Where I’m going to be critical are the guys that enter the transfer portal in an effort to create leverage from an NIL standpoint. That’s something that really — it’s a little bit disturbing to me. For instance, it would be like Bryce Young entering the transfer portal right now and creating a market for himself to use it as leverage against Alabama.

“That just makes me a little uncomfortable. Is it wrong? No, it’s not wrong. It’s well within the rules, it’s perfectly within his right, it just makes me a little uncomfortable. I guess the idealist in me wants to believe that players want to play for their school because they love their school. Ultimately that may not be the case.”