Pat Kelsey: ‘You’re going to get run over’ without adapting to NIL, transfer portal

The transfer portal and use of NIL have become staples of the current landscape of college sports, much to the chagrin of plenty of coaches, administrators and the like. But new Louisville men’s basketball head coach Pat Kelsey shared a bit of a different perspective from many of his peers.

As Kelsey discussed the issue during an interview with WHAS in Louisville, he was unabashed about embracing the new world of college sports. Resisting the change, he said, it a good way to find yourself in a bad position rather quickly.

“You better, or it’s time to find a new line of work,” Kelsey said of embracing the transfer portal and NIL. “I call it the advantage of new choice. In every single industry — and I’ve said this many times — but there are major shifts that happen in industries and people that resist, companies that resist, organizations that resist the adaptability and the change, you’re going to get run over, you’re going to get run out of business. So the advantage of new choice is you’ve gotta be willing to be adaptable. Adjust and run toward it.”

Kelsey also commended his bosses, athletic director Josh Heird and university president Kim Schatzel, for their embrace of NIL and the transfer portal as the new way of life.

Schatzel, he said, even has some similar experience in dealing with industry upheaval. Prior to working in academic administration, Schatzel worked for decades in the automotive industry, first with Ford and then starting her own international parts-making firm.

Kelsey highlighted that background as informing how Schatzel and Co. have approached NIL and the transfer portal in college sports.

“And we have an unbelievable administration here,” Kelsey said. “Josh Heird is one of the most forward thinking, creative ADs, I think, in the country that has embraced this new era and has run toward it and it’s put us in a position — he’s positioned us to take advantage of it and be a major, major player at a high level of college basketball for a long time. And then obviously is starts at the top with Dr. Schatzel. She is a dynamic leader.

“I’ve been around higher education for a long, long time and I’ve never met a school president like her. Obviously with her business background, and I remember hearing her talk recently and she talked about that, in her business. In the auto industry and the auto parts industry, some of the major shifts and changes in how they were able to move quickly, be adaptable and embrace the new era of those businesses. And it’s the same thing now with higher education and high-level Division I sports.”