By Chris Marler
It’s portal season again. Honestly though, at this point when is it not?
It’s a stressful and chaotic mess of a month that some coaches dread as they pray for roster retention and a chance to breathe after the season. Others approach it with more of a sense of excitement or desperation hoping to find a diamond in the rough from a mid-major or big time conference that can ball and hopefully not break the bank of their NIL budget.
Not only has there been more money spent in this specific cycle than ever before, but the commitment to some specific programs stands out.
Louisville is committing $15 million to building their roster for next year. Other programs like Arkansas and Kansas have voiced their intention to spend nearly $10 million. The SEC’s involvement has been fascinating, as well.
While it’s only been a week, there haven’t been a ton of high profile players from the league to enter their name in the portal. That will likely change, but most SEC teams look to be buyers in this window.
The portal will stay open for another three weeks, so a lot can change from now and then. However, as of today the most fascinating story line from this league is the investment its two worst teams are putting into their basketball teams.
LSU and South Carolina were the only two teams that didn’t make the NCAA Tournament this year. Those two teams currently rank in the top four nationally for transfer portal class rankings, already landing three players each. LSU sits on top of the rankings for all of College basketball with three players ranked in the top 100 committed.
Here’s a look at where each SEC team currently sits in the national rankings:
- LSU – No. 1
- South Carolina – No. 4
- Ole Miss – No. 8
- Kentucky – Tied No. 14
- Texas – Tied No. 14
- Alabama – No. 18
- Missouri – No. 24
Teams without a player added
- Oklahoma
- Texas A&M
- Arkansas
- Auburn
- Florida
- Georgia
- Mississippi State
- Tennessee
- Vanderbilt
