For Love or MoneyFrom “Pay to Play” to the Transfer Portal, Alumni Student-Athletes Reflect on the College Sports SHAKE-UP.

Time was — not that many years ago — that college student-athletes who transferred from one school to another had to sit out a season or two before resuming their careers. And that the NCAA handed out sanctions to student-athletes and their schools for anything deemed an improper reward for athletic work or abilities.

Now, looser rules regarding transfers and payments have thousands of student-athletes spreading their four- or five-year careers over two, three or more schools. (See timelines for more on how this developed.) It’s been a dramatic shift in the control of student-athlete movement and compensation from institutions to athletes.

Fans accustomed to rooting for — and following the development of — student-athletes over four years bemoan this new world order, but some alumni student-athletes who spent their entire careers at Oregon State University give a more nuanced view.

“I feel like the pendulum may have swung too far, like anything,” said Mark Radford, ’85, a key figure on OSU’s “Orange Express” men’s basketball teams of the early 1980s. “But I always felt it was unequitable and unfair when we played. It was a long time coming.”

And some former Beaver athletes who were at OSU from start to finish say there are situations that warrant transferring: a coaching change, a switch in academic focus, wanting to be closer to home, finding that the academics or coaching styles aren’t the right fit, or being offered name, image and likeness (NIL) payments that are just too big to turn down.

LEFT: Oregon State Hall-of-Fame pitcher Tarrah Beyster now runs Beyster Elite Softball Traning in southeast Michagan. RIGHT: Larry Bumpus played as a Beaver defensive back in the mid-1990s. Courtesy of OSU Athletics

“When you talk about the money portion, it’s a hard one,” Radford said. “How can you advise a broke teenager not to take $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 — whatever? It’s unfathomable to me to tell them not to. It would be an injustice. Most of them aren’t going to play pro and the opportunity to make this kind of money may disappear.”

Casey Bunn-Wilson, ’07, known as Casey Nash when she led the Pac-10 in scoring during the 2006-07 women’s basketball season, agrees. “The ones that are transferring for NIL money — it’s life changing,” she said.

Still, student-athletes’ newfound freedom can be a mixed blessing.  Some athletics alumni say they hate to see players miss out on benefits that don’t come with dollar signs — from identifying with something bigger than themselves to lifetime bonds with teammates, coaches and a community of fans.

Tarrah Beyster, ’01, coached NCAA Division I softball for 12 years; now the Oregon State Hall-of-Fame pitcher runs Beyster Elite Softball Training in southeast Michigan. Her coaching includes advising high school student-athletes on how to choose a college or university.

How the Transfer Portal Evolved

It’s a fact of life in today’s college sports: Here’s how we ended up with a world in which, for many sports, the end of regular season is now followed by the transfer season.

1922

The NCAA turns 17, and its new 10-point code establishes a definition of amateurism, bans freshman eligibility, bans athletes from playing pro football or for non-collegiate teams, limits varsity participation to three years, bars graduate students from play, establishes faculty control of athletics, institutes anti-betting measures and restricts transfers.

1931

The NCAA implements a one-year sit-out rule for transfers, initially due to high school recruiting practices. Eventually some conferences initiate rules requiring a two-year sit-out for student-athletes transferring to another school within the same conference.

2006

The NCAA votes to allow Division I graduates to transfer without penalty.

2018

The NCAA introduces an online transfer portal, streamlining the process and providing more transparency.

2020

The NCAA provides eligibility extensions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2021

The NCAA adopts a one-time transfer rule, allowing athletes to transfer once with immediate eligibility in Division I football, men’s and women’s basketball, men’s ice hockey and baseball.

2024

The NCAA eliminates transfer limits, allowing athletes to transfer multiple times and remain immediately eligible.

Photos – Mitt: Sharon Waldron/Unsplash; Football: Deric Yu/Unsplash; Basketball: The New York Public Library Digital Collections; Runner: Jadon Johnson; Covid: CDC/Unsplash; Football: Denis Rozhnovsky/Adobe; caps: Dmitry Kropachev/Unsplash

She presents one consideration in a TikTok video: If a broken leg or another medical issue ends your athletic career — if you become a “student” rather than “student-athlete” — would you still want to be at your school? She emphasizes a sense of community and comfort with the campus as key to that.

What Beyster thinks is important to high school seniors could benefit college seniors as well.

“I think you have this sense of, this is my home field, this is my hometown, this is my community, this is where I play,” said Beyster, who played at OSU from 1997-2000. “You’re not a stranger walking to your field or your practice field or even your weight room or indoor facility.”

An early 1900s Beaver football player runs with Waldo Hall in the background. Courtesy of OSU Special Collections and Archives

Larry Bumpus, ’01, a defensive back on Beaver football teams from 1994-97, believes players should have career mobility equal to coaches’. “But on the other hand, I really think there’s a lot of things being lost if you transfer,” Bumpus said. “The stick-to-it-iveness, the competitiveness — trying to stick it out and get better to win a job and be loyal to a school.  … If you’re hopping around … you’re just kind of a nomad; you’re everywhere and nowhere at once.”

Mark Radford arrived at OSU in the fall of 1977, part of a men’s basketball recruiting class that included Ray Blume, Jeff Stoutt and Bill McShane; Steve Johnson, a year older, played with that group for its final three seasons after missing a season due to injury. In their senior season of 1980-81, they were ranked No. 1 in the nation most of the winter.

“We played so much together we knew what each other was going to do,” Radford said. “Everything was second nature.” Spending four years in head coach Ralph Miller’s regimented system also gave them a role in sustaining OSU’s success: “We would groom the next teams,” Radford said. “Then when we left, they could carry the torch.”

If you’re hopping around…you’re just kind of a nomad; you’re everywhere and nowhere at once.

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Miller was a stern taskmaster. “We were the fortunate few that were willing to stay and to put up with a lot,” Radford said, wondering how many of today’s players would leave in that environment. Sometimes, criticism is what’s needed, he said. “And I think in hindsight some people realize that. … There are a lot of benefits to having the truth being told.”

There are changes Radford would like to see in college athletics. One is some form of insurance for former student-athletes — he is still paying medical bills for conditions from his playing days. And as for those large NIL payments, he said, perhaps those could go in a trust fund.

“I didn’t know what to do with money at 17, 18, 19, 20 — maybe up until I was 25, 26 — then the light bulb started coming on,” he said.

Radford has enjoyed a long real estate career in Portland and occasionally sits behind the Beaver bench with former teammates. Many live in the Portland area and have remained close, including playing city league basketball together. Radford has also connected with OSU men’s basketball assistant coach Roberto Nelson, ’14, who encourages other former Beavers to be more involved with the program: “Ultimately we’re very pleased to be part of that, and we long for that.”

Bunn-Wilson, Beyster and Bumpus remain in contact with former teammates and coaches, too. Those long-term relationships were built over years of games, practices, bus rides, hotel stays, early-morning workouts and the like.

LEFT: Casey Bunn-Wilson (also known as Casey Nash) led the Pac-10 in scoring during the 2006-07 women’s basketball season. She’s now head coach at Linfield University. RIGHT: Oregon State Hall of Famer Mark Radford was a four-year letterman guard for Head Coach Ralph Miller and was part of two Pac-10 title teams. Courtesy of OSU Athletics

Beyster joined a softball program that had been at or near the bottom of the Pac-10 for over a decade, and many in her softball world thought she had thrown away her career by choosing OSU. But she believed in head coach Kirk Walker’s vision and helped the Beaver program climb into the national rankings. “That was really inspiring for me, and I knew I wanted to be a part of this sport for the rest of my life,” she said.

Bunn-Wilson recently completed her 10th season as women’s basketball head coach at Division III Linfield University. She sees a “huge jump” in her players between sophomore and junior years: “They know what the expectation is. But more so, they’re set in their classes, they’re projected to graduate, they have everything lined up.”

Beyster recalled doing camps, clinics and elementary school visits during her OSU playing career. “Just building my connection with the community and just watching our crowds grow over the years, the excitement over our program, that was huge.”

Lifelong membership in Beaver Nation has other benefits, too. At Linfield, Bunn-Wilson works with former OSU athletic staff members. “I see another Oregon State person and I automatically feel connected to them,” she said. “Or in some way a little bias. I like them.”

Bumpus, who with his wife, Summer, owns the Oak Creek Collection gift store in Corvallis, finds the identification as a Beaver also helpful in business. “You get a lot of customers that will come just because you were a graduate here at Oregon State,” he said.

Given the transfer portal’s impacts, Beyster sees star players having great seasons at individual schools but missing out on the big picture.

She remembers Walker telling the Beavers they were playing for more than themselves: “Kirk would always say, ‘It’s not about you, it’s about playing for the pride of the university, the community, building a legacy.’”