National Media Weighs in on Izzo's Portal Comments

Stephen A Smith piggybacked on Michigan State coach Tom Izzo's thoughts on the transfer portal.

Mar 27, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; Michigan State Spartans head coach Tom Izzo during NCAA Tournament South Regional Practice at State Farm Arena. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-Imagn Images | Brett Davis-Imagn Images

Many have argued that the transfer portal has gotten out of control for college football and basketball. 

Limitations on when and how many times a player can transfer have eased over the years, allowing players to enter the portal even when their teams are still competing in the NCAA Tournament – and a few cases have already come up. 

Michigan State head coach Tom Izzo voiced his clear disdain with the state of the transfer portal in college athletics on Tuesday, calling it "disgusting." Izzo has long been critical of the portal, even in its early days of popularity. 

Izzo’s rant made national headlines, and big media members have weighed in on the topic. ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith sounded off about Izzo’s comments on "First Take" on Thursday. 

“To live in this day and age where you have agents, you have parents, hanger-ons, etc., influencing a kid, that is very, very tough for him to do, because he did it the right way,” Smith said on Izzo. “And by that, I mean, he would cultivate personal relationships, he would go out there, and he would recruit. 

"You either pick his program, or you pick somebody else’s program, but he had cats who were good enough, and he knew what to do with them as a coach. What he didn’t have to experience, what a lot of coaches are complaining about experiencing now, is this feeling that they’re being embezzled.

"That’s a very, very difficult thing for Tom Izzo to deal with. And so, I understand where his frustration is coming from.”

Smith applauded Izzo for speaking up about something that many coaches agree with but have not publicly stated. 

“I empathize with him,” Smith said. “But he has to understand that most people should empathize with him and not the sport, because the sport spent years where kids weren’t being taken care of. Coaches were being taken care of; programs were being taken care of, but not nearly as much for the kids. [The NCAA] exploited it and exploited it until lawsuits came down the pike. Their very existence was in jeopardy.

"So, now you have people that see the power has shifted, and they’re taking advantage of them the way they were taken advantage of, and Tom Izzo is caught in the middle of that, unfortunately.”

MSU takes on the Ole Miss Rebels on Friday in a Sweet Sixteen match-up in Atlanta.

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