Dick Vitale Calls the Collegiate Transfer Portal ‘Pathetic’

Almost every day, college athletes are entering the transfer portal to seek, in their opinion, a better opportunity and fit for their athletic careers.

Since the transfer portal debuted in 2018, thousands of athletes have transferred to new schools to play their sports in different team environments.

Longtime ESPN analyst Dick Vitale offered his opinion on Twitter to the ever-growing transfer portal, which he calls “pathetic” due to the amount of athletes who are quickly “quitting” the team they originally signed up for.

“PATHETIC what the TRANSFER PORTAL is doing to college sports,” Vitale’s first tweet reads. “How is this CHAOS & CHEATING going on [great] lessons for young ppl to DEVELOP values needed for the Game of Life. Quitting / lack of loyalty is what is happening traits that destroy [people] as they face the REAL WORLD.”

Dickie V’s critique of the transfer portal saw some backlash, as fans pointed out that the portal was made to benefit collegiate athletes. They also argued how coaches are allowed to leave whenever they desire, and the portal was made so the athletes could do that, too.

To that argument, Vitale said that if a coach leaves a team, then the players should be allowed to then, too. 

“Pls don’t sickened me with the wacky argument that over 1400 players transferring equates to about 50 coaches leaving,” Vitale said in his tweet. “WHINING that coaches DON’T sit vs players is SOLVED EASILY by THE VBDI rule-COACH leaves Player SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO LEAVEw/o SITTING-END OF STORY!” 

Vitale recently beat lymphoma, announcing that he is cancer-free. The cancer caused him to miss the majority of the 2021–22 college basketball season. Most years he works dozens of games as the lead analyst for ESPN.