Should I Stay Or Should I Go
Two Chicagoland football players represent the player choice movement, the greatest change in college sports this century
Michael Marchese was making plans. Then those plans changed.
The University of Illinois football player had just finished a January workout inside the school’s training facility.
Then his phone buzzed.
On the other line was Fighting Illini head coach Bret Bielema. He presented an offer to Marchese.
“I was in the locker room scrolling my phone,” Marchese said via Zoom teleconference. “Coach B called me and told me the news. I literally jumped up, might have said a couple expletives. I was really excited to hear that news that I was back.”
As a result of the phone call with Bielema, Marchese, a 2017 Stevenson High School graduate from suburban Vernon Hills, will again be rostered with the Fighting Illini this fall. Marchese will play the 2022 on scholarship, his sixth season granted by waiver, allowable per NCAA rules.
In a moment’s notice, the 6-foot-3, 245-pound Marchese went from training for an NFL pro day and likely leaving Illinois, to returning for another season.
It’s an example of the current climate shaping the future of college football; one of massive change and evolution. Not in the game itself, but in another area away from the field of play – freedom and choice for players.
The NCAA’s introduction of the transfer portal in 2018 has turned the sport on its head. Since August 1, 2021, over 3,000 football players across all three divisions have entered the portal, according to Axios. There is no restriction on movement; players can enter the portal 24/7, 365 days a year, and can leave one school and enroll in another immediately.
Marchese did not enter the portal, choosing to stay in Champaign his entire college career (five years, plus one additional Covid year). Although the school declined to give specifics on why it asked for an additional waiver season for Marchese, it’s clear the roster uncertainty created by the portal impacted the school’s decision.
Football programs are allowed to add 25 new scholarship recruits each year, per NCAA rules. The NCAA grants an allotment of no more than seven scholarships above the 25 cap number to account for losses due to the portal. Even with the allowable extras, roster management can be a headache for coaches.
“Everyone wants to talk about NIL (name, image and likeness) but my biggest concern is the transfer portal especially when you are a coach taking over a program,” Bielema said, who completed his first season as Illinois coach in 2021. “Even when you get these seven extended scholarships you may not be able to get to 85 by addition of players. It should be one in, one out. To me there is no other way to go around it. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous we don’t do it that way.”
“The idea of players being eligible right away is good. The execution of it through the portal is the problem,” Sirius XM college football analyst Rick Neuheisal said on his “Full Ride” radio show. “But it’s here to stay and you have to be active in it.”
One Chicagoland player used the transfer portal to get out of DeKalb, IL and find a new home in the state of Indiana.
Ryan Mann graduated from Vernon Hills High School in 2021. An all-conference two-way player for the Cougars, Mann accepted a preferred walk-on offer from Northern Illinois University with designs of continuing his football career in DeKalb.
“It’s Division 1 FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) and everyone wants to play at the highest level,” Mann said.
When Mann arrived in DeKalb last summer, the Huskies coaching staff put him at the linebacker position. A true freshman, the 6-foot, 210-pound Mann was low on the depth chart. Inconsistent reps in practice did not yield any action in games.
At the mid-season point in 2021, Mann had an honest conversation with his coaches.
“We talked about what expectations were and where I stood,” Mann said. “They were pretty honest and said it was hard for me as they had their guys and were recruiting the next class.”
There were two major issues at play for Mann.
One, his fall senior high school season of 2020 was cancelled. That’s normally a time when recruits can use game film to be evaluated and visit college campuses. Covid-related restrictions that fall closed off campus visits. Although Mann did get to play a senior season, it was not played until March and April 2021, well after the timeframe when colleges evaluate recruits.
The other problem for Mann was the extra year given to athletes by the NCAA due to Covid. Players who would normally graduate, opening up roster spots for new recruits, chose to say put.
“It was tough, hard to work your way up,” Mann said. “(These events) screwed my class and the classes below for three or four years.”
Mann did not see an on-field snap in 2021, a season that saw the Huskies win the Mid-American Conference West Division and finish with nine victories.
He saw the writing on the wall – that he did not have a football future in DeKalb.
In December 2021, he put his name in the transfer portal.
Shortly after, Mann was in contact with coaches from Valparaiso University (Valparaiso, IN).
A Division 1 FCS (Football Championship Sub-Division) school, the Beacons recruited Mann while in high school. Those previous relationships mattered when Mann decided to enroll at Valparaiso.
“I knew it would be a good option. They heavily recruited me out of high school,” Mann said. “I’d been to the campus, I knew it. I knew the coaches had interest in me.”
Almost instantly after Mann arrived in early January for classes and winter workouts, he realized he made the right choice.
“I met a bunch of guys that are all super cool and bunch of kids on my (dorm) floor. It’s much more welcoming and social than (NIU),” Mann said.
Football-wise, Mann said he expects to play linebacker or running back this fall for the Beacons. Valpo head coach Landon Fox said this about Mann: “Ryan has a good combination of size and speed. He is a one-cut guy who can get downhill. He can be physical at the point of attack and also go the distance.”
Mann enters Sunday’s spring game competing for playing time but is not in a situation with five or six players already ahead of him on the depth chart.
An opportunity to play – that’s all collegiate athletes truly want.
Thursday night, Michael Marchese will suit up for the Fighting Illini in the school’s spring game to be played at Memorial Stadium.
Tuesday, the school announced that Marchese would be the first athlete chosen for the Tim McCarthy Scholarship, awarded to a walk-on player each season beginning in 2022.
McCarthy, a graduate of Chicago’s Leo Catholic High School, walked on to the Illinois football team in the late 1960’s before eventually earning a scholarship.
In 1981, while working for the Secret Service, McCarthy was shot while protecting President Ronald Reagan during an assassination attempt. He survived the bullet wound, remains alive, his legacy as a Fighting Illini football player now passed on through Marchese.
"It is an honor to be the first recipient of the Tim McCarthy Scholarship," Marchese said. "I am very happy to represent someone like Tim McCarthy, who embodies what being an Illini is all about. I am very thankful to Coach Bielema, the football staff, and my teammates for this opportunity."
Some find new opportunities by staying put, like Marchese. Others, like Mann, must leave in search of more advantageous landing spots elsewhere.
Either way, the player movement era in college football – and all athletics – is here to stay.
“It’s like a seventh grade science project. It takes one variable to figure out what the experiment is. There’s a reason the stuff went boom, because you put this one ingredient into it. We have four ingredients,” Bielema said. “We have the Covid-year bonus, we have the NIL, we got the transfer portal and we got grad transfers. All four of those together has created an environment where no one knows what’s going on.”
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