Women’s March Madness has been nothing short of exciting. Caitlin Clark and Iowa won a battle against Georgia to advance to the Sweet 16, while Aliyah Boston and South Carolina received a first half scare before rolling on as well. But the biggest story of the tournament, has to be the number 1 seeded Stanford Cardinal, losing to Ole Miss in just the second round. And to be clear, number 1 seeds almost always make the Elite 8 at least, historically. Women’s college basketball is changing, and it’s the transfer portal’s fault.

Ole Miss leveraged the transfer portal

Ole Miss beating Stanford isn’t just a battle between 2 power conference opponents. Stanford has been so good that they have made the tournament every single year since 1988! And the last time they were eliminated this early was 2007. And this loss feels a bit different, because of who they lost to. Ole Miss is a team that has 8 transfer players, many of them with years of college basketball experience. The transfer portal appears to be here to stay, and that means that any program can reload their roster with quality from year to year. And these teams are especially dangerous come tournament time because they need time to learn how to play together. But after tip off, it is Ole Miss who had the more experienced basketball team.

Division 1 is leveraging the transfer portal

And with that gap closing, Stanford’s unfortunate loss will likely be the first of many upsets in the coming years. Because it is clear that the transfer portal has closed the gap in recruiting between the most well known programs, and everyone else. Toledo already beat Iowa State in the first round, and that’s a team that had 4 top 100 recruits in the year 2020 alone. But Toledo has 4 transfer players themselves. And Florida Gulf Coast beat Washington State, and they have 10 transfers in total!

Talent is dispersing all throughout the NCAA

What this means is that no team is safe, because Stanford and their peers in the power conferences, are competing to not only recruit their players, but to keep them, before they end up playing quite literally for the other team. Consider that a transfer player not only comes in with experience, but knowledge of how another program is being run. That experience multiplied across half a roster of women that buy in to their coaching, makes for a very tough out. Up until a few years ago, teams like Stanford, South Carolina, and UConn could simply recruit the best and swap them in and out of the rotation, as needed from year to year. Four and five star recruits would just wait their turn, knowing that soon, they too will be competing for a national title. But players always got tired of waiting, and the portal now suggests that they don’t have to.

The Bottom Line

Ole Miss decided that the future is now. Ending the careers of Haley Jones and Fran Belibi, prematurely. But they call it madness for a reason, and that means no team is safe. The men’s bracket already knows this, but the day’s of riding the number 1 seeds through your women’s bracket are likely over as well. Because to be the best you have to beat the best. And one thing is for certain, that some of college basketball’s best players will be wearing new uniforms next year, with a chip on their shoulders, and perhaps a bid to March Madness to go right along with it.

KNOW THE GAME. WIN THE GAME.

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