Manny Diaz has Suggestion to Fix Transfers in College Athletics

The Duke Blue Devils surprised a lot of people last season when they won the Atlantic Coast Conference Championship and then won their bowl game. They took that into the offseason with some confidence. 

But then the nature of college athletics happened and reality set in.

With quarterback Darian Mensah set to return for another year as a key piece of the roster, Duke had high hopes this season. Then Mensah made a big decision that changed the ACC landscape and potentially the college landscape when he transferred to Miami at the last minute. 

Mensah's departure changed Duke's outlook at the quarterback position. Walker Eget has been good so far, but he's not at the talent level that Mensah is at where he can elevate a program. The loss hurt for Duke despite them being 4-1 but that's just the reality of college athletics and unfortunately for Duke, they are victim to it. 

Even with Manny Diaz finding a way to get to 4-1, it still bothered the head coach at least early on. But recently, Diaz spoke on the transfer rules and offered up a potential solution. 

While appearing on On3's Andy & Ari show with Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman, he believes there should be a fee for transfers. He pointed to how programs with more money and resources can make more mistakes in recruiting and the portal because they can "pay for their mistakes." 

A fee could solve those issues, in terms of programs being able to pluck a player off of someone else's roster. He pointed to European soccer as an example where you can get a transfer fee, letting you invest in your roster and your players or go elsewhere to do that. 

His point makes sense. But Diaz has been on both sides of the transfer portal in terms of adding and losing players, specifically Mensah. After a big season at Tulane in 2024, Duke landed the quarterback in the portal, and no fee was paid to Tulane for that. So it does go both ways.

However, there should be an overall agreement that the portal needs some guidelines and rules otherwise, we continue to head down a dangerous path in terms of the portal and what's allowed. Let's hope some common sense prevails with whatever solution is out there, whether it be in the short term or the long term. 

Diaz and the Blue Devils will get a chance at some revenge when they play Mensah and his former team Miami this season.