Grambling State head coach Mickey Joseph has coached at the Power Five/Four level as well as at multiple HBCU programs.
Joseph, who just wrapped up his first season at the iconic HBCU football program, recently did an interview in which he talked about the transfer portal.
The former LSU assistant and Nebraska interim head coach knows that the best players in his program will always be pursued by bigger schools with better resources — and most of the time they will lose.
“We understand,” Joseph told local media. “I think the kids understand if they’re here and they’re sophomores and they have a big year and a Group of Five or Power Five approaches them and they have the finances to pull them out of there and I can’t match the finances — then you know what — they’re gonna go. That’s part of it. Coaches been doing it for years. So we shouldn’t get mad as coaches when these kids make decisions to take care of their family. I’m going to say it again — coaches’ been doing it for years.”
However Joseph says he believes there should be some compensation owed when his HBCU or other schools lose players to bigger schools.
“But I also think there needs to be a buyout. If they move up from me and go up to a Group of Five/Power Five, I should get kind of a compensation for that. So NCAA, if you’re listening to me — I need a buyout.”
Joseph isn’t the first HBCU coach to propose such an exchange. Last year Norfolk State men’s basketball head coach Robert Jones.
“Unpopular opinion: what if college players have buyouts like college coaches?” Jones posted on X last May. “Players/coaches should be able to go wherever they want BUT when a coach leave(s) he has to pay back a buyout clause usually. Well what about if a player leave(s) he pays a % of his new NIL deal? Hmmmm.”
So far, there have been no official proposal to the NCAA on behalf of smaller schools looking to get compensation when losing athletes to bigger schools. Could the HBCU world lead the way on that?
Let us know in the comments below.