HBCU coaches grapple with top players leaving for Power 4 programs

Conference play in the Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) and the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) looks markedly different this basketball season, not because of schematic shifts or coaching turnover, but because many of the top men’s players from a season ago are gone.

Of the 24 all-conference players last year with remaining eligibility, 16 transferred to larger programs ahead of this season.

Among those players is Florida A&M guard Sterling Young, the 2025 SWAC Player of the Year, who now plays for Indiana State. Blake Harper, the 2025 MEAC Player of the Year, transferred from Howard to Creighton for the 2025-26 season. Harper was the MEAC’s second consecutive player of the year to enter the transfer portal, following Norfolk State’s Jamarii Thomas, the 2024 Player of the Year, who transferred to South Carolina.

On the women’s side, the MEAC also lost Howard’s Destiny Howell and Norfolk State’s Kierra Wheeler, the 2023 and 2024 conference players of the year, respectively. Howell transferred to Wisconsin and Wheeler to West Virginia.

As Power 4 programs use NIL resources and immediate eligibility rules to woo talented players, coaches at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) are navigating a new landscape where retaining athletes as a mid-major program has become increasingly difficult. 

Seeing Harper enter the transfer portal gave Howard head men’s basketball coach Kenneth Blakeney a feeling of déjà vu as the Bison have lost star players each year since 2023: Elijah Hawkins, who transferred to Minnesota, and Steve Settle III, who transferred to Temple, in 2023; Shy Odom, who transferred to Vermont in 2024; and Harper last year.

Harper told Sports Illustrated that agents were reaching out to him before he concluded his season last year. For many HBCU coaches, poaching or tampering with players during the season is nothing new.

“Tampering, it’s been going on since the beginning of time,” Blakeney said. “There’s always been parameters and rules around that, but that’s never going to stop.”

The cycle has become so familiar that Blakeney said jokingly that Howard should market itself as a pipeline to lucrative Power 4 NIL deals. He described the process of rebuilding his roster each year as emotionally numbing but strategically necessary.

“The portal takes it, but the portal gives it, too,” Blakeney said. “It’s luck, relationships, and having young men that want to buy in. You don’t have years to build your program anymore. You have months.”

The Howard women’s basketball program has experienced similar turnover. After finishing runner-up in the MEAC championship game last season, the Bison lost two of their top three scorers – Howell and Saniyah King (Mississippi State).

Despite those departures, Howard is 17-7 overall and 7-1 in the MEAC. Head coach Ty Grace attributes the success to the program’s ability to adapt.

“You can’t get too bogged down about things that happen in the offseason. You have to make sure you start planning for what’s to come,” Grace said. “We had to make the adjustment, and we did. We just tried to find the right player that I could coach, that wanted to be at Howard, that was talented, that wanted to win.

“Everybody’s making different decisions and for the best interest of themselves. And you know, we just got to do what’s best for the program, and that’s what I feel like we did.”

Coaches say there is no single reason players enter the transfer portal.

Some student-athletes leave because they are unhappy with their relationship with the coaching staff or feel the reality of the program does not match what they expected. Others believe a move to a Power 4 school can elevate their exposure. In some cases, players have also cited pressure from family and friends to pursue larger monetary opportunities.

In response, HBCU coaches are preparing for annual turnover by getting more strategic and creative with roster construction. They are aggressively using the transfer portal to replace outgoing talent by identifying players who fit their culture and system, and they also are doubling down on local and regional recruiting relationships, hoping to persuade players to invest in the program for more than one season.

Norfolk State head men’s basketball coach Robert Jones, one of the most successful coaches in the MEAC with three conference championships and three NCAA tournament appearances, has embraced the reality rather than resisting it. Jones has experienced his fair share of losing players to the transfer portal, including Brian Moore Jr., the Spartans’ leading scorer last season. He transferred to Grand Canyon.

Jones said his recruiting philosophy centers on finding players with a chip on their shoulder who are motivated to prove themselves. While some prospects initially chase big NIL promises elsewhere, he and his staff stay patient, knowing there always will be players looking for a chance to compete and develop their skills.

Jones said he has also turned player departures into a recruiting pitch.

“I hate that we have to do this, but you have to say, ‘Hey, if you come here, you get stats. You might not get, you know, a whole bunch of NIL money, but you can get the stats that you need or want to go get the NIL money in the future,’” Jones said.

“That’s part of the game that I don’t like, but it’s something that if you want to survive this thing you gotta adapt to.”

Longtime Texas Southern head men’s basketball coach Johnny Jones said the gap between high-major resources and HBCU realities is undeniable but not paralyzing. While NIL disparities persist, he believes transparency and relationships remain critical.

“If you have the right relationship with your guys, you’ll know at the end of the day what’s happening with them,” he said. “You want to make sure it’s positive for them while they’re spending their time with us. … They explore those [opportunities] at the end of the day.

“We’re not immune to it because those kids even in the SWAC have opportunities, and some kids have moved on and had success. I don’t think that’s something that’s going to stop anytime soon.”

Alabama A&M head women’s basketball coach Dawn Thornton views the transfer portal through a professional lens, embracing NIL, revenue sharing and compensation tied to potential.

Thornton previously was head coach at Arkansas-Pine Bluff. A few weeks after she left UAPB in April 2024 for her current role, her former players Zaay Green and Maya Peat transferred to Alabama and Texas Tech, respectively. Thornton said she remains in close contact with both players and encouraged them to pursue bigger opportunities.

“We’ve seen a lot of top [HBCU] players end up going to Power 4. … You want to see what’s on the other side and nothing’s wrong with that,” she said. “I’m sure that if a lot of HBCU coaches got phone calls from P4 schools, they’ll pick up the phone and answer it and see what that call is like and entertain that also.”

Thornton said the current transfer portal and revenue-sharing landscape represent just the latest cycle of change in college basketball. Longevity in coaching now depends on understanding that today’s athletes have different personalities, expectations and needs than the previous generations, she said.

“If you want to keep your job, you better adapt,” Thornton said. “I could sit here and still coach my kids like I got coached 20 years ago, and I will be without a job. There are more ways to get your point across. There are more ways for you to build team camaraderie. There’s more ways for you to support your athletes than what the traditional way has been.”

As the talent exiting HBCUs accelerates, HBCU coaches are actively proposing solutions.

A Duke alumnus, Blakeney understands the allure of high-major basketball firsthand, but he is now exploring ways for Howard to be better compensated in an era when developing elite talent often ends up benefiting someone else’s roster.

According to Blakeney, most NCAA coaches have a buyout clause in their contracts. If a coach leaves the university before the end of their contract, they have to pay a predetermined fee to the university. He has floated the idea of a similar player buyout system as a way for HBCUs to be compensated when talent they developed leaves.

“I think everybody should be committed to a two-year deal, and there should be guardrails,” Blakeney said. “If they break that two-year deal agreement, they should have to sit out a year, or they should have to pay 20% of their NIL deal that they get.”

North Carolina Central head coach LeVelle Moton has advocated for reinstating a transfer sit-out year, arguing it would restore academic and athletic balance for players transferring multiple times, and it might incentivize current mid-major players to not transfer.

“If you transfer, you should have to sit out a year,” he said. “At least then you’re not leaving a university short on your degree.”

Norfolk State’s Jones believes systemic change in the NIL landscape is required for HBCUs to stabilize rosters long term.

“Norfolk State would be a nationally ranked team because you could just go buy the good players. They don’t care about all the bells and whistles no more. They don’t care about the practice facility,” he said. “So if HBCUs are able to get really interested in NIL space, like some of the big boys, you’re going to see a Top 25 HBCU team because this is what these kids care about now, the dollar.

“HBCUs have to see the value in putting more money into NIL and revenue sharing to get these student-athletes to stay,” he continued. “Until we see the value in that, it’s going to be like this all the time.”

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