CORVALLIS – Oregon State’s basketball rosters are under siege.
The NCAA transfer portal is heavily populated with Beavers looking to become former Beavers. Less than two weeks after reaching the women’s NCAA Tournament Elite Eight, eight Oregon State players – with one to three years of eligibility remaining – opted to enter the transfer portal. An equal number from the OSU men are also in the portal.
Among the 16 looking for another school are the biggest names of Oregon State basketball: Jordan Pope, Raegan Beers, Tyler Bilodeau, Timea Gardiner.
What happened?
The answers run deep. Sources tell The Oregonian/OregonLive the primary reasons Oregon State players are asking out are the school’s temporary move to the West Coast Conference, better name, image and likeness (NIL) opportunities elsewhere and exposure for a potential professional future.
As it attempts to rebuild the Pac-12 or position itself should the remaining four Power 4 conferences have further realignment, OSU is playing basketball in the WCC the next two years. Many current players signed to play Power 5 competition as a Pac-12 school. That opportunity won’t exist at least for the 2024-25 season.
“To sit here and tell you that the WCC is the same as the Pac-12, well, obviously, that’s not accurate,” Oregon State athletic director Scott Barnes said. “But there are other ways to skin that cat in the short term as we find a permanent home.
“As we look back and we see where we sit, I want to remind folks that we’re in a much better position than we thought we might be. We will take some hits and deal with them accordingly.”
Those hits include 2024-25 basketball rosters that take a lot of imagination to measure up to the teams of this past season. The transfer portal losses add up to 82% of the 2023-24 scoring from the women’s team, and 80% for the men.
Perhaps it was inevitable, and at least a temporary reset due. Could it be as simple as restocking the Oregon State basketball rosters with players willing to embrace a strong nonconference and WCC schedule?
Barnes is uneasy agreeing with that, though he understands those leaving came to OSU to fulfill Pac-12 dreams. He said that “it’s unrealistic to think” the basketball teams wouldn’t lose players due to the change of conferences.
Barnes insists, though, that Oregon State and its culture hasn’t changed.
“This place is special. Student athletes know it when they’re here. How do you lean into that, find kids that want that, they crave for that, they’ll thrive in that existence?” Barnes said. “Those that come now, know what they’re facing. WCC basketball, a chance to win at a high level and play really good competition in and outside the conference.”
Oregon State must figure out what’s important to its basketball players.
For the women’s team, it’s difficult to make a case that winning is the most important. The Beavers had a team of returning players that, on paper, was a certain preseason top 10 squad and capable of making a Final Four run. Instead, eight players opted to look elsewhere, primarily for a better conference and NIL opportunities.
Barnes sees the latter as immense college athletics problem, not just Oregon State. He’s troubled that athletes are “starting to foster a mindset” of enrolling at a school and building their statistics to make themselves attractive for a better NIL deal at another school. Transfer rules are becoming increasingly liberal. Barnes said “it’s absolute nonsense,” the combination of NIL and loose transfer policies.
“It’s unhealthy for college athletics, and first and foremost it’s unhealthy for the student athlete. Graduation rates are suffering. Life lessons of persevering, of overcoming challenges where you are, that carry you forward into your job and your career are dissipating because of this, in some form,” Barnes said.
“We all understand that flexibility is important. But at this point in time, particularly the fuel that NIL is, the gas that’s been thrown on the fire here, it’s out of control. It just is.”
That may be, but Oregon State must deal with the realities of NIL. For OSU, most of its NIL opportunities come from Dam Nation Collective, which operates outside the university. Barnes said OSU has “great alignment” philosophically with Dam Nation, and he trusts its co-founders, Kyle Bjornstad and Dick Oldfield. Barnes said more collectives could be in the offing, as well as hiring NIL-related staffers within the athletic department.
“We’ve been able to, in the short term, stay relevant. But that won’t last forever,” Barnes said.
Barnes’ ballpark estimate of what Oregon State needs to satisfy NIL demands is $5-7 million for all its sports teams, though he adds “like any market, there’s always correction.” Football leads the way for NIL dollars, and next up is basketball.
Did Oregon State attempt to retain key basketball players by making attractive NIL offers? Bjornstad said in the case of the men’s top two players, Jordan Pope and Tyler Bilodeau, “I was overly aggressive.” A source told The Oregonian/OregonLive that Bilodeau had a NIL offer of low six figures, and Pope about double that.
Bjornstad is confident he made good NIL offers to several women’s players for the upcoming season. He declined to reveal amounts.
“I feel excellent about what we’re able to do for the athletes. What keeps me up at night is, are there other factors, alongside NIL, that they have to think about?” Bjornstad said.
“We’re being very aggressive. I have tried to do everything I can to at least take that part of the equation off the table and turn it into a non-issue.”
As for issues regarding the basketball coach’s contracts, Barnes said he’s in constant communication with women’s coach Scott Rueck. He has a contract that runs through 2031. Barnes feels good about Rueck’s future at Oregon State. Currently, Barnes’ work with Rueck is about transfers and creating an enticing nonconference schedule that could require financial resources.
The men’s situation is murkier. Coach Wayne Tinkle’s contract has $8.7 million and three years remaining. The Beavers are coming off three consecutive losing seasons. Barnes declined comment when asked if he’s unable to make a move due to the high cost of firing Tinkle.
Before season’s end, Barnes said he was retaining Tinkle because the roster was young, improving and ready to show its maturity next season. With eight players in the transfer portal, that thesis is gone.
Now what? With only six players remaining on scholarship, the Beavers have no choice but to build their 2024-25 roster through the transfer portal.
Never a dull week in Oregon State athletics since the Pac-12 cratered in August.
“We have to do things differently. We’ve got to create our own opportunities, and that’s what Wayne has to do,” Barnes said.
Nick Daschel covers Oregon State athletics, in particular football and basketball, and can be reached at 360-607-4824, ndaschel@oregonian.com or @nickdaschel.
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