Two-way contracts in college basketball? One mid-major coach's bold idea to adapt to transfer portal chaos
The transfer portal deadline hit at midnight ET Wednesday, ending the liveliest and most congested transfer cycle in college basketball history. More than 2,200 players who are not walk-ons (and are currently eligible) put their names into the portal over the past month.
That much activity has led to a record-setting amount of money being promised across college hoops, in addition to new levels of widespread anxiety amongst coaches and athletic directors. These topsy-turvy portal times are leading some to seek solutions to an environment that, even if the House case settlement allays some of the issues, probably won't induce a massive reduction in player transplants moving forward.
Mid-majors have been gutted across college basketball. Where's the hope? Well, instead of doing what many other coaches have been doing — contributing to therapy-session text chains daily or making grousing phone calls to fellow coaches for the past month — Albany coach Dwayne Killings has been brainstorming one potential workaround: two-way contracts.
Well, sort of.
Similar to two-way deals in the pros, with players fluctuating between G League and NBA rosters, Killings wants to turn his America East program into a developmental system for high-majors. In an effort to be creative in the ever-changing landscape of college sports, Killings is trying to improve his team while also using a moneyball-type approach to bring a little more stability to power-conference programs, in addition to his own.
Developing players to return to power-conference teamsHere's the idea: Many high-major schools wind up with players that, for whatever reasons, aren't prepared to play at that level when they get there. (Sometimes, the player and the coaching staff only realize this after the fact.) Instead of sticking around for four years to develop, most of these players now leave after one season if things don't go the way they hoped.
The self-aware guys who bounce typically transfer down to a level much more suited to their skill sets. And then, sometimes, those same players wind up working their way back to the high-major level at 20, 21 or 22 years old, when they're truly capable of making an impact. What if there was a way to avoid a lot of the uncertainty that comes with transferring and, instead, pragmatically track a potential path back to the high-majors?
That's exactly what Killings is proposing.
He wants down-transfers from bigger programs to come to UAlbany, with special favorable conditions attached for players: He'll develop them, help in their pursuit of a degree, and then after a year or two, send these players back to their initial high-major spot.
"We are speaking to coaches about identifying a player that, if he left the high-major ranks to come to Albany, a place with a recently renovated $16 million arena, to get the opportunity to develop through playing, this could present a partnership that could change college recruiting as we move into the post-House settlement area," Killings told CBS Sports. "The reason why this idea came about is become of my experience in the G League. During my time there, I watched a lot of players develop for the NBA. We're moving to a model like that in modern-day college basketball."
The obvious catch: The player would need to agree to this proposition, as would the power-conference coach, but it's a bold idea amid an unstable transfer ecosystem. Other programs — ones at the Atlantic 10, WCC and Mountain West level — could be fertile proving grounds for this experiment. It's not expected to work every time, but it could work some of the time. To Killings, it's a route worth taking — especially at this point, when solutions are hard to come by.
Increased playing time and production at mid-major levelHere's more on how a so-called two-way deal (I call them boomerang transfers) could work between high-majors and mid-majors. A power-conference program with a promising-but-inconsistent player offers to send said player on a developmental path to UAlbany. This scholarship player would be assured more playing time, Killings said. The selling point centers around playing a full season — first against a few high-majors in the early portion of the nonconference schedule before transitioning to mid-major competition — providing better route for basketball growth instead of grinding in practice for six months without true stakes attached at the high-major level.
"The best development happens on the floor, not necessarily on the scout team, given the new 15-man scholarship limits," Killings said.
An expected forthcoming change in roster limitations would help make this vision more practical. Currently, schools are permitted 13 players on scholarship. The House settlement is poised to up that number to 15, with the elimination of walk-ons. Killings' plan would be to fill his roster with 15 players, with three, four or five of those players being boomerang transfers who could return to whence they came after growing into better Division I athletes.
What about the money? The player would still get theirs. In Killings' vision, the high-major's NIL collective could/would donate to UAlbany's collective to help pay the player — perhaps at a rate they were getting to begin with, sort of like an insurance policy. The player would continue to earn on their NIL deal(s), provided they remain academically eligible and meet the standards of both programs that agreed to the swap.
The question then becomes: Is transferring NIL money through collectives a legal transaction in 2025? Given there's no precedent for it, and absent strict NCAA jurisdiction over collective activities, one compliance source suggested it could/should be permissible — because it's never happened.
"The [high-major] collective receives compensation for the developmental year," Killings said. "At the conclusion of the season, the high-major program has first right of refusal to the said player if he elects to go into the portal. It's a win-win for both programs, as it frees up a roster spot, addresses a need at Albany and helps the player develop."
Killings is about to enter his fifth season with the Great Danes and is coming off a 17-16 campaign. He told me he's been in contact about this idea with programs in the Big East and Big Ten already. One coach he spoke with was especially intrigued with the idea, Killings said.
"The other direction is, I'm at a high-major and there's a kid I really like, but he's a year away from when I need him, so I want Albany to take him," Killings said. "It can be an incremental step in this weird cycle."
He's also using a company called 32 Analytics to vet the fits and evaluate which players could be candidates. Killings is a former transfer himself; he started his career at UMass (1999-2001), then finished at Hampton ('01-03). He understands a lot of the expectations at the high-major level, having previously served as an assistant at Marquette and Connecticut. At the very least, it's an idea seeking a solution to help alleviate the current chaotic environment in portal recruiting, which is a lot more than most other coaches can say they're contributing at the moment.
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