Stay put or move on? Abrupt endings portend portal-based beginnings

Iowa State's basketball seasons end as football springs anew — and in the NIL era chaos reigns as players FINALLY have some agency amid a virtually lawless landscape

Apr 01, 2025

ANKENY — “The grass is greener where you water it.”

green grass in close up photography — Photo by Darius Cotoi on Unsplash

Those words helped frame what Iowa State star women’s basketball player deemed to be a necessary statement — a reaffirmation of her commitment to head coach Bill Fennelly’s program. That’s the world college athletes, coaches and fans alike now live in, where any sense of place seems illusory, and wandering in the well-heeled wilderness can reap rewards.

Cash flows and loyalties shift or solidify. May the best “culture” win.

So Crooks will be back.* So will fellow Cyclones star Addy Brown.* And the Iowa State men’s basketball team will welcome back a strong core of returners in Nate Heise, Joshua Jefferson, Tamin Lipsey and Milan Momcilovic.*

*denotes that the portal remains active and volatile, and doesn’t close until April 22.

How did we get here? Obviously, greed. The NCAA refused to acknowledge the inherent unfairness (to put it mildly) of its faux-earnest “student-athlete-based model,” where billions of dollars were funneled to its coffers, while players, er, “student-athletes,” got room and board and a scholarship and nothing more.

Take it or leave it. Then the courts intervened and the scheme began to unravel. The NCAA’s losses piled up. Enter the NIL era — the good, the bad, and the ugly (and mostly good, I say, because of the utter injustice and highway robbery that preceded it).

So here we are. NIL will eventually be replaced or “reformed” under some sort of regulatory regime. For now, it’s the wild west. A virtually lawless new frontier filled with glittering possibilities and bottomless pits of regret, depending on choices made and machinations deployed.

It is what it is, as the tired but revealing phrase of resignation goes.

And Crooks and company will stay put.* The grass isn’t always greener somewhere else, but sometimes it is.* Players come and go and expect plenty of new additions to ISU’s hoops programs this spring.* Especially on the men’s side, which will meld its core of returners with an impressive freshman class as well as a handful of portal-based newcomers.*

*denotes that the portal remains active and volatile, and doesn’t close until April 22.

“Obviously looking forward to next year,” Momcilovic said after his team’s second-round NCAA Tournament loss to Ole Miss in Milwaukee.

That’s all he and everyone else can do, as the good, bad and ugly aspects of the NIL era converge.

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