MSU's Izzo Calls Out Tampering Once Again

“The transfer portal is way worse than the NIL, even though who knows how much money you have to come up with," Izzo said. "But what the transfer portal does is it gives a lot of middle men a chance to come in and what I think is bothering me and my sport the most is the way people are tampering with people throughout the year and that (rule) would eliminate some of that. 

“Even in the NFL, NBA, you don’t tamper with a guy who's got a four-year contract. You're not even thinking about it. I went on that rant during the NCAA Tournament last year about — why is all the interest now on the portal when it opened, right? 

“I said ‘The portal’s been open since September.’ The portal never closes because we have too many dirtbags that are tampering with people and players.”

Izzo also called tampering "the worst thing I see (in college sports)," and said a one-time transfer rule would help with that.

Izzo also said on Rothstein's podcast that the portal and fundraising make being a coach a much more year-round job than it was in the past, where he could perhaps relax a bit more during summers after his annual high school class would all be signed.

This Izzo mini-rant gets posted just a day after he spoke out about how he uses the transfer portal and how this era of college basketball is also different.

“There’s a football saying that ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going,’" Izzo said at a coaches clinic in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday. "The new saying now is ‘When the going gets tough, get the hell out of Dodge.'”

Reward of Coaching Last Year's Team

Another thing that was discussed on the podcast was the level of reward for Izzo on last year's squad that went 30-7, won the Big Ten outright, and made the Elite Eight.

“I still think there’s nothing like winning a (national) championship or going to a Final Four, but if I look at it from a rewarding state, last year was pretty rewarding because I just had so little locker room problems," Izzo said.

"I had so little off-the-court (issues). Academically, we were great, and I had a bunch of guys that got along. That’s hard this day and age because of so many different, moving parts coming in and out of your programs.”

There was also the fact that many didn't anticipate the level of success that MSU ended up happening. Michigan State was unranked in the preseason AP Poll and was picked to finish fifth in the conference in a preseason poll conducted by the Columbus Dispatch and Indianapolis Star.

“It was really rewarding because we weren’t picked that high, and rightfully so," Izzo said. "You guys (the media) didn’t make a mistake. We had a good team. It wasn’t maybe my top 20 most talented team, but it was maybe in my top five most together teams.”

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