Cory Knowlton-Imagn Images
It’s hard to envy the athletic programs that have to deal with the unprecedented roster churn that’s become a defining aspect of the current era of college sports. That issue has impacted basketball teams across the country, and one stat highlights just how little loyalty remains when it comes to spending the entirety of your years as an undergrad with one team.
There was once a time when finishing your career as a college athlete with the team you joined out of high school was the norm as opposed to an exception. It wasnt necessarily rare to see players transfer, but the rules were designed to discourage them from doing so by making them sit out a year before they were eligible to suit up for a new team in the majority of cases.
However, the NCAA has rolled out a series of changes over the past decade or so that have transformed the landscape of college athletics to the point where it looks borderline unrecognizable compared to where we were 10 years ago.
The first major change on that front came in 2018 when the NCAA rolled out the transfer portal, which was introduced in conjunction with a new policy that repealed the rule that had previously required student-athletes to obtain permission from the school they played for if they wanted to speak with another one.
However, the biggest shift occurred courtesy of the perfect storm that formed in 2021. In April of that year, the NCAA instituted the one-time transfer rule that eliminated the aforementioned mandatory hiatus, which was announced less than three months before the Supreme Court issued the ruling that ushered in the NIL Era.
We’re close to five years removed from that tectonic shift, and if you want an idea of just how much things have changed, there’s a pretty jaw-dropping number that sums it up.
Only 22 seniors capping off their time with “Power 5” men’s basketball teams this season spent the entirety of their career at the same school
The Big 12, Big Ten, SEC, Big East, and ACC collectively boast 75 men’s basketball teams that belong to the conferences that are considered the cream of the crop, and up to 1,125 players can play for one of them at any given time based on the roster limit of 15 guys.
On Tuesday, Isaac Trotter of CBS Sports called attention to a pretty illuminating number concerning the seniors on a scholarship at one of those schools who will soon see their time in college come to an end, as he noted just 22 of those outgoing talents will be wrapping up their career with the only team they played for.
There are only 22 high-major scholarship players who will celebrate Senior Night this week, having played at just one place. Mississippi State’s Shawn Jones Jr. is the only SEC senior to finish where he started.
Dozens of coaching changes and the transfer portal have led to this pic.twitter.com/5GNnAU55qJ
— Isaac Trotter (@Isaac__Trotter) March 3, 2026
The lone SEC player he mentioned is on a list that also includes UNC’s Seth Trimble, Iowa State’s Tamin Lipsey, Ohio State’s Bruce Thornton, Clemson’s Dillon Hunter, and Michigan’s Will Tschetter.
There are also multiple schools with multiple players who fit the bill; Braden Smith and Fletcher Loyer started and finished at Purdue, and Jaxon Kohler, Carson Cooper, and Nick Sanders only played for Michigan State.
I can’t say I blame players who decide to bounce around in an era where they have plenty of incentive to do exactly that, but I feel like you also have to respect the guys who resist the urge to join the fray and honor their initial commitment based on how rare their breed has become.