Sliders was a kickass show.
Yes it was basically Quantum Leap with Jerry O'Connell and Gimli, but it leaned all the way into the inherent insanity of the premise of a ragtag group of people bouncing around to alternate dimensions and decided that yeah, we should have an episode where America is a monarchy where men have childbirth and we have one of the cast members get pregnant. Or an episode where it's just the wild west and it's 60 minutes of duels. Or one where a big dog is the mayor and everyone has to pretend to be a dog.
I made that last one up but you get the idea.
Anyway, the exciting thing about Sliders (at least for an 11 year old kid like me) was the possibilities of each new destination. As the show went on, it was clear the writers hadn't actually put in the legwork to come up with new ideas for where these nerds should go, and you'd get episodes like "everybody's Amish" or "it's a wasteland, again." I don't know why it took them three seasons to get to dinosaur world but I'm not a fancy Hollywood writer.
There was supposed to be some interesting news about the NCAA's potential one-time transfer rule back in January.
The scheduled transfer rules change vote would address the five remaining Division I sports in which athletes generally are prohibited from playing for one year if they change schools.
But!
The NCAA Division I Council on Monday decided to table votes that had been scheduled on proposed changes to rules regarding athletes’ ability to transfer and to make money from the use of their names, images and likenesses, the association announced.
When this news came out, most of the attention was focused (and rightly so) and the name/image/likeness part of the deal. In part because college athletes deserve to have control over their literal face but also in part because people want a damn NCAA Football game and are apparently super stoked that EA Sports will eventually provide them some half-assed reskin of Madden 22.
But there's also the fact that the one year penalty for transferring isn't deterring anyone, despite the risks:
The transfer portal hit a milestone today as 1,723 players have entered since it reset on Aug. 1. That means we've had more FBS entries in 6 1/2 months than any previous full 12-month cycle. @247SportsPortal
— Chris Hummer (@chris_hummer) February 18, 2021
2020-21: 1,723
2019-20: 1,695
2018-19: 1,720https://t.co/r7KBhyzrIf
Hummer wrote an interesting article related to this, noting that fewer than half of the 3 to 5 star transfers from FBS schools stay at that level once they decide to make the move. He calls this "transfer portal purgatory," and that's probably an apt name for it. But the thing about purgatory, at least dogmatically, is that it's supposed to be a temporary state of being. The hope that one day a player will be able to finally slide into their proper and desired destination is what keeps the portal alive and buzzing.
Two of Ohio State football's most important players from this past season were famously transfers. I thought that I might feel weird about Justin Fields establishing himself as one of the greatest Buckeye quarterbacks of all time, or Trey Sermon breaking the single game rushing record, but I didn't and I don't. Maybe that'd have been different in a time when the Ohio State Buckeyes were more Ohio than anything, but college football is an increasingly mercenary game; recruiting is nationwide for the likes of the Buckeyes, and so too is the transfer portal a tool for making the team better.
As a sidenote: transfers as a means to victory are already a fact of life in men's basketball. The transfer rate there is already close to 30%, and Ohio State under Chris Holtmann is a prime example of what a team can do to bolster its roster via new additions.
And that's free agency, ultimately. College athletes aren't getting paid but they're leveraging a system to help them maximize their future earning potential with another program. As fans, we can decide how we feel about that, but regardless of what the NCAA eventually decides (in May or June or 2054), it's a fact of life.
There are dangers. I've been following the Tate Martell saga since before he even initially came to Columbus, but even moreso since he's left the Buckeyes for Miami, and now has re-entered the transfer portal with a bang and apparently somehow more collegiate eligibility at 23 years old. Having failed to live up to the hype at two premiere destinations in a row, it's unlikely somewhere like Notre Dame comes calling for Martell.
That's the problem with Sliders, and sliding.
The concept sounds pretty dope in theory, but the reality is often disappointing, and ultimately your show might get cancelled before you find your way back home.
Still, it's hard to deny the inherent appeal. The NCAA should acknowledge reality and allow players to make a life choice that any other college student is able to make, because the truth is that they're all basically free agents until it's acknowledged that they've signed a contract to do a job, rather than a commitment to play a sport.
