The JUCO Detour: College Baseball’s Portal Workaround Is Already Here
The Case Study: Brady Ballinger, Green Valley to Grand Junction to Lawrence
Brady Ballinger was an All-State first baseman at Green Valley High School in Henderson, Nevada. Good enough to earn Third Team All-American honors as a prep player. Not good enough, apparently, for a D1 scholarship out of the gate. So he did what an increasing number of smart athletes are doing: he went to the College of Southern Nevada, a JUCO powerhouse that has produced 30 MLB draft picks and sends an average of 12 players to four-year programs every year.
At CSN in 2024, Ballinger hit .433/.548/.690 with 81 hits, 30 doubles, and 63 RBIs across 60 games. He was named Scenic West Athletic Conference Player of the Year. He helped CSN go 53–12 and finish fifth at the JUCO World Series. Then he went to Kansas.
At Kansas in 2025 — his first D1 season — Ballinger led the team in batting average (.353), walks (56), slugging (.670), OPS (1.165), runs (71), hits (79), doubles (21), total bases (150), and home runs (16). He made NCBWA Second Team All-American and All-Big 12 First Team. In 2026, he was named D1Baseball Preseason First Team All-American, Big 12 Preseason Player of the Year, and landed on the Golden Spikes Award Watch List. He’s ranked the 59th overall prospect for the 2026 MLB Draft.
None of this required a portal transfer. Ballinger went from high school to JUCO to D1 — a path that, under the executive order, leaves his one free transfer completely unused.
“The executive order builds a wall around the portal. The JUCO pipeline runs underneath it.”
— The Sports Page, on the transfer workaround nobody is talking aboutThe Mobility Asymmetry: Coaches Move Freely, Athletes Can’t
Here is the number that should bother anyone who cares about fairness in college athletics: there are 32 new head coaches at the FBS level this offseason, including 17 at Power Four programs. When a coach leaves, no executive order restricts where they go, how many times they move, or what they earn at the next stop. Lane Kiffin went from Tennessee to USC to Alabama’s offensive coordinator to Florida Atlantic to Ole Miss. No transfer window. No sitting-out period. No cap.
Athletes, under this executive order, get one. One free transfer with immediate eligibility in a five-year window. A second transfer requires sitting out a full season unless the athlete has already earned a four-year degree. If the coach who recruited you leaves — and 32 of them just did — tough luck. You used your one move when you followed the coach; now the coach left and you’re stuck.
The portal numbers make the scale of this asymmetry vivid. In 2025–26, more than 4,500 FBS football players entered the transfer portal — roughly 25–30% of all scholarship athletes. Across all divisions, over 10,500 college football players entered. In baseball, the churn is equally significant. Programs routinely lose and gain 10–15 roster players per year through the portal.
The executive order doesn’t touch coaching mobility at all. Not a word. A coach can be hired and fired three times in five years, collecting buyouts each time, and nobody questions their right to seek a better opportunity. The athlete who was recruited by that coach, who moved across the country for that coach’s system, gets one chance to start over — and if the fit is wrong again, they’re either stuck or they sit.
The JUCO Loophole: Why the Pipeline Gets Stronger, Not Weaker
Here is the structural detail that matters: a transfer from a two-year institution to a four-year institution is not the same as a portal transfer between two four-year schools. Under the executive order’s one-transfer limit, the JUCO-to-D1 move occupies a different regulatory category. An athlete who plays two years at a junior college and then enrolls at a D1 program still has their one free portal transfer in reserve — available if they need to move again after arriving at the four-year school.
This changes the calculus for high school athletes dramatically. Under the old system, a talented 18-year-old could sign with a D1 program, transfer to another D1 if it didn’t work out, and transfer again if needed. Under the new rules, that first D1-to-D1 move is the only free one. Miss on your first choice, and you’re locked in or sitting out.
But the athlete who goes to JUCO first? They develop for two years, mature physically, face better competition than high school, prove they can handle the classroom and the travel and the coaching intensity — and then arrive at a D1 program with their eyes open and their portal transfer still in their pocket.
The Math: The JUCO Path vs. the Direct-Entry Path Under the EO
The JUCO path doesn’t just avoid the portal restriction — it creates an insurance policy. The direct-entry athlete is all-in from Day 1 with no safety net. The JUCO-routed athlete carries a free transfer in reserve for the entirety of their D1 career. Under the EO, that optionality is worth more than it ever was before.
The Numbers: D1 Baseball’s JUCO Connection in 2026
The trend is already visible. The College of Southern Nevada — Ballinger’s launching pad — has sent 184 players to four-year programs over the past 15 years, averaging 12 per season. In 2024, CSN went 53–12 and placed fifth at the JUCO World Series. The Coyotes have produced 30 MLB draft picks, including a first-round selection (Phil Bickford, Giants). This is not a fallback program for athletes who couldn’t hack it. This is a pipeline, and it runs directly into D1 starting lineups.
Look at the 2026 D1 leaderboards and the pattern is clear. Landon Hairston of Arizona State leads the nation at .469 with 17 home runs. Quinton Coats of Cincinnati leads in homers with 20. Gage Miller transferred from a JUCO to Alabama last season and slashed .381/.474/.702 with 18 home runs, immediately becoming a middle-of-the-lineup anchor. At Texas, Aiden Robbins and Carson Tinney arrived through the portal and changed the Longhorns’ lineup entirely. UCLA’s Will Gasparino has 12 home runs and a 1.240 OPS as a newcomer.
The question this executive order forces every high school baseball player to ask: Do I commit to a D1 program at 18 and hope I chose right? Or do I spend two years at a proven JUCO, develop my body and my game, arrive at a D1 program at 20 with better stats, more leverage, potential NIL money — and a free portal transfer I haven’t burned yet?
| Path | Advantages | Risks Under EO | Portal Moves Left |
|---|---|---|---|
| HS → D1 Direct | Immediate D1 experience, prestige | Bad fit = burned transfer, no backup | 0 after first move |
| HS → JUCO → D1 | Physical development, proven stats, optionality | 5-year clock starts at JUCO enrollment | 1 (still in pocket) |
| HS → D1 → D1 (portal) | Two D1 environments | Transfer used; sit out if moving again | 0 |
The Bigger Question: Does This EO Actually Protect Anyone?
The executive order frames itself as protecting student-athletes. But protection from what? From the ability to leave a program where they’re unhappy? From the ability to follow a coach who recruited them and then left? From the ability to seek a better scholarship, more playing time, a program that actually develops their skills?
The athletes who used the portal most were not mercenaries chasing the highest NIL check. They were players at mid-major programs who had developed beyond their program’s competitive level, players whose coaches had been fired, players recovering from injury who needed a fresh start. Indiana’s miracle 11–2 season was built with 18 transfers. Those were players the system was supposed to help — and it did.
Coaches, meanwhile, face no such constraints. There are no limits on how often they can change jobs, no cap on their buyouts, no requirement to sit out a year before coaching at a new school. The asymmetry is not subtle. It is the central structural feature of this executive order: labor mobility for management, labor restrictions for athletes.
The JUCO pipeline is the market’s response. When you restrict one pathway, resourceful people find another. If high school athletes can’t freely explore D1 options through the portal, they will develop at JUCOs first — arriving at D1 with better information, better leverage, and a backup plan. The executive order doesn’t eliminate player agency. It reroutes it through Henderson, Nevada, and Grand Junction, Colorado.
“Brady Ballinger hit .433 at a community college in Las Vegas, then .353 in the Big 12, and now he’s a Golden Spikes candidate and a projected MLB draft pick. The executive order would call his path a detour. The numbers call it the smartest route on the map.”
— The Sports Page, on the athlete who never needed the portal
