Sports

Louisiana Football Coach Demands Payment From Schools That Poach His Players In The Portal

#College Football
by Last Updated

Mickey Joseph walks to the stadium before a Nebraska football game.

iStockphoto / © Dylan Widger-Imagn Images


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The Grambling State football program is one of the most prestigious at the FCS level. The Tigers boast 15 claimed national titles and 27 conference championships.

Former head coach Eddie Robinson built the program into a powerhouse across a 55-year career. He retired in 1997 as college football’s all-time leader in wins (408) before later being surpassed by John Gagliardi and Joe Paterno.

That success continued over the next two decades with the school racking up six more national titles. The last came in 2016. Things have fallen off a bit since.

After going 11-2 in the ’17 campaign, the Tigers have struggled. Across the last seven seasons, the program is a combined 29-42. They’ve failed to win more than six games in any of those campaigns and have finished below .500 five straight years.

Mickey Joseph was hired as head coach ahead of last season. He went 5-7 in Year 1. Joseph has a long resume of coaching experience with this being his second stint at Grambling State.

Previously, he’d coached special teams and wide receivers for the Tigers before moving up to the Power Five level. Most recently, he was named interim head coach at Nebraska following Scott Frost’s midseason firing in 2022.

Mickey Joseph offered a unique solution to Grambling State football’s transfer portal issues.

Joseph has coached at every level in D1 football. That includes FCS, Group of Five, and Power conferences. He climbed the ladder following from Grambling to Louisiana Tech to LSU and eventually Nebraska as an assistant before eventually taking on the head coaching role with the Tigers.

He understands the concepts of jumping to a better opportunity when one presents itself. He’s used that experience to offer a solution to the transfer portal issues being seen at the lower levels of college football.

Mickey Joseph believes players should move up in both pay and competition if given the chance. He does, however, believe there should be penalty for the team poaching his players.

“There needs to be a buyout if they move up from [FCS] and go G5 or P4, he said. “I should get compensation for that.”

Similar to coaching buyouts, Joseph says that he deserves to be paid for not only identifying talent, but for also developing that talent into G5 or P4 prospects. That money could then be used in recruiting efforts for the Tigers as they look to either keep the roster intact or fill voids following transfer exits.

In some ways, it makes sense. Schools are penalized when poaching coaches. Why not shouldn’t they be for swiping players? Unfortunately, those coaching buyouts are tied to contracts, which players don’t currently have.

The task of keeping high-end players at the FCS and Group of Five level has become difficult with the introduction of NIL and the transfer portal. Smaller schools simply cannot keep up in terms of player payment.

With smaller bankrolls, those schools often lose their top contributors to larger suitors, forcing many to start fresh the following year.

“We’re basically a glorified JUCO… It’s easy to get them, but hard to retain them.”

-Norfolk State basketball coach Robert Jones

The inability to keep pace in the pay-for-play race is leading some FCS programs to drop down levels of competition. Saint Francis announced a move from D1 to D3 after watching its basketball team make the NCAA Tournament this past season. The move blindsided many of its athletes, who wanted to continue competing at the top level.

Mickey Joseph is trying to find another solution to the conundrum. We’ll see if the NCAA takes note.