Pitt WR Jordan Addison Enters NCAA Transfer Portal

Transcript

00:00Pittsburgh wide receiver Jordan Addison officially entered the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday

00:06after spending two seasons with the Panthers. I'm Claudette Montana-Pattison with SI right now.

00:11Joining me is Noah Strachbein of Inside the Panthers. Noah, to say that this story doesn't

00:17have a lot of noise circulating around it would be a bit of an understatement. Can you walk me

00:22through the events that have gone on these past couple of weeks and just what the latest is with

00:26this story as of now? Yeah, so everything has certainly come by surprise. Friday evening the

00:32Panthers got the paperwork from Jordan Addison saying that he is going to enter the transfer

00:37portal, which came as a shock to head coach Pat Narduzzi and the Pitt organization. There are

00:43reports out there that Narduzzi did make a phone call to Lincoln Riley, the USC head coach, because

00:49over the weekend Jordan Addison was actually in Los Angeles for reasons we do not know.

00:56That being said, there are rumors out there that Addison did enter the transfer portal because of

01:01a three million dollar NIL deal somewhere in Southern California. Again, it's all speculation

01:08at this point, but the whole thing has hit the Pitt organization as a major shock and one that

01:15they did not see coming as the Politnikov winner enters the transfer portal. And you mentioned

01:22a very talented wide receiver, a guy that played a lot of minutes, especially last season,

01:27is the only reason why he would leave Pitt for an NIL deal. You'd have to think that that has

01:35some implication in this. Now, Jordan is a very talented wide receiver. Some say he's the best

01:41wide receiver in the NCAA and someone that could be a first round pick in 2023. So looking at his

01:49opportunities, he might say that a team like Alabama or Texas or USC, which are the three

01:54teams that he's reportedly interested in, have a better opportunity to succeed in 2022 and possibly

02:01raise his draft stock a little bit more. On top of that, you have to think money might be involved.

02:07These college athletes can now make actual money, which is a good thing. But for a small school like

02:13Pitt, who might not have the resources that teams like Alabama or teams like USC have,

02:19you know, those could be a little bit more glamorous for a small school kid.