Marshall Faulk sparked a conversation during SWAC Football Media Day after arguing that the “next level” for many HBCU football players is no longer the NFL, but the Football Bowl Subdivision. The first-year Southern University head coach pointed to the transfer portal and the changing economics of college football as evidence that elite HBCU talent is now being recruited away by FBS programs before ever reaching the professional ranks.
“I believe that the next level is no longer the NFL,” Faulk said during SWAC Football Media Day, according to HBCU Gameday. “We get poached by the FBS. They want our players…They have an opportunity to maybe go somewhere and make good money while they’re in college. The game has changed. The landscape of college football has changed.”
Faulk said coaches must adapt to the current environment rather than ignore it.
“I believe that we as coaches, we have to look at it for what it is and start preparing these kids and coaching them and making sure they have the capacity to move on to the next level,” he added.
Faulk’s comments reflect one of the biggest challenges facing HBCU football in the transfer portal era. Many of the subdivision’s top performers begin their careers at HBCUs before attracting interest from FBS programs, where increased NIL opportunities and greater national exposure often make transferring an attractive option.
At the same time, Faulk’s comments are likely to generate debate across the HBCU football landscape. Some critics argue that the “next level” should still be defined as the NFL and believe HBCU coaches should focus on developing players to reach professional football directly from their current programs rather than viewing FBS schools as the next step.
Faulk is not the first former NFL star to embrace that philosophy. During a 2024 interview with Edgerrin James, former Bethune-Cookman head coach Ed Reed said he would have accepted his program serving as a developmental pipeline for Power Five programs.
“I was at BCU and I understood it’s a farm. Everything from high school up is a farm bro. In a farm, we’ve been in the farm, you know I’m saying…And that’s a recruiting tool. You got to know you’re going to lose kids….every coach, you’re going to lose kids. You’re going to lose kids. They’re going to transfer. They ain’t gonna play. That’s part of it.”
Reed said coaches shouldn’t allow transfers to change how they invest in their players.
“It can’t affect [how you] develop them, developing those kids and cheating those kids. I told those kids. If somebody comes to get you to run Power 5, man, go. I want you to go. I’ve been through this ****.”
