Bison and Jacks buck transfer portal trend – InForum

FARGO – The first frost in Fargo came this week as the temperature dropped to 27 degrees overnight Tuesday. In Brookings, SD, the daily low reached 31.

In the cases of North Dakota State offensive lineman Gray Zabel and South Dakota State quarterback Mark Gronowski, the grass remains a deeper green than artificial turf in more ways.

As the saying goes, it’s not always greener on the other side. Or at an FBS school. Both Zabel and Gronowski had the opportunity to enter the transfer portal during the offseason for a Power 4 program, but both chose to stay with their FCS school. Zabel had offers in the high six figures, while Gronowski reportedly had Big Ten and Big 12 Conference offers in excess of $1 million.

“I think it’s great,” NDSU head coach Tim Polasek said. “I think that says a lot about both programs.”

Polasek was on his way to a golf outing this summer when ESPN sportswriter Pete Thamel called him about a story about Gronowski and Zabel. The article’s headline: “Why these stars from North Dakota State and South Dakota State stuck around this offseason.”

“When (Thamel) talked about Mark and some of their players staying at South Dakota State, I think that says a lot about the two programs and the culture,” Polasek said. “They also have to be a close-knit group in their locker room. Our boys are. We do everything we can to show the guys we care, not by having pizza parties or popcorn parties, but by talking to them and coaching them the way they should be coached.”

Zabel and Gronowski are two big reasons why 5-1 SDSU is ranked No. 1 in the Stats Perform Top 25 FCS media poll and the 6-1 Bison are ranked No. 2. They will face each other in the Fargodome in a nationally televised game Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Gate City Bank Field.

Zabel has said multiple times that playing another year with his college friends and being close to his family, who lives just over the border in South Dakota, were more important factors than money. His brother, Jett Zabel, is a redshirt freshman tight end.

“This decision truly came from the heart,” Gray said. “You can’t really put a price tag on the relationships you make in this game.”

What helped Gronowski was the relationships he made last summer at the Manning Passing Academy, where he met other top quarterbacks across the country. He talked to others about transfer options, including former Holy Cross quarterback Matthew Sluka, who transferred to UNLV.

“He kept saying throughout the whole process, be careful, be careful,” Gronowski said. “It didn’t work out for him in the end.”

Sluka left the Runnin’ Rebels after three games, citing an unfulfilled promise of $100,000 from a collective. Because he didn’t redshirt at Holy Cross and played fewer than four games this season, he has one more year of eligibility.

Gronowski said he is part of a large quarterback text group of about 40 players that includes former University at Albany quarterback Reese Poffenbarger, who transferred to Miami. He made the move before the Hurricanes caught Cam Ward in the portal.

Poffenbarger, who was a redshirt when Albany played NDSU in the 2021 season opener at the Fargodome, has attempted seven passes in a mop-up role this season. The move to FBS also didn’t work out for Albany ’21 starting quarterback Jeff Undercuffler, who started two games at the University of Akron.

“We text every week in this group chat,” Gronowski said. “It was nice to get to know them and exchange ideas from them.”

If you asked him how satisfied the players who have transferred are, he would estimate the success rate to be around 50%.

“You’re taking a 50/50 shot, I mean some guys ended up being really successful and some guys weren’t the way they wanted to be, which really sucks,” Gronowski said. “Sometimes they’re the chances you don’t want to take, and some people have to take them when those opportunities come along.”

Zabel had chances to transfer to a Power 4 school for his senior year. He pointed out that he had just as good a chance of getting on an NFL roster from an FCS school as from an FBS program. NDSU currently has five offensive linemen on NFL rosters and Zabel is projected to be a top 100 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft.

Like Zabel, Gronowski believes he can reach the NFL level at SDSU just as well as any other school. A senior who has another year left because of the pandemic, he announced that this would be his final year at SDSU.

“I know that if I continue to do what I do and continue to be successful and this team continues to be successful, I can make it to the next level, which is my ultimate goal,” Gronowski said. “There are a lot of situations in that regard and I’m really happy with the decision I made to stay and I’m sure Gray is too.”

In addition, both schools have started joint programs to prevent players from leaving school. The fact that high-dollar guys like Gronowski and Zabel stayed may have been a surprise, but in NDSU’s case, The Green and The Gold Collective is hoping to deter other FBS schools from poaching.

Gronowski said he took note of where players who entered the portal ended up. At NDSU, for every Marques Sigle starting at Kansas State, there are a few others who didn’t get the Power 4 options they probably hoped they would.

“It’s pretty hard to find the grass greener than where I am now,” Gronowski said. “The grass is pretty green on this side right now.”

Jeff would like to dispel the idea that he was there when Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press, but he is now in his third decade of reporting for Forum Communications. The son of a reporter and an English teacher, and brother of a reporter, Jeff has worked at the Jamestown Sun, the Bismarck Tribune and, since 1990, the Forum, where he has covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995.
Jeff has covered all nine of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written three books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough” and “Covid Kids.” He is the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” from April to August.