After nine highly successful seasons at Washburn University and 11 seasons as a head coach, Ichabod men's basketball coach Brett Ballard is a full-fledged veteran.
But in light of an ever-changing landscape at the NCAA Division II level, Ballard is dealing with things in the era of the transfer portal and NIL agreements that he never really had to worry about just a few seasons ago
"I just talked to my wife two days ago about how much our job description and the reality of our world has changed, especially the last two to three years,'' Ballard told TopSports.news. "Some of what we do is still the same, but a lot of what we do and what the reality of our jobs is has completely flipped.
"And to be real honest, from a coaching perspective, a lot of the changes aren't particularly positive.''
Ballard's Ichabods are coming off a spectacular 31-2 season that included a second straight MIAA regular-season title and an MIAA Tournament championship, but Washburn is dealing with the loss of sophomore All-MIAA first-team pick Dillon Claussen and MIAA junior defensive player of the year Jeremiah Jones, who both entered the transfer portal after the 2025-2026 season ended with WU's NCAA regional quarterfinal loss to Minnesota-Duluth.
This marks the second straight season that Washburn has lost players via the transfer portal, with then-sophomore Brayden Shorter transferring to Division I Murray State after the Ichabods' 30-4 season in 2024-2025 while Claussen and Jones are also expected to end up with D-I programs.
Ballard admits that he's still learning how to come to grips with the new normal.
"It would be like having any job and within a couple of years your job description has really changed,'' Ballard said. "So coming to grips with that is definitely challenging, but its also trying to set some of those feelings aside and navigate this to the best of our ability and have a plan and attack it the right way. That's what we're trying to do.''
There may eventually be changes made by colleges and the NCAA to help the current situation, but Ballard said that's easier said than done.
"I think almost every coach and administrator and president is fairly in agreement that there's a lot of things we'd like to change to kind of reel this in,'' Ballard said. "I think the hard thing about it is there's no easy answers.
"I just think that with the transfers and the money we've got to get that reined back in.''
Ballard said he continues to have a close relationship with both Claussen and Jones and said the two Ichabods' decision to transfer is just a sign of the times.
"It's really changed,'' Ballard said. "We never even really honestly thought about losing guys my first four or five years. We had good players then, but losing them wasn't even on our radar.''
And although D-II schools now have to face the reality of losing top players to D-I programs, Ballard said that he and the Ichabod staff will continue to recruit the best talent available.
"Now these Division I (schools) are coming down and swooping these kids up, so it's hard because we're going to keep recruiting good players and hopefully having good teams and we're potentially going to keep losing (players),'' Ballard said.
"But it's better than the flipside of not being any good and not having good enough players and nobody wants them, so I'd much rather have this problem than the other problem. But it definitely makes it challenging and we're just going to have to navigate it.''
Washburn men's basketball coach Brett Ballard and coaches all over the country are still trying to get accustomed to coaching in the era of the transfer portal and NIL deals. [File photo/TSN]
