BGSU men’s basketball is getting ravaged by the transfer portal for the second year in a row.

After losing their top two scorers to the transfer portal last season, the Falcons have seen seven entries this year in the form of Marcus Johnson, Jamai Felt, Javontae Campbell, Braelon Green, Derrick Butler, Wilguens Jr. Exacte and DaJion Humphrey.

Every player who appeared in at least 30 games for Bowling Green this season has entered the transfer portal, leaving a gigantic hole in the Falcon’s roster.

Over the past few weeks, I have seen a lot of volatile reactions online in response to the portal entries. These responses have stretched to the point of jumping to a conclusion for next season, with many even starting to dig a grave for the Falcons.

There is no doubt that the roster is currently not in a good state and that the program is not riding as high as other programs in the Mid-American Conference (MAC), such as Akron and Miami (OH).

However, I believe these are all premature overreactions.

Issues with the transfer portal are not exclusive to men’s basketball, the MAC or even Bowling Green.

The portal has become an epidemic issue across all of college athletics. Simply put, Pandora’s box has been opened, and in my opinion, we have reached the point of no return. Over 2,000 NCAA players enter the portal last season, with over 2,500 players expected to enter this year.

While BG is currently feeling the effects of this, so is much of the rest of the MAC.

38.2% all of MAC players who were rostered last season have entered the transfer portal so far — and the portal is still open for another eight days.

An average of 5.9 players have entered the transfer portal for all 12 MAC teams, with only Kent State (one), Akron (two), Miami (OH) (three) and Ball State (three) having less than four entries.

Toledo, who finished four spots ahead of BG in the conference standings and has been one of the most consistent teams in the MAC over the past decade, has a jarring eight transfer portal entries.

Meanwhile, Central Michigan has seen 14 players enter the portal. The Chippewas currently have just two players on their active roster, including one who will start for the football team and likely not play on the hardwood next year.

You also have to consider the fact that the transfer portal is not something new for head coach Todd Simon.

In fact, the portal is something Simon and his staff have heavily leaned into during his time at BG.

Over the past two seasons, Simon has added 17 transfers, including big names like Marcus Hill, Jason Spurgin, Trey Thomas, Campbell, Johnson, Butler and Youssef Khayat.

Those 17 portal additions have accounted for 81.7% of all points scored by BG players over the past two seasons, including 90.5% of the points scored by the Falcons this past season.

Simply put, just as America was built by immigrants, Simon’s Bowling Green teams have been built by transfers.

With those transfer portal heavy rosters, Simon has notched two MAC Tournament appearances, a MAC Tournament win and a 34-32 record.

Simon has shown he can rebuild rosters at the mid-major level from year to year while utilizing the transfer portal, which seems to be something a lot of people are forgetting with the recent mass number of portal entries.

He won’t rebuild the roster in a day, but we should give Simon until the end of this offseason when the roster is set in stone until we start making declarative statements about next season and the future of the program. In the end, time will tell.