How Ferris State remains the dominant Division II program in the NIL and Transfer Portal era

Ferris State football coach Tony Annese sat in front of his television at home in Michigan late last month, the rare opportunity to watch a game that didn’t involve his team. The Bulldogs, the reigning Division II national champions, had the week off, so Annese watched his quarterback from last year, Trinidad Chambliss, play for Ole Miss. Chambliss threw for 314 yards and a touchdown and ran for 71 yards as the Rebels defeated LSU and remained undefeated.

“I told his mother that I felt like I was just as nervous during that match as I was during my own match,” Annese said. “And when Ole Miss won the game, it almost felt like a victory for us.”

That is the new reality for Annese. He has led Ferris State, a school in Big Rapids, Mich., to three national titles in the past four seasons, but he now has to deal with major Division I programs recruiting his players and enticing them with Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals and revenue-sharing money. After last season, Chambliss and seven other starters moved to Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) programs.

Still, Ferris State is as dominant as ever. The Bulldogs Are 6-0 And Number 1 in the country and winning by an average of 47 points per game. They have gone 201-0 in their last three games and continue to topple their opponents even as the college football world changes.

“It’s just a different dynamic, a different time with NIL money and the transfer portal,” Annese said. “There weren’t that many people, for lack of a better word, preying on our guys. It’s a different time.”

Until this season, Ferris State had only had a few players transfer, and it wasn’t like the Bulldogs lacked talent in previous years. In fact, they have started this season with a 122-14 mark since 2014 and have won national titles in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Three of their former players are in the NFL in defensive tackle Zach Sieler (a captain with the Miami Dolphins), safety Tavierre Thomas (Minnesota Vikings) and linebacker Caleb Murphy (Los Angeles Chargers), while Ferris State has had two quarterbacks. (Jason Vander Laan in 2014 and 2015 and Jayru Campbell in 2018) win the Harlon Hill Trophy for Division II’s best player. Numerous others have made All-American teams.

Still, Annese didn’t have to worry about losing players until shortly after Ferris State defeated Valdosta State 49-14 in the national title game last December. Within days, agents contacted Chambliss and others to gauge their interest in entering the transfer portal.

In addition to Chambliss, four other Ferris State offensive players from last season are now on FBS rosters: running back Kannon Katzer (West Virginia), receiver Tyrese Hunt-Thompson (North Texas) and offensive tackles Bryce George (Iowa) and Lawrence Hattar (Michigan). Two of the Bulldogs’ defensive players from a year ago are at DI in linebacker Sefa Saipaia (Western Michigan) and safety Lento Smith Jr. (Tulsa), while cornerback Jacarvis Alexandre committed to Jacksonville State earlier this year but is now back in the transfer portal.

The move reflects not only the talent of Ferris State’s roster, but also the willingness of Division I coaches to look for players who, until last year, were almost always overlooked. The pressure on DI coaches to win is as acute as ever, and those programs can lure players with the promise of NIL deals and even a salary, as almost all Division I programs now pay players directly through revenue sharing, which was part of the House v. NCAA settlement passed earlier this year.

Although Ferris State was not part of the House settlement and does not pay players directly, the football program does to have a multi-year partnership with Opendorse to help facilitate NIL deals, though even Annese and athletics director Steve Brockelbank admit the Bulldogs can’t compete with the big Division I programs when it comes to money.

“Guys are bombarded with people saying, ‘Hey, I can give you $100,000 if you get into the transfer portal,’” Annese said. “It’s just a crazy dynamic out there.”

Brockelbank: “Do I think (the Opendorse deal) will help? Yes. Will it stop a Power Four (conference) school from hiring one of our student-athletes if they want to leave? We will never match the financial offers that those people are going to make to our student-athletes.”

Still, Brockelbank added that “anytime we can help student athletes, whether it’s academically, financially, socially, character development or whatever it is, I think it all adds up. And it all helps us retain them.”

Despite the defections, Ferris State was able to retain five players who had put their names in the transfer portal before opting out, and the Bulldogs still have a strong roster that has been a mainstay since Annese’s early days. After graduating from Alma College in 1983, Annese coached and taught at six Michigan high schools, winning more than 82% of his games in 22 seasons as head coach, before taking over at Grand Rapids Community College in January 2009.

In December 2011, Ferris State hired Annese, who was 30-4 at the junior college level the previous three seasons. After going 7-4 and 8-3 in his first two seasons at Ferris State, the Bulldogs won their first eleven games in 2014 before losing to Ohio Dominican in the second round of the NCAA playoffs, the first time in 18 years they made the NCAAs since 1996. Since then, Ferris State has been the top Division II program in the country.

The Bulldogs benefit from a large roster (139 players), 85 of which are from Michigan and 30 from Florida, a state that Annese has recruited heavily since his college days. He has built strong relationships with Florida high school coaches, who see Ferris State as a good landing spot for players who are under the radar of Division I coaches. Of the 33 Ferris State high school students signed in February, 11 will come from Florida.

Annesse has also had less assistant coaching turnover compared to most other programs. His son, Steve, is the offensive coordinator and has been on the staff since Annese arrived 14 years ago, as have Ryan Hodges, the senior defensive assistant, and Jack Schugars, the special teams coordinator. Tony Annese and Grant Caserta, the co-defensive coordinators, have been on the staff for several years, while assistant head coach Brian Rock has known Annese since 1991.

“It was really good, really a stable situation,” Annese said. “That helps a lot when you have guys who are committed to staying with you for a long time.”

Brockelbank: “There’s a great trust that those kids have in his whole staff. He just puts a lot of love and attention into the young people… What’s happened here, now that the results have come, has allowed us to recruit an increasingly higher caliber of footballer, but he keeps doing the same thing and putting that time, love and attention into them. And the results follow.”

Ferris State is currently on a 20-game winning streak, including six straight wins this season. The Bulldogs pipe Division II in scoring offense (56.5 points per game) and ranks third in scoring defense (9.5 points allowed per game). Quarterback Wyatt Bower, a redshirt freshman from Michigan, has completed 65.4% of his passes for 12 touchdowns and no interceptions and has run for a team-high 471 yards and eight touchdowns.

When Annese recruited Bower, he thought he would bring Bower along slowly, just as he had done with Chambliss, who didn’t play at all his first two seasons and threw just 33 passes before having a breakthrough last season when he threw for 2,925 yards and 31 touchdowns and ran for 1,019 yards and 25 touchdowns. But as Chambliss continued to shine last season, Annese knew Division I programs would be interested. Annese said Chambliss initially didn’t want to leave Ferris State, but ultimately he couldn’t pass up the opportunity to play at Ole Miss.

“(The transfer portal) may become a (problem) over time,” Annese said. “The realization is that we’re either selling it (to recruits) about Trinidad and the success of our guys, or we’re being negligent. We have to sell our success. We have to sell the success of the guys who have moved on.”

Brockelbank and the Ferris State government have reached out to donors, boosters and local businesses about the new reality, which has recruits and players considering NIL deals when making decisions.

“It’s happening slowly,” Brockelbank said. “I think it’s a lot for people to digest. It’s quite a change in college football. And I definitely think it took a while for people to understand it at the Division I level. It’s trickled down to our level. Now we’re going through an education process with the people involved with our football program and the importance of (NIL) and how they can get involved. It takes time, but we’re definitely seeing increased involvement.”

At the same time, Annese and Brocklebank understand the portal can even help Ferris State. Yes, the Bulldogs can only offer a total of 36 scholarships, the maximum allowed in Division II, compared to 105 scholarships at DI. And they cannot compete with the NIL and revenue share figures that DI programs offer. But as DI schools continue to focus on transfers, fewer opportunities remain for high school students, who will instead look to DII schools like Ferris State. From there, Annese is betting that the program’s success in winning championships and graduating can help with the continuity of the roster.

“Our hope is to connect so deeply with young people that you make them just want to be a part of your program,” Annese said. “Some of our better players are so loyal and they could go further, but they’re just so loyal… From my perspective, our culture is the best in the country. That’s my selling point. Some of them may not believe that, but that’s just the way I approach it.”