One positive came from Derrick Harmon entering the portal - NIL

In case you missed it, Tuesday afternoon star defensive lineman Derrick Harmon entered the transfer portal which came as a shock to everyone. Harmon entered the portal at the end of this past season as well, but Michigan State was able to convince him to come back to MSU for one big reason.

NIL.

The Spartans were able to offer Harmon a big enough NIL deal that convinced him to retrun to Michigan State over the likes of heavy hitters Ohio State and Oregon. In fact, Harmon's NIL deal with Michigan State was the largest deal out of any defensive lineman in the Big Ten.

That wasn't enough to keep him in East Lansing. While losing Harmon is a big blow for many reasons, the extra NIL money Michigan State now has is a positive thing.

Michigan State should have more NIL money to offer others now

Now I am no expert in how the NIL world works, and I'd honestly go as far and say that nobody in the country, NCAA included, knows exactly how it works either. But as I sit here and think about the impact of Harmon leaving Michigan State, the one thought that kept creeping back into my head was this NIL deal he had.

Yes he was able to profit off that deal this entire spring, but now that he's leaving Michigan State he no longer can. That means MSU now has all of this extra money they thought was tied up with Harmon that they can spend on other players.

So Jonathan Smith now has a couple options. He can use this extra money to try and bring in a big fish from the portal or he can use it to help convince guys to stay in East Lansing. I personally hope he uses it to get more additions from the portal, but you can't really go wrong with either option.

So even though losing Harmon will always be a neagative thing from Michigan State's perspective, we can take solace in the fact knowing that MSU now has more NIL money to dish out to players who actually want to be in East Lansing.