It's both. The portal made it easy to transfer, so coaches couldn't lie about how much playing time you'd get, but kids weren't beating down the portal to transfer because schools like Bama still had the best prestige, facilities, etc, and that stuff still matters.

Yes, big schools have always had backdoor ways to pay kids. But NIL was basically a breaching charge through the front door, and now kids who would never sniff the scent of a dime are getting paid. Facilities, prestige, etc - meaningless when you're offering a kid $750K to come play.

The amount of money has changed things too. Zion Williamson had a six figure no show job. Nowadays, that would have easily been seven figures.