Devin Butler, a guard for VMI’s basketball team, says he didn’t know what the Rat Line was when he committed to the school. “It was good that I didn’t get to see [it] because I probably wouldn’t have come to VMI,” he said. “If you tell a kid everything about VMI and the ins and outs, there’s no way you’re gonna get that kid.”

Phil Marcello, an associate athletics director at VMI, said Basketball Head Coach Andrew Wilson was not available for an interview. Marcello declined to answer questions about the transfer portal’s impact on VMI.

Butler was on the team for four years and entered the transfer portal in March 2024 for graduate school. The Rat Line’s strictness surprised him. “In the barracks, you’ve got to walk with your arms pinned to your side,” he said, “and then your chest to your back, or your shoulders rolled back.”

He says he’s still glad he stayed at VMI for four years because of the connections he made and what he learned about himself. “They have this saying, ‘4 for 40.’ So you do four bad years at VMI for 40 great years of life in the future.”

Senior basketball transfer Devin Butler offers a glimpse into the mindset of a VMI athlete, highlighting the challenging conditions of playing sports at the military school. (Photo Courtesy of Devin Butler)

Transfers into VMI can’t escape the rigors of the Rat Line. They are required to participate with first-year students, even if they are in their junior or senior years. “You weigh the pros and cons, and I can take a couple of weeks of beating if it means I get all these other things,” said TJ Johnson, a basketball player who will join the Rat Line in the fall as a junior. 

Dan Earl, VMI’s previous head basketball coach, says he struggled to recruit college players who entered the transfer portal to come to VMI. “It’s tough anywhere and certainly at VMI because of some of the challenges with bringing kids in to a school with a military culture,” said Earl, who left VMI in 2022 after seven years to take the head coach job at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

He says spring is tough for recruiting, especially because of the transfer portal. At Chattanooga this year, Earl lost four seniors to graduation and four players to the portal. In the past, he says, recruiting classes on average were three players. Now, it’s between eight and nine each year. “It’s a lot of time spent, and you want to try to get it right, and you have to figure out what level of kids you can get, and who’s going where. So, it’s been very chaotic,” he said. “You’re just recruiting a whole new team each year.”

Alex Baber, a junior on the lacrosse team, says the school is stuck recruiting high school athletes and can’t lure students who have developed their skills and talent playing their sports at other schools. “A lot of students don't want to do the Rat Line when they're juniors or seniors in college, for fifth years especially,” he said.

DJ Nussbaum has also played basketball at VMI for four years and entered the transfer portal in March 2024. He plans to go to grad school and play at Eastern Kentucky University. “It’s hard for us to get transfers,” he said. “What 20-year-old is going to want to shave his head and get yelled at after going through normal college? It’s just not going to happen.”

Jim Gibson, VMI’s head wrestling coach says it’s frustrating when players are turned off by the military school. 

“Sometimes we’ll really like someone, and they might really like us,” said Gibson. “They just don’t want anything to do with the military.”