At times, the experience of playing a sport at the college level isn't anything like you'd imagined. Whether it's the coach, how much playing time you're getting or the academics, sometimes it becomes clear that the school you've chosen to compete at just isn't the right fit for you. 

Enter: the transfer portal. 

The portal itself has been around since 2018 and has allowed athletes to easily transfer from one school to another to continue their education and athletic careers. But policies around transferring have changed recently. So what exactly does that process look like?

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The transfer portal sequence begins when an athlete decides that they would like to look into the idea of transferring to another school to play their sport. However, there is no requirement that an athlete must transfer when they choose to enter the portal, and they can choose to remove their name from the portal whenever they want. If the athlete ends up remaining at their original school, the school has the option to revoke that athlete's scholarship at the conclusion of the term that the athlete entered the portal, even if they remain on the team. 

To actually enter the portal, athletes have to speak with their school's NCAA compliance officer, who will then enter the athlete's information into the transfer portal within two days of the conversation taking place. This information includes the athlete's sport, scholarship status, if they will be considered a graduate transfer and contact information. Prior to the transfer portal, athletes had to receive permission from their coaches to transfer, which made it much more difficult for the athletes to do so. 

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Once the athlete has entered the transfer portal, other schools are allowed to contact that player. However, there is a “do not contact” option for players who enter the portal. This option is usually only utilized if the athlete only has a few lists of schools where they are interested in going or already plan on attending a specific school. Recent rule changes have required athletes to enter the transfer portal within certain windows that begin towards the end of their seasons.

The next and final step for the athlete is simply choosing which school they would like to attend and then completing the enrollment process. Since April 2021, athletes who transfer are allowed to immediately participate in their sport at their new school. Before then, athletes who transferred were required to spend an academic year in residence and could not participate in games. Now, only players who are transferring for a second time are required to complete a year in residence.

In today's NCAA landscape, the decision to and where an athlete transfers can be significantly impacted by the potential to earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL). Star players may be much more likely to transfer from a small market to a large market if they know they will be able to use their NIL to generate revenue

While it may seem like a daunting concept at first due to its past, the transfer portal is an incredibly simple process. With already over 11,000 Division I athletes utilizing it to change schools in 2022, it won't be a surprise to see this number continue to grow.  

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* Originally published on April 20, 2023, by Owen Roche