NCAA
What is the transfer portal in NCAA sports? How does it work?
The transfer portal is an online database that serves as a centralized platform for college athletes looking to transfer to another school.
College athletes have always had the option to transfer to another school, but the process has not always been as simple as it is now. There were two main reasons for this.
Firstly, the one-year penalty for transferring that was previously in place for players in five major sports has been modified so that it no longer applies for their first move from one school to another or a graduate transfer.
Secondly, the NCAA introduced the transfer portal on October 15, 2018, allowing a one-time transfer without a one-year penalty in sports that weren’t already permitted, such as football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, and men’s hockey. This online database is a centralized platform for college athletes looking to transfer to another school. It provides a more streamlined and transparent process for athletes exploring new opportunities and allows coaches to identify potential recruits more efficiently. Since its inception, the transfer portal has significantly impacted the college.
How does it work?
When athletes decide to transfer, they don’t directly put their names into the portal. Instead, they have to submit a notification of transfer to a compliance administrator at their current school. The administrator then has two business days to enter the information into the NCAA database, password-protected and accessed through a web browser.
To enter a player, the administrator must input their name, NCAA ID number, email address, phone number, sport or sports, and answer a list of questions. These questions include whether the athlete wants to be contacted by other schools, transfer as a graduate student, and receive an athletic scholarship.
Once the information is entered, athletes receive an automated email notification. Later, their original school submitts their academic and athletic history.
The portal is not publicly accessible. Only coaches and administrators have logins; coaches usually have view-only access to the information. They can filter the data by any database fields entered and export it.