The transfer portal has been good to Razorbacks (2024)

FAQs

Is the transfer portal good for college football? ›

New research by a University of Oregon student and professor finds that the NCAA football transfer portal can help some teams but not others, depending on the position a transferring student plays.

Entering the transfer portal does not automatically mean you will be picked up by another school that semester. If you cannot transfer in the same semester you enter the portal, you need to be ready to cover the cost of tuition without your athletic scholarship, should it be reassigned to another teammate.

While NIL may be a factor, some could be looking to take their game to a program with more resources for player development and a chance to make a postseason run. It is clear that the for the majority of players in the portal more is to be desired when it comes to playing time at their current programs.

The 2023-24 transfer portal cycle is on pace to be another record-setting one, with 2,700 scholarship college football players already in the portal at the FBS level.

According to the NCAA, once a student-athlete enters the transfer portal, their current institution has the ability to cancel or reduce their scholarship for the upcoming academic year. This means that a student-athlete may indeed lose their scholarship if they decide to enter the transfer portal.

Players can ask the school through which they entered the portal to remove them. But once players ask to be entered, their school can cancel or reduce their scholarships for subsequent academic terms and has no obligation to take them back.

One of the most problematic aspects of the portal is that there is no mandatory orientation session for prospective transfer portal applicants that highlight the pros and cons of their decision and there are few guard rails that protect student-athletes from making impulsive decisions.

However, most operate in coordination with the schools and tend to be endorsed by coaches and school officials. According to Business Insider, 80% of money going toward NIL comes from collectives, with the rest coming from brand deals. There are still limits.

NCAA rules allow underclassmen to transfer once without having to sit out a year. But an additional transfer as an undergraduate generally requires the NCAA to grant a waiver allowing the athlete to compete immediately. Without it, the athlete would have to sit out for a year at the new school.

This week, the NCAA, ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12 and SEC voted to allow schools to pay their athletes.

Can d3 players enter the transfer portal? ›

As only some Division III schools use the NCAA Transfer Portal and others will accept permission to transfer, please talk to the compliance office at the school to which you want to transfer to understand their preference. Speak to your compliance office to see what your school prefers.

A new NCAA transfer rule will allow all undergraduate athletes to transfer and play immediately if they meet specific academic requirements, as the Division I Council on Wednesday approved emergency legislation announced by the NCAA.

For coaches, the portal is a place to see who is looking to transfer. Coaches can set up a watch list of the people they want to track, and they can see in real time when student-athletes have matriculated to another program or taken their name out of the portal altogether.

Once an athlete's name is entered in the database, coaches and staff from other schools are permitted to make contact with the athlete to inquire about their interest in visiting the campus and accepting a scholarship.

While the transfer portal has revolutionized the college sports landscape, the number of times an athlete can enter the portal is generally limited to one transfer during their college career.

For example, in college basketball, athletes have a 44-day window (March 18 to May 1) to enter the portal and select another school. In college football, there are two windows, one that runs from early December until early January, followed by a 15-day spring window that begins and ends in April.

The Transfer Portal is a function of Division I's new notification-of-transfer model. Division I went to a notification-of-transfer model for the 2018-19 academic year. The student-athlete is empowered by the change to the bylaw.