The transfer portal from 3 perspectives
“I don’t know what the future has in store for me there, but I do know that I’m excited to find out,” said Mia Curtis, Minnehaha graduate from the class of 2020. “So I’m thankful for the transfer portal for making me excited about my future.”
From the East Coast to the West Coast; and everywhere in between, college students are on a rampage. With college athletics being blown up by the new conference realignment in just the last year and the development of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities, college athletics has entered a new realm that has never been seen before. But not all is good in the NIL world. The increase in opportunities has led to an increase in unhappiness, greediness, and constant desire for more. All of this together equates to the ever-changing NCAA transfer portal.
The transfer portal permits student-athletes to place their name in an online database declaring their desire to transfer. The student-athlete has virtually no restrictions, meaning that it is possible to transfer from one institution to another year after year. There are examples of athletes playing at different universities each year in their college career.
There are many different benefits and drawbacks created by the NCAA transfer portal and there are three key perspectives to take into place: (1) the players, (2) the coaches, and (3) the fans. There are plenty of Minnehaha alums who have competed in Division 1 athletics at the collegiate level. MA alum Craig McDonald (‘20), a defensive back who helped the SMB Wolfpack win the 2018 Class AAAA state championship, has plenty of experience with the NCAA transfer portal.
Transferring from Iowa State to Auburn to Minnesota, McDonald has experienced both the benefits and the drawbacks of the portal. “It is definitely beneficial to be able to explore your options,” said McDonald. “But a drawback is feeling pressured to commit somewhere quickly because of the academic year or the portal windows.”
In McDonald’s case as a collegiate football player, the NCAA transfer portal is open virtually any time, but recruits must make their decision by May 1st each year. However, there are certain windows of time where contact with coaches can actually be made.
Mia Curtis (‘20), a graduate from the same class as McDonald, has a slightly different relationship with the portal. Coming out of high school, after scoring a career 2,544 points for the Redhawks, Curtis decided to take her talents to Dartmouth University, using basketball as a pathway to receiving a prestigious degree. One caveat of the Ivy League, however, is they do not allow post-graduate athletes to participate in sports.
Curtis still had one more year of eligibility and she wanted to take advantage of it, so she entered the transfer portal. “For me, jumping in the transfer portal was kind of refreshing,” said Curtis. “The potential of doing something new to end my college experience was kind of exciting.”
For Curtis, her motivation was just getting to play basketball and gain more life experience. “I was looking for overall fit, and a graduate opportunity that rivaled my undergraduate experience at Dartmouth,” said Curtis. Curtis’ transition to Santa Clara is an example of a positive experience and positive outcome with the transfer portal, however, Curtis makes sure to emphasize that each experience with the portal is unique, so her experience isn’t necessarily the mold.
A prominent consequence of the transfer portal for coaches is the transactional sense of relationships with players.
Robie Tensaie, an assistant coach of the Minnehaha girls basketball team has a unique experience with the transfer portal – not just training and coaching collegiate athletes, but also having a sister who has experienced the transfer portal. “The transfer portal has changed college basketball, as we know it, forever,” said Tensaie. “There are pros and cons to the portal, as there are with anything, but I believe the pros outweigh the cons.”
Dan Hurley, head men’s basketball coach at the University of Connecticut (which has won back-to-back NCAA championships), can feel the changes that the transfer portal has had on his program. “To have all this free agency in basketball, we lose sight of the most important mission we have, which is to graduate student-athletes,” Hurley told the media, following an Elite 8 win.
Not only has the transfer portal affected college athletes, but it also has a related impact on high school students. “We can’t even go recruiting [during the live period] because we’re so consumed with the portal,” said an anonymous Division 1 women’s basketball coach.
Another coach said, “I’d rather be recruiting high school athletes who I have spent years building good relationships with, but the reality is you have to be active [in the portal] if you want to be successful.”
While the portal has positive and negative impacts on players and coaches, the same can be said for fans of the sport. A big side effect of the transfer portal for fans is the detachment of players. It is common now for a Mid-Major star who has gained lots of traction among a fanbase to pick up and leave once they feel as though they can make more money by transferring due to NIL.
“It is hard to know who to root for now,” said MA junior Kingston Manning. “Sometimes my favorite player from a school will just decide to go to a different one.”
This is common among fans all over the country, however die-hard fans and alumni often value winning over everything else. Even amongst the countries’ biggest rivalries, for example, Michigan and Michigan State fans feel the transfer portal affecting their engagement, but the overall success and win-loss record prove to be more important than the loyalty from players.
MLive, a Michigan publishing company, did various interviews with both Michigan and Michigan State fans. ““The most important thing to me as a fan is that I want the teams to be good,” said recent Michigan State grad Parker Kirby, summing up the feelings of most of those interviewed for this story. Regardless of what the fan values, there are proven benefits and drawbacks of the transfer portal echoed by fans.
The transfer portal activity for the 2023-24 cycle is trending towards another record-breaking year with 2,300 scholarship college football players already having entered the portal at the FBS level. Similarly to football, ESPN predicts there will be upward of 2,000 mens basketball players in the portal by the time it closes for undergraduate students on May 1. Whether or not all, or even 75 percent, of these players find a different place to go is a big question.
“Allowing these athletes this level of agency over their careers is powerful,” said Tensiae, “so it’s up to the athlete to wield that power effectively for themselves and everyone else involved.”
The transfer portal is new and transformational in college athletics. There are numerous benefits to players, schools, and fans in fielding better and more competitive teams each year. It is also full of potential downfalls with the increased stress and pressure on coaches and universities to win, with uncertainty with rosters changing, and less emphasis on earning a degree.
Despite all of this, there is hope for the future of collegiate athletics as the sports community as a whole continues to evolve. As Al Davis, the former owner of the Oakland Raiders once famously said, “Just win, baby!”