Transfer portal entries are no longer a blip on the radar but a phenomenon enveloping Division I athletics across the nation. The number of DI student-athletes who entered the transfer portal increased every year since 2022, surpassing 15,000 in 2024, according to data from the NCAA. Divide that number by the amount of DI schools, and that’s over 40 transfers per university in 2024.
This number, while large, may seem like a drop in the bucket when one considers the nearly 200,000 DI student-athletes in America. It may seem inconsequential as well. After all, Power Four schools like Iowa have benefited greatly from the portal.
Without the transfer portal, Hawkeye football wouldn’t have snagged Mark Gronowski, women’s basketball couldn’t pick up Lucy Olsen or Chit-Chat Wright, and the men’s basketball team likely would have struggled to reach the Elite Eight without Bennett Stirtz or Alvaro Folgueiras, the latter of whom ironically just re-entered the transfer portal.
The idea of an unregulated transfer portal, which became a reality two years ago when the NCAA ruled athletes could transfer an unlimited amount of times without having to sit out their first season at a new school, as was previously required. This no-holds-barred approach, albeit within confined windows, brings reason to worry.
In the case of Iowa volleyball, the transfer portal proved very useful for the building efforts of head coach Jim Barnes. For the 2024 and 2025 seasons, the starting libero for the Hawkeyes was plucked from the transfer portal, namely Joy Galles from Arizona and Milana Moisio from Miami.
Also of importance was setter Claire Ammeraal, a transfer from Central Michigan who, following an explosive Iowa career, was drafted by the Omaha Supernovas of Major League Volleyball.
If Iowa volleyball is the only example, the transfer portal is an amazing thing; after all, it’s landed the program at least three breakout recruits.
Barnes, however, stressed the importance of regulation to prevent harm to any parties involved.
“The ability to transfer is not a bad thing,” Barnes told The Daily Iowan. “It can be a good thing, but in the current model, there’s no guardrails on it. Players are transferring two or three times, there’s two different windows to transfer, and I think that’s what makes the current model not good for the players or the programs.”
The former head coach of Baylor and Tulane also noted that while change is necessary, it is, to some extent, happening already. In early April, the NCAA adopted rules that penalize schools for “ghost transfers,” whereby an athlete signs with a school before actually entering the portal.
Additionally, while its enforcement remains dubious to legal experts, President Donald Trump signed an executive order granting athletes only one “free” transfer over five years of eligibility, with any additional requiring a year on the bench. Meanwhile, Congress is working on a bill, known as the SCORE Act, to further legislate collegiate sports.
“I think we’re headed to a better model where players can transfer, but it’s a one-time transfer, and then there’s penalties after that,” Barnes said. “That will, I think, help decrease the number, because the number of people going in the portal in our sport, basketball, and football are just out of control. In the end, it hurts the athlete.”
True to Barnes’ sentiment, it’s not just the programs that are affected by losing recruits or existing players. The athletes can be hurt in the process as well, especially in an era dominated by lucrative monetary offers from revenue sharing and Name, Image, and Likeness deals.
A CBS Sports article from April 2024 stresses the fact that the more times a student athlete transfers, the less likely they are to graduate. Dennis Dodd’s article was written less than six months after a U.S. District Court injunction blocked the NCAA from enforcing its own rules against athletes who transfer more than once.
“Athletes will continue to play,” Dodd writes. “They will go to classes. But does it even matter anymore if they graduate?”
The short answer?
No.
With millions of dollars of NIL money going towards athletes to fuel their commitments or transfers, it’s easy to see why getting a degree and graduating can take a backseat.
While contracts between schools and student athletes aren’t public, top-tier players like starting quarterbacks receive upwards of a million dollars. For instance, Michigan quarterback Bryce Underwood receives more than $2 million annually after flipping his recruiting commitment from LSU.
The transfer portal has done a lot of good and will likely continue to do good in the world of college sports, but that’s not to say it should be left without regulation.
The bottom line?
Proceed with caution.