The Transfer Portal has always been a part of Collegiate Athletics. However, the ways that it has been improved over the past few years has been a game changer for all collegiate athletes wanting to explore other options. Football gets the most attention for the transfer portal however, all sports use it. In the portal you can find student-athletes who did not start at their previous institution to literal national champions who want to repeat for a different university. Social Media has been a major influence on the transfer portal. Social Media has allowed for coaches and athletes to be aware immediately of when a student-athlete enters the portal. This allows for more connections and scouting for the student-athlete. At any time you can find numerous twitter profiles devoted to updating everyone on the most recent transfer news, based off of hashtags by the student-athletes, and/or universities or directly retweeting the student-athletes themselves. It also allows the student-athletes to share with the public the knowledge of who is recruiting them and any offer that they may have received.
Wrestling has been a prime example of all skill-set levels benefitting from the new and improved transfer portal. There is no bigger name in recent history of wrestling transfers than Nic Suriano. He started his career at Penn State and qualified for nationals but was unable to compete due to injury. Following this he secured his release and transferred to Rutgers where he was a two time National Finalist winning it as a Junior. After taking an Olympic Red-Shirt he then transferred to the University of Michigan and capped his career off with another National Title at the weight below his previous National Title. He was able to transfer two times within the Big Ten Conference to complete his career, as a three time finalist and two time champion at two different schools. On the smaller scale of transfers you can look into the portal every week and see a Division I student-athlete transferring to Division II to start for the first time in his collegiate career. Occasionally you will see a Division II or III student-athlete transfer to a Division I institution to continue his career, and see how he/she stacks up against Division I competition.
Another prime example is Women’s Volleyball. Very rarely does a Four TIme All American transfer schools, but that just happened this past off-season. Kaitlyn Hord formerly of Penn State achieved an incredible amount of success in Happy Valley, four times she was named and earned an All American. However, she is going to Big Ten Rival Nebraska for her final year of eligibility. This can be seen again and again with this new portal, another major mover was a two time Pac-12 Libero of the Year, Xoe Fleck, transferring from UCLA in the Pac-12 to the University of Texas (Big-12 moving to the SEC).
The impact of the transfer portal on all sports at all levels cannot be overlooked in terms of benefits for student-athletes and the institutions. This gives student-athletes who made a decision when young more freedom to correct the decision they made if they feel that it is necessary. The transfer portal will continue to have an affect on student-athletes and institutions alike, especially with the passage of “N.I.L.” which created a whole new level to the recruiting scheme.
