A Surge in Transfers: Unpacking the Numbers
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. – Nearly a month has passed since the mid-May deadline for men’s and women’s basketball players to enter the NCAA transfer portal. That has not stopped some student-athletes from looking for their new home.
Basketball players who entered the portal on or before May 11 have been free to move about the country to new schools – and will enjoy immediate competitive eligibility; those athletes who jumped into the portal after the deadline will have to either sit out or submit a waiver to the NCAA to play right away.
Unsettled Futures: The Dilemma of Unclaimed Athletes
According to the official NCAA Transfer Portal, 1,210 women’s basketball student-athletes have applied to transfer in the 2022-23 year. Of those 1,210 athletes, only 709 have noted their intent to either enroll in a new school or return to their original institution.
So what happens to the 501 student-athletes (or 41.4%) who have not yet found their new athletic and academic home? Some may forgo their eligibility and turn to professional ball; some may already be able to graduate and will simply move on from their university (according to WBB Blog, 326 of women’s basketball transfers are graduate transfers, meaning they have already obtained their undergraduate degree). But with less than a month until teams officially kick off their summer practice schedules, there will undoubtedly be hundreds of women’s basketball athletes left behind, without a place to finish their collegiate careers and perhaps without a school from which to graduate.
Transfer Portal Challenges: Balancing Risk and Reward
What is the NCAA doing to address this issue and how is it supporting athletes who do not get picked up? Is it simply the consequence of decisions these athletes will have to live with and learn from? An National Public Radio article from May 19, 2023 referred to the NCAA transfer portal as the place “where college athletes can risk it all for a shot at glory”.
Among all sports, there have been 37,773 entries into the portal in the last year. These numbers, of course, may remain inflated for the next two years as teams still navigate the awkward “covid year” that granted athletes an extra year of eligibility.
In the meantime, history will judge the NCAA on how many kids are left behind to fend for themselves.