Sports Opinion

The rise of the student athletes utilizing the NCAA transfer portal has reached new heights in recent years for college athletes chasing a bigger school and a better program. The question for the NCAA and universities of the portal damaging the structure of college sports, committing to a school, and committing to a program now stands.

While critics can say that the portal damages the college experience and creates instability within teams, the transfer portal does do good for athletes of any sport. 

It creates possibilities for athletes to follow their dreams or help them find a new program when theirs has fallen and grants students a second chance at the experience they want and deserve. It also challenges the decade-long tradition of staying at a struggling school despite coaching changes, team issues or overall program cuts. 

Use of the portal has grown exponentially since its launch in 2018. According to NBC Sports, during the 2018-19 season, 1,561 NCAA football players entered the transfer portal. Going into the 2025 transfer portal cycle, more than 3,700 entered the portal.

These opportunities are made possible for players who might not have ended up at the school they wanted or deserved the first time around, and it opens many doors for those who are looking for more out of their college career. Plenty of athletes grow themselves at DII schools or smaller mid-majors before moving up the chain. 

One of the better examples of this is the University of Iowa men’s basketball team, where many of the starters, like Bennett Stirtz and Tavion Banks, started at smaller DII and DI schools before hopping to Drake University and eventually following former Drake head coach Ben McCollum to the Hawkeye campus. 

The portal can also be beneficial for programs such as Iowa State University gymnastics, which had their season canceled and program cut from the university on March 3. Many of the gymnasts are now transferring to new programs, such as Peyton Nock.

It is also important to consider that these athletes’ decisions on what school they go to directly impacts their futures. Just like students can transfer if a school isn’t working for them, these athletes have so much riding on their programs as well. It is almost a double standard to expect a student athlete to stay somewhere when you wouldn’t expect a normal student to stay somewhere that they aren’t happy. 

Now, that’s not to say that the system doesn’t have its downsides. With the volume of athletes entering the portal, the competitive marketplace makes it harder for athletes to find a home that they actually want to stay at, because if they don’t like it, it just means another switch the next season. 

However, because so many athletes aren’t happy about their decisions, the discussion of better support and resources for these athletes when making these decisions should be brought up. Just as college counselors help in high school, there should be better guidance for these athletes to help take stress off their plates and support them as athletes, but above all as students too. 

The portal has its ups and downs, but because of the freedom and flexibility that it provides to those in need with the simple gift of choice and change when needed, it is no wonder the portal grows every year. If athletes’ happiness isn’t a priority, their performance will suffer, and the whole reason they took the title of student athlete in the first place could be in question. It’s time to better support the portal and what it is doing for the athletes using it, and above all, better support our favorite athletes as they navigate school just like the rest of us.