The transfer portal has drastically changed college athletics. Combined with NIL, players’ newfound ability to leave one program and head to another without penalty has created a bit of a wild-wild-west version of college sports. It has perhaps had the biggest effect on NCAA basketball.
College basketball analyst Evan Miyakawa compiled a comprehensive list of every Division-1 men’s basketball player who has elected to put his name into the transfer portal and organized it by conference so as to compare how the portal has affected each league. Some of the numbers are shocking.
I was curious to see which conferences are most affected by transfers leaving, so I ranked every conference by the percentage of players who have entered their names in the portal👇 pic.twitter.com/dYRHuE7gvJ
— Evan Miyakawa (@EvanMiya) April 13, 2023
According to Miyakawa’s research, every conference in America lost at least 15% of its players to the transfer portal, with six conferences seeing over 30% of their players hit the portal. Revealing something most fans have already observed, this study shows just how different the college game looks from year to year with the new rules.
In a sport that was already extremely transient compared to other sports due to fewer restrictions on going pro and a higher-than-average transfer rate anyway, men’s college basketball rosters feasibly can see over 50% roster turnover from one season to the next.
Being able to transfer from one school to another should be a player’s right, just as coaches have the ability to go from one school to another. And NIL allows for players to (somewhat) fairly receive their market value just as any other worker in this country can. However, Miyakawa’s study reveals that the current system that is in place is a flawed one.
The installation of the transfer portal was never designed to see so many players transfer. However, “tampering” with players on other teams’ rosters has become a big part of recruiting in college sports, and many players have been influenced to enter the transfer portal based on alleged contact with another program. Sometimes this is with promises related to basketball, and sometimes this is with promises related to NIL.
The portal hasn’t been a consistently good thing for the players, either. According to a study performed by The Athletic, over 60% of players who transferred to a “Power-6” program saw their minutes decline with their new team and even more saw their scoring drop. A concerningly high number of players who enter the portal never play again, as well. About 43% of transfer portal entrants after the 2021-2022 season did not make it onto a roster for the 2022-2023 season.
Figuring out the perfect solution to these problems won’t be easy, but NCAA basketball fans know one thing: the status quo isn’t working.