In a move to provide more transparency with regards to the transfer portal, the NCAA released statistics and information for the years 2020 and 2021 that shows only 54 percent of FBS players who entered the portal enrolled at a new school.
During the two-year period shown in the infographics provided by the NCAA, five percent of student-athletes who entered the portal withdrew their name, while 41 percent remained active in the transfer portal. The data shows an increase of more than 950 FBS players entering to the portal from August 2019-July 2020 (1,583) to August 2020-July 2021 (2,539). The NCAA has seen the most active months coming in December and January, with 38 percent of the 2021 entrants coming in those two months.
The transfer portal has become more and more popular since the NCAA has allowed student-athletes a one-time transfer without penalty, which is backed up by the numbers on the NCAA’s site.
In 2020, there were 587 undergrad students who entered the portal and enrolled at a new school, whereas there were 950 in 2021. That sharp increase has continued to rise in the 2021-2022 year, as well, and the numbers are expected to be even higher than the two previous years.
In the research the NCAA conducted, it shows that only 59 percent of scholarship FBS football players who entered their name in the transfer portal transferred to another school and received a scholarship at the next destination. Among those scholarship players who entered the portal, 33 percent (834) still remain active and 8 percent transferred without athletic aid.
FBS football saw the most student-athletes enter the transfer portal (2,538) of any sport, but men’s basketball had the highest percentage of student-athletes in the portal with 31 percent (1,692) of its athletes entering in the year 2021. FBS saw 16 percent of its athletes enter the portal, while women’s basketball had 22 percent (1,134) enter during the 12-month period.
The NCAA analyzed data for all of the sports under its jurisdiction and found that only 30 percent (9,101) of Division I athletes who entered the portal across all sports transferred and received athletics aid at their new school and 47 percent (14,293) of all entrants remain active.