The so-called transfer portal, the name applied to the pool of collegiate student-athletes whoāve voiced an interest in transferring from their current schools, has been a source of conversation and consternation in the college athletics community ā and yesterday at the NACDA conference a number of college commissioners had the opportunity to address the issue.
A panel featuring the commissioners of the ACC, Big 12 and SEC spoke about the transfer portal, along with a number of other issues facing college athletics. Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby, however, is the one who grabbed headlines for saying that the portal ā which sets up different guidelines depending on the different sports ā was a ācolossal mistake.ā
According to ESPN, student-athletes in football, menās and womenās basketball, baseball and ice hockey must sit out one year prior to joining a new team under the current transfer rules, unless theyāre given a waiver by the NCAA making them immediately eligible. Student-athletes in other sports, however, are granted immediate eligibility, provided they only transfer once.
Bowlsby told the audience at the panel that heād prefer a uniform rule requiring all transfers to sit out for a year.
āWe would have been much better off if there was always a transfer residence requirement in all sports,ā Bowlsby told ESPN. āEveryone sits out and gets acclimated and then have a chance to get a year back by graduating.ā
Despite this opinion, Bowlsby said that he isnāt necessarily pushing for change on the subject.
ACC Commissioner John Swofford had a different take on the issue, saying that the transfer portal represents a step in the right direction. Swofford said that heād prefer to find a sweet spot between roster management and empowering student-athletes to make the best choices for themselves.
Bowlsby said that a uniform policy requiring transferring student-athletes to sit out a year would be helpful in deterring those student-athletes wishing to transfer āpurely for athletic reasons.ā
āPeople would think hard about whether they wanted to transfer if they had to sit out a year,ā Bowlsby told ESPN. āThey would think about whether or not they were planning to graduate and, in doing so, get their year back. I think it would cause them to think more about their initial choice of schools at the outset. I think all those are good things.ā