NCAA Launches Transfer Portal Dashboard for Athletes

NCAA research has created a new dashboard displaying Division I data from the Transfer Portal for the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years. 

The dashboard was created in response to requests from the membership for more transparency in Transfer Portal data to help student-athletes make informed decisions about transferring.

It will also provide context and consistency in reporting. The following areas are included:

• Undergraduate/graduate transfer trends.
• Number of Transfer Portal entrants annually.
• Month of portal entry.
• Enrollment status for portal entrants.
• Athletics aid status at both the departing and receiving school.
• Transfer flow patterns at the divisional level.

While the Transfer Portal is updated by school compliance staff multiple times each day, the data used in this dashboard is static and reflects Transfer Portal information available as of Jan. 10, 2022.

The current dashboard includes student-athletes entered into the Transfer Portal from Aug. 1, 2019, to July 31, 2020, classified as 2020, and those entered from Aug. 1, 2020, to July 31, 2021, classified as 2021. 

While the NCAA Transfer Portal launched in October 2018, the data from the last two academic years are more comparable than previous years because some categories in the portal were originally optional rather than mandatory fields to fill out. 

The Transfer Portal was created to help manage the Division I student-athlete transfer process. The Transfer Portal is a compliance tool designed to foster transparency in the transfer process and to empower student-athletes to make known their interest in transferring to another school. More information about the Transfer Portal can be found here.

Filtering at the sport level is available for all sports with 50 or more Transfer Portal entrants in 2021.

One of the highlights of the data was the number of graduate student-athlete transfers in the 2020-21 academic year.

The data shows a sizable increase in the number of student-athlete transfers competing as postgraduate students. The NCAA research staff thinks that much of this is related to the number of student-athletes who received a one-year extension of eligibility due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In many sports, the number of Division I undergraduate transfers who entered the portal in 2020 and 2021 remained relatively consistent, and the bulk of the transfer growth is explained by graduate transfers. However, in some sports, particularly those in which student-athletes were granted access to the one-time transfer exception in April 2021 (baseball, men's and women's basketball, football and men's ice hockey), there were notable increases in undergraduate transfers.

The data has filters to see the percentage of student-athletes who have entered into the Transfer Portal, who have enrolled at another NCAA member school, who have asked to be withdrawn from the Transfer Portal and who remain active in the Transfer Portal.

The data in this dashboard will be updated each January. As recently passed legislation requires Division II student-athletes interested in transferring to be entered into the Transfer Portal, Division II data will be included in 2023, as well.