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- On Wednesday, it was revealed that there are now 1,000 players in the college basketball transfer portal.
- College basketball fans were shocked to find out this was the case before the Final Four is even played.
- Read more news about college basketball here.
If you think the new Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) deals college athletes are now getting is the biggest change in college sports over the past year, you might actually be wrong.
Another change, the transfer portal rules, enacted by the NCAA back in April of 2021 might be having an even bigger effect.
Related: Florida State DB Enters Transfer Portal After Reportedly Holding Out From Practice Over NIL Issues
On Wednesday, it was revealed that the number of Division I men’s basketball players who have entered the transfer portal has reached 1,000.
1,020 names now listed. Updated daily: https://t.co/4ZrPX9y6f5 https://t.co/TLFUUdIVq8
— Verbal Commits (@VerbalCommits) March 31, 2022
In case you aren’t familiar, the new transfer portal allows college athletes to transfer to another school one time without being forced to sit out a year.
Greg Kampe, head coach of Oakland University men’s basketball team, says his staff is constantly checking the NCAA transfer portal now.
“We don’t look at it, we refresh it. There’s so many kids going in and we all have openings,” he told Click On Detroit.
“The center from North Carolina is in the portal. If you’re the starting center at North Carolina, what’s better than that?” he added. “Kentucky has kids in the portal, Duke has kids in the portal.”
The transfer portal is completely changing the face of college basketball
USC men’s basketball coach Andy Enfield got his team to the Elite Eight using the transfer portal. Last offseason, he went out and grabbed four key players: Tahj Eaddy from Santa Clara, Drew Peterson from Rice, Chevez Goodwin from Wofford, and Isaiah White from Utah Valley.
This year, players like Syracuse freshman Kadary Richmond, Jabri Abdur-Rahim of Virginia, Cole Swider of Villanova, Christian Bishop of Creighton, Tyon Grant-Foster of Kansas, and Khristian Lander of Indiana are just the tip of the iceberg for coaches looking to reshape their squad.
“You’re going to see roster turnover every year,” said Kampe. “You’re going to see a new kids every year, and really, you’re gonna have to cheer for your school.”
College basketball fans still aren’t quite sure what to make of these seismic changes in the game.
There are over 1,000 players in the transfer portal. This is not a sustainable model for college basketball.
— Carrington Harrison (@cdotharrison) March 31, 2022
The transfer portal surpassed 1,000 names today. Good luck to everyone looking for a new college home.
— stu durando (@studurando) March 30, 2022
To start the week there were 700+ names in the transfer portal. There are now over 1,000 just d1 alone. I’d imagine when all said and done it could be 1500-1600. Maybe things settle back down when the free Covid year goes away but this is going to be wild
— Matt Vaughn (@mvaughn22) March 30, 2022
It's almost like there were rules in place before so this wouldn't happen. Weird.
— NKCChief (@NKCChief) March 31, 2022
You can’t force kids to just stay at a school. If you want to transfer, you should be able to do so freely. That combined with the ability to test the draft process and get feedback has actually made college basketball more competitive. It’s not all down to recruiting a HS kid
— Ryan Andrade (@Ku_Bball_Fan) March 31, 2022
There will be 1,000+ names in the transfer portal when it’s all said a done. The sad part is 100’s of talented players will be without an offer or take an offer “they didn’t want” OR the biggest one they thought they were bigger than the current school and was shown other wise!
— Deshon A.Walker (@THE1DAW) March 29, 2022