The NCAA Transfer Portal is an online database, application, and compliance tool launched on October 15, 2018, to manage and facilitate the process for student-athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. The portal allows student-athletes to place their name in an online database declaring their desire to transfer. Athletes enter the portal by informing their current school of their desire to transfer, and their name is then submitted to the online database of players looking to transfer within 48 hours of that request. The transfer portal is an NCAA-wide database, covering transfers in all three NCAA divisions, although most media coverage of the transfer portal involves its use in the top-level Division I.

The Transfer Portal was created as a compliance tool to systematically manage the transfer process from start to finish, add more transparency to the process among schools, and empower student-athletes to make known their desire to consider other programs. For coaches, the portal is a place to see who is looking to transfer. Coaches can set up a watch list of the people they want to track, and they can see in real-time how many student-athletes in a specific sport, school, or conference actively are looking to transfer.

Once a student-athlete has decided they want to move on to a new school, they must contact a university compliance administrator who is required to submit that athlete’s name within two business days of the request. The portal is a password-protected NCAA database accessed through a web browser. The process of entering a player includes inputting their name, NCAA ID number, email address, phone number, sport or sports, and answering a list of questions. Among those questions are whether the athlete wants to be contacted by other schools, whether theyre transferring as a graduate student, and whether theyre receiving an athletic scholarship.

In summary, the NCAA Transfer Portal is an online database, application, and compliance tool launched in 2018 to manage and facilitate the process for student-athletes seeking to transfer between member institutions. It allows student-athletes to place their name in an online database declaring their desire to transfer, and coaches can see in real-time who is looking to transfer. Once a student-athlete has decided they want to move on to a new school, they must contact a university compliance administrator who is required to submit that athlete’s name within two business days of the request.