How the Heck Does the Transfer Portal Work?

If you’re an NC State fan, you’ve seen 10 Wolfpack players already declare they will be entering the Transfer Portal. You might be freaking out, wondering why no players are announcing they are coming here yet, when people have already said they are leaving. Well, there’s good reason for that, so take a breath, and let’s try to understand the insanity of the Transfer Portal.

For starters, every player can transfer from a 4-year college to another 4-year college one time without having to sitting out a season. After a player graduates, they can transfer as many times as they want, and have immediate eligibility. There are other exceptions where a player could transfer to a 4-year college more than once, but I’m not going to dive into all of that here.

There are two windows in which players can officially enter the Portal. There is a 30 day window, beginning on December 4th, and ending on January 2nd, and there is another one in the Spring from May 1-15. The window for entering the Portal shrank by 15 days this year, through a new revision to the rules this Fall. The 30-day window in the Fall used to be 45-days, but was reduced by 15 days. The Total amount of days between the two windows was 60 days in total, and now it is 45.

Even though you are seeing players “enter” the Transfer Portal, they technically won’t “enter” the Portal until this upcoming Sunday. What they are doing is announcing that they will be entering.

Let me make 2 quick caveats to what I just said. If a player deciding to transfer is a graduate student, they have the ability to enter the Transfer Portal immediately, and don’t have to wait until December 4th. The same is true for a player whose coach was fired or left the program.

Technically speaking, schools are not allowed to reach out to prospective schools, and vice versa, until December 4th, but lets not pretend all kind of shenanigans are taking place. Graduate students, and players whose coaches were fired or left, do have an advantage, being able to enter before the 4th, because they can go ahead and start talking with schools. That’s how Texas A&M Quarterback Max Johnson already committed to UNC.

Currently, NC State has 10 players that have declared they are entering the Transfer Portal, which is the most of any team in the ACC at this point. Last year, the Wolfpack had a total of 12 players enter the Portal, which was one of the lowest in the ACC. I do expect to see more players transfer out of NC State this year, compared to last year, because there are changes in NLI at NC State this year. From my understanding, there was a commitment that every player on scholarship would receive/earn a minimum of $25k last year. I don’t believe that policy is in place anymore, which could lead to more turnover, but also lead to having a bigger pot to try to catch bigger fish in the Portal.

A word of advice to NC State fans. Don’t start freaking out. The Portal hasn’t even opened yet. When it does, just go ahead and brace yourself, and hold on until January 2nd, and then evaluate where things stand.