The Transfer Portal

For decades, transferring between universities as a collegiate student athlete was rare. There were several pieces of intentional friction to prevent a student from moving between schools. The primary point of barrier for most athletes was a rule that forced the athlete to sit out for a year and lose a year of valuable year of eligibility.

Instead of being able to play 4 years of their sport, they would only get 3. The vast majority of athletes were unwilling to give up a year to pursue transferring to a new school.

But if you follow college sports at any level you know that things are different now. In 2018, the NCAA (the governing body of college athletics) introduced a the Transfer Portal. The portal is essentially a database of student athletes to announce their interest in transferring to a new school. The portal is public and coaches across the country can now evaluate, contact, and recruit players who have entered the portal to come join their school. The second monumental shift in college athletics happened 2021 when the NCAA removed the 1-year penalty for transferring.

Now, athletes can publicly announce their interest in transferring with no effect on their eligibility.

As you could guess, the number of athletes transferring schools skyrocketed. With 20,000+ athletes entering the portal last year.

Athletic talent flows freely between schools all across the country now.

People will continue to debate whether the transfer portal is good for college athletics, but I can promise you a “data transfer portal” is good for your company.

When data can move freely across teams, organizations and departments. Without penalty. Without loss of eligibility. Without friction. Then the data can land where it’s most needed.

The data needed to fill a gap. Answer a question. Explore an opportunity.

If you are college sports fan, think of your data platform like the transfer portal. And make the movement of data as robust, compelling, and opportunistic as possible.

I'm here,

Sawyer