Notre Dame women’s basketball star enters transfer portal

Notre Dame women’s basketball forward Sam Brunelle has decided to enter the transfer portal, according to a post on her social media profile. The former five-star prospect started under Muffet McGraw but came off the bench in two seasons under Niele Ivey.

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Over three seasons before entering the transfer portal, Sam Brunelle appeared in 80 games for Notre Dame. She averaged 10 points and four rebounds while shooting 32.5 percent from the 3-point line.

“These past three years have been the most amazing years of my life,” Brunelle wrote. “Coming to Notre Dame was a dream come true and I am thankful for all the memories, friends and connections I have made while being here.”

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After posting a season-high 20 points in the opener against Ohio, her role decreased down the stretch and ended with just nine minutes and no points against NC State in the NCAA Tournament loss.

Transfer portal background information 

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.