Less than half of athletes that enter the transfer portal find a new school

The grass is not always greener on the other side. The NCAA released data from the first two years of the transfer portal, revealing that only 49% of college student-athletes enrolled at a new member school after entering the portal.

The percentages vary based on the sport and division, but they do not paint a pretty picture for college athletes seeking a better college athletics situation.

FBS Sport	Percentage Enrolled at New School
Football	54%
Men’s Basketball	65%
Women’s Basketball	65%

FBS football had more players enter the transfer portal than any other sport (2,358), but men’s basketball had 31% of its athletes enter the portal over the two-year period. The interactive dashboard allows you to examine a variety of data points in various sports across all divisions.

The Transfer Portal is a “Scary Place”

The big picture is not always pretty, but there are plenty of transfer portal success stories, particularly at the University of Kentucky. After his role began to diminish at West Virginia, Oscar Tshiebwe transferred to Kentucky and became college basketball’s unanimous National Player of the Year.

Mark Stoops’ 10-win 2021 team was fielded with stars that attended other Power Five schools in 2020. Jacquez Jones arrived on UK’s campus last summer and became the Wildcats’ leading tackler. He does not take that success for granted.

“The portal is a scary place,” he told KSR this spring. “It’s a really scary place because you never know where you’re going to end up. I have a lot of guys that entered the portal and they haven’t even found a team yet. The portal’s a scary place and it’s getting wilder by the minute. There’s around 2,000 guys in the portal. Some of them are not even going to have anywhere to play. You really gotta have faith in Christ and know that God has a plan for you and that’s basically what I did.”

Fortunately for Jones, he had a lengthy SEC resume to boast in the portal. He also had a former Ole Miss position coach, Jon Sumrall, on the Wildcats’ staff.

“I never thought I’d end up at Kentucky. I didn’t know nothing about Kentucky,” he said. “But I ended up here, glory be to God I ended up here.”

The transfer portal provides new opportunities for amateur athletes, but not every story has a happy ending.