How basketball transfer portal window numbers compare to football

Four hours before the start of the national championship game Monday night, there was a different type of noteworthy college basketball development.

Oral Roberts guard Max Abmas, a former March Madness star who has ranked in the top 10 nationally in scoring each of the past three seasons, became the latest standout player to enter the NCAA transfer portal during the open window period that began March 13.

After more than 2,000 Division I scholarship football players went into the portal during the FCS and FBS portal windows (from November 21 to January 4 and December 5 to January 18, respectively), there already have been nearly 1,000 Division I scholarship basketball players to enter the portal since March 13. There’s likely a lot more coming, too, as the basketball portal window doesn’t end until May 11.

Let’s take a deeper look at the numbers.

The total numbers

Through Monday, 1,090 total Division I basketball players had entered the portal since March 13, including 966 scholarship players. That means that roughly 20 percent of all Division I scholarship players – and an average of 2.7 scholarship players per team – have entered the portal in the first three weeks of this cycle. There also have been a number of players entering the portal from other levels, including 430 from Division II.

In comparison, 1,325 FBS scholarship football players went into the portal during the football window, which translates to roughly 12 percent of all FBS scholarship football players and an average of 10.1 scholarship portal entries per team.

Week-by-week breakdown

While the number of portal entries has dipped since the first week of this window, there still has been an average of 29 Division I scholarship portal entries per day since Monday of last week.

Here’s a week-by-week breakdown of Division I scholarship portal entries since the portal window opened.

+ March 13-19: 410

+ March 20-26: 321

+ March 27-April 2: 201

+ This week: 34 through Monday

Year-to-year numbers are up

Before August and the implementation of the transfer portal windows, players could go into the portal whenever they chose. That’s not the case anymore. Now, players must wait until the window opens to put their name into the portal unless their head coach is fired or they’re a graduate transfer.

That contributed to 249 more portal entries this year compared to March 13 to April 3 of last year. But last year’s numbers also help to show why it’s safe to assume there will be plenty more portal action before the window closes May 11.

Of the 1,220 Division I scholarship basketball players who entered the portal from March 13 to May 11 last year, 503 did so between April 4 and May 11.