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Transfer Portal: The Athlete Perspective
- LeRon Williams
- Mar 28
- 7 min read
Updated: 5 days ago
Why the Transfer Portal is a Gift and a Curse for Student-Athletes
What started as a tool for athletes seeking a fresh start has become one of the most unpredictable forces in college athletics. For some, it’s a golden opportunity to find the right fit, earn more playing time, or land a better scholarship. For others, it becomes a waiting game with no clear end, no second chance, and no answers.
College recruiting isn’t just about high school athletes anymore. The portal is packed with former standouts who didn’t pan out at their first school, JUCO players trying to level up, and athletes who earned the privilege to try and maximize their earning potential. And with limited roster spots , every new athlete entering the portal makes the recruiting landscape even more competitive, and... chaotic. If you're considering transferring, you need to know what you're stepping into.
In this blog, I’ll break down the good, the bad, and the ugly of the transfer portal:
How it can change your life for the better
How it can set you back if you’re unprepared
And how it can turn into a dead end if you're not strategic
Whether you're a current college athlete looking for more, or a coach trying to navigate this new normal, this is what you need to know about the transfer portal in 2025.
Let’s take Fly.te...
The Good: The Upward Mobility of the Transfer Portal
Let’s start with the upside.
For student-athletes, the transfer portal can be a strategic move — a chance to climb the ladder and find a better fit, athletically, academically, or even socially. But before we just throw around the phrase "moving up," we need to define what that really means.
“Upward mobility” for an athlete isn’t just about going from a smaller school to a Power 4 program. Sometimes, it’s about finding a team with a healthier culture. It’s about training in an environment that challenges you to grow. It’s about having a coaching staff that not only knows the science behind what there doing, but knows you, a staff that can push you without breaking you.
These may seem like basic expectations in college athletics, but let’s be honest, they’re not always guaranteed. Many athletes enter programs based on promises that don’t materialize. Coaches deliver killer recruiting pitches, but when the season starts, athletes realize they were sold on a vision that doesn’t match reality. Which could be due to internal dysfunction, coaching turnover, or poor institutional support.
So some athletes hit the portal in search of something better. Not just more playing time, but more purpose. They’re chasing competition, accountability, a higher standard. And yes, let’s talk about the elephant in the room: Money.
NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals have become a major incentive for athletes, but let’s be clear — not everyone has access to those opportunities yet. That may change as universal compensation structures roll out in the future, but for now, it’s still uneven. Even so, if an athlete knows they can contribute to a more competitive program with stronger facilities and better support, why not bet on themselves?
That’s the mentality most elite athletes should carry: seek the challenge, rise to it, and conquer it.
The Bad: The Risk of Entering Without a Plan
Now let’s talk about the flip side, the part many athletes (and parents) overlook.
The transfer portal does not guarantee a better outcome. Yes, the odds of finding the right fit might improve the second time around, but nothing is promised. You could enter the portal, confident that coaches will line up to recruit you... and then crickets. Weeks go by. Your phone stays silent. The semester starts approaching, and now you're scrambling.
Why does this happen?
More often than not, athletes enter the portal without a plan. They’re frustrated, impatient, or just ready for change but they haven't done their homework. They’re assuming a coach will magically find their highlights, assume they are an amazing athlete, and offer a full scholarship. That’s not how this works.
College coaches don’t just look at stats and film. They dig. They vet. And they’re asking three key questions mainly:
Were you a problem in your last program ~ maybe even a diva? (Yes, young men can act like divas too.)
Were there any disciplinary issues that the coach or support staff had to deal with? Were you dismissed from the team?
Are you an academic liability that could hurt the team's GPA or cause eligibility concerns? (I.e. Do you go to class, are you going to study table requirements, etc.)
If the answers anyone of those questions raise a red flags, your phone may never ring. It’s harsh, but it’s real.
Another risk?
You don’t fit the new program...
AGAIN.
This can be damaging to the character of an athlete. You have to ask yourself, if I didn't fit in 2 programs, "am I the problem." You will spend a lot of your re-recruitment time (is that the official term?) explaining that to coaches. Let's just say, the only thing you want them to focus on is your talent. Not to many coaches will take a chance on a kid that isn't mature enough to understand that this isn't a game and coaches jobs are there livelihood. The window to get recruited out of the portal is tight, which means you need to do the research to speed the process up and know what you are looking for. Know the school. Know the roster. Know the coaching staff’s style and expectations. Because if you don’t, you could find yourself in a worse spot than before or with no spot at all.
"With this comes a sense of ownership. Your a brand now. Your first company is you. You are CEO of self."
And sometimes, you’ll have to be open to opportunities you never considered. That might mean looking at Division II or Division III programs. (Shoutout to all my coaching colleagues in those divisions, there are some real dawgs down there. Real athletic development is happening there also.)
At the end of the day, transferring is a reset button, not a cheat code. The athletes who approach it with humility, preparation, and clarity on what they aspire to be for a college program, are the ones who usually land on their feet.
The Ugly: The Harsh Reality of the Portal
What I consider bad, some of you might be bold enough to say, “I can handle that.” And that’s fair.
But now... let me introduce you to The Ugly.
The Ugly side of the transfer portal is what happens when life gets real and you realize you're in deeper shit than you thought. This is the part where, in many cases, it takes serious work — mentally, emotionally, and logistically — to claw your way out of a hole that you put yourself in. And even then, a coach might take one look and decide,
...you’re not worth the trouble.
Why?... Because you're not the only one in the portal.
When thousands of athletes are sitting in that same digital waiting room, what makes you special?
Your story about how your coach didn’t like you because you joined an on campus organization and missed a few lifts?
Sorry, but most coaches won’t care.
You believe you’re worth more money because of your social media following and local fame?
Good luck...
Most programs aren’t scouting for influencers, they’re building rosters to win.
It can get sticky,
You could be in that portal until the last possible day to register for school, and nobody calls.
Coaches, especially the ones who had to grind for everything they have, don’t have sympathy for athletes who expect everything handed to them. Many of today’s coaches built their careers without NIL, without social media, without transfer freedom.
"whatever accolade they have, they had to earn it. And if they needed to go through a coach to get to the top, they were gonna take the challenge"
Now they expect the same grit from their athlete. They’re looking for competitors, not complainers.
And here’s the kicker, this isn’t just a Division I issue. The transfer portal is open across all divisions, and the number of student-athletes entering the portal grows every single year.
Take a look at the data:
In 2023-24,
2,308 men’s track & field athletes entered the portal.
1,803 women’s track & field athletes entered as well.
Out of those:
49% of men and 40% of women were still listed as active, meaning they hadn’t found a new home.
Many of them never will.
These numbers do not include athletes who later matriculated (enrolled) to a junior college — so yes, there’s a slight margin of error but the lesson is clear:
There is a very real chance that you could be stuck in the portal.
In Conclusion: Be Strategic or Be Stuck
There is an old proverb that says "just because you can transfer doesn’t mean you should." If you're excelling where you are — academically, athletically, and culturally — and your coach is fully invested in your development, why leave? There is no promise that the next program will be as patient, as committed, or as intentional with you. And if a coach has spent time molding you, challenging you, building your brand, honor that. Don’t abandon that process just because things get tough or because someone else seems to have it better.
But on the flip side, if the culture is toxic, if the coaching staff has changed, or if your peace and well-being are on the line, then yes, move on. Just don’t do it out of emotion. Move on with a plan. Know what you’re looking for. Know your value and have the receipts to back it up.
You only get so many chances to get recruited. Don’t leave your second shot to chance. Take ownership. Be informed. Be honest with yourself.
And most of all...
Build the future you say you want — before the portal builds it for you.
Keep an eye out for the next post as we dive into the coaches perspective.
Please feel free to like and subscribe to my blog at the bottom of the page. Also, feel free to comment on this post, I would love to create an open forum on this topic.
LeRon Williams, Med
CEO/Founder of Fly.te Academy
Website: soarwithflyte.com flyterperformance.com
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