Is the college football transfer portal out of control?

People sometimes say "the grass is greener on the other side," but is it really? The transfer portal was started on October 15th 2018 by the NCAA. The transfer portal is an online database where athletes can announce their wish to transfer. It also holds the athlete's statistics, along with age, and previous university. Entering the transfer portal is quite simple. The college football transfer portal, which was a huge topic in sports this year, opened on December 5th and stayed open until January 18th. This is a 45 day period where athletes can go to their coaching staff and explain that they want to transfer. The coaches then have to put the athletes information into the transfer portal within two days of being informed by the player of their wishes to transfer.

At the start of the transfer portal only a small amount of football players entered the 2018 transfer portal. This is mainly due to the fact that athletes were not sure of the repercussions they might get because this had never been an option before. After the first completed year of the transfer portal, the 2019 portal had an explosion of players enter. 1,695 football players entered the portal in 2019. This is largely due to the new waiver put in by the NCAA stating that athletes who transfer could immediately be eligible and would not gain penalty. In 2020, the transfer portal was very similar to the 2019 portal with a total of 2,868 athletes entering. Yet in 2021 there was a significant growth to 4,084 athletes who entered the portal. Many people believe this spike in numbers was due to the year of COVID 19 being over and players realizing they might want to be somewhere else. In the latest transfer portal, over 2,000 players entered the football transfer portal. Though this is a decrease from 2021, it is still a large number with lots of shocking news about players leaving their teams.

The creation of the transfer portal has completely changed the world of college sports. Players enter the transfer portal due to many reasons. It could because they don't like the coaching or they could be promised a starting position at another school. It could also be because of money. Due to NIL deals, now athletes can get paid for transferring. Millions of dollars are getting paid to players who just transfer to another school. Though sometimes transferring can benefit the athlete, it can also hurt the athlete. Some players never get picked up by another team and are therefore "stuck" in the transfer portal. Others could think they are going to start at a new school, yet when they get there, they ride the bench for the season. Lots of coaches also do not like the transfer portal. According to an ESPN article over the transfer portal, Clemson's Dabo Swinney said the transfer portal is "not what it's supposed to be" due to the new NIL rules. The transfer portal has many benefits, but is starting to get out of control due to the amount of players entering it. The transfer portal will continue to grow and may soon need guidelines put in place to stop allowing thousands of players entering the transfer portal.