The NCAA transfer portal opens this upcoming Wednesday, March 12th for women’s swimming and diving while the men’s window begins March 19th. With what is expected to be a busy season in the portal due to roster cuts, it is time to review the rules about the portal.
The Division I women’s swimming and diving window opens on March 12th and closes on April 25th while the men’s window begins on March 19th and ends May 2nd. The window gives transfer athletes 45 days to put their name into the portal. The 45 day window shrunk last season after sitting at 60 days. The window marks one week after the NCAA invites are announced.
Entering the portal is a pretty straightforward process, and coaches do not have to be notified. Administrators are required to help student-athletes enter the portal if they ask to.
This window does not require the student to make their decision to transfer before the end date, rather it is the window in which the student-athlete must begin their transfer process.
Students who are graduate transfers are not bound by the 45 day window and can enter at any time. With most swimmers who competed in the COVID-19 year completing their fifth year this season, it is expected that graduate transfers will be less this offseason. Still, athletes who graduate early in three years for example, can enter at any time as graduate transfers.
Other exceptions to the window exist for programs that are cut and athletes impacted by head coaching changes (who receive a 30 day window to enter the portal immediately following the coaching change).
Swimmers are not required to transfer by entering the portal, and on rare occasion have changed their minds and stayed at their current NCAA programs. Entering the portal allows athletes to discuss the possibility of transferring with other programs.
Athletes are now allowed to transfer an unlimited amount of times without having to sit out a season. Previous rules made an athlete sit out for a season after transferring for a second time, unless a waiver was approved.
Should be a lot of SEC swimmers in the portal right? I saw somewhere that someone made a list of every teams situation
http://Www.collegeswimconnect.com/all
Actually, being cut is not immediate acceptance to the portal. The entry dates are clear and you must be in the portal before it closes. If you are cut after may 2nd. You are out of luck! You must be in the portal. Speaking from experience!
Isn’t it that if your cut from a team you are free to join any other team without issue. You are not bound by transfer rules
And I believe if you willingly left your program you don’t have to go into the portal
That is incorrect. Every transfer has to go into the portal (for D1 and D2).
Unfortunately, the reality is that more schools may cut programs over the next 6-9 months – are swimmers at those schools allowed to transfer then without a “portal”?
Yes. They would be allowed to enter the portal even after the window
The other major exception relevant to swimmers is you get 30 days immediately after a head coaching change to enter the portal as well (added both of these above).
You know something?
I know many things. I don’t know of any specific bombshell coaching changes upcoming though, if that’s what you’re asking.
Georgetown’s head coach has accepted an AD position in CA.
Does a swimmer forego their scholarship just by entering the portal or only if they transfer?
Coaches can certainly reinstate their scholarships, but any four-year scholarship agreements are invalidated by entering the portal.
It’s incredibly rare for a swimmer to enter the portal and return to compete for the varsity at the same school, and will be even more rare with roster limits. Liam Bell at Alabama is the most notable exception, before ultimately transferring later in his college career for his 5th year at Cal.
Why don’t they just wait until the respective NCAA meets are done to open the portal for each sex.
There’s a balance that has to be struck between all of the different interests. The overwhelming majority of NCAA swimmers do not qualify for the NCAA Championship meet, and requiring them to delay their future planning until after the NCAA Championships is probably not fair to them.
Making them wait until after NCAA invites are announced gives everyone time to get through conference meets and get settled with their NCAA rosters before dumping the changes on them.
And the student needs to apply to and get accepted by the school they are planning to transfer to. So, any more delay makes that window even tighter. My daughter went through it 2 years ago.
Our son did last year, got f-ed by mens portal date as most schools app deadlines were before portal opened – it all worked out in the end, he visited/reapplied this fall and was able to do a mid-year transfer to an academically challenging D3 school.
It’s going to be a wild transfer season with the roster cuts looming.
Have schools that are going to be forced to make cuts already informed the ones being affected? There is going to be a fight for spots and money at schools so jumping in early could be beneficial
Yes. Yes they have.
I would hope so. There was an article a few weeks back about the process at Texas. It sounded like the coaching staff was pretty transparent with the athletes and started letting them know a couple months ago. I hope most programs were as transparent as possible and gave as much lead time as possible.
No not all, some are waiting till after NCAA’s are complete.