The Decision to Transfer and the Impacts of Transferring on Leadership for Division 1 Collegiate Football Players

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a portal that is used among D1 and D2 athletes to help foster a smooth recruiting process for athletes looking to go to different schools. The NCAA Transfer Portal was created in 2018. The portal is a recruitment mechanism that consists of a database that includes an athlete’s name, school name, and weight, among various other metrics used by coaches to evaluate the transfer athlete. Since the Transfer Portal was created, many individuals have had mixed feelings about its potential use. This research will focus primarily on the use of the Transfer Portal by former college football athletes. Anecdotally, mixed feelings have been garnered by both football players and coaches on the use of the Transfer Portal. Coaches seem to have more of a consensus of disliking the portal, although some coaches like it because it gives a recruitment mechanism. In contrast, athletes favor the portal as it allows them to leave. Athletes appreciate the ability to have a smoother process when transferring and enjoy the ability to have the opportunity to transfer if their skillsets/talents are not being utilized, are trying to pursue the NFL and have a higher chance going to another school, or they are having trouble adjusting to the team or school (Feldman, 2023). Due to the increased use of the Transfer Portal, coaches describe not having to go into the portal to recruit players yearly as a “miracle” (Feldman, 2023). Specifically, a coach has stated, “If I get through this cycle and I don’t lose any of these kids, it’s gonna be a miracle” (Feldman, 2023, para 8). This qualitative research study will showcase the various leadership dynamics that come into play because of the use of the Transfer Portal. The study will focus on how team dynamics change when new players come to the school via the Transfer Portal (i.e., teammates recruited from the Transfer Portal taking spots, becoming leaders on the team, changing the team/leadership dynamics, etc.).