I have a new love: the NCAA transfer portal — and specifically the men's basketball transfer portal.
Before we get into my infatuation, a bit of information: while my love of the portal is swelling, the portal itself is not brand new. It debuted in the fall of 2018, and per the NCAA the intent was "as a compliance tool to systematically manage the transfer process from start to finish, add more transparency to the process among schools and empower student-athletes to make known their desire to consider other programs."
In short: it saves on administrative time and gives athletes more power. If a college athlete intends to transfer, they enter the portal. Other schools can see that they intend to transfer, and a re-recruitment of sorts commences.
In a lot of sports, athletes can transfer once during their careers without having to sit out a year. But in other major sports — including college basketball — a waiver is required if the athlete is to become immediately eligible. That might change soon if and when the NCAA votes on whether to allow a one-time transfer for all sports, a vote that has been delayed.
But a lot of waivers have been approved anyway in college basketball, creating a system that has fundamentally changed the sport. I talked about the pros and cons of such a structure on today's Daily Delivery podcast.
If you don't see the podcast player, click here to listen.
Look: transfers are nothing new. Former Gophers coach Richard Pitino used transfers and ultimately the portal to add to his teams. New Gophers coach Ben Johnson himself transferred from Northwestern to Minnesota, playing two years at each school — with a year where he was ineligible in between.
What's undeniable is that I'm fascinated by the level of player movement that is now possible — particularly as it pertains to the Gophers and Johnson — and how easy it is to track.