Story co-written/produced with Charles Gadie
Beginning in 2018, the NCAA instituted the transfer portal, a digital database where college athletes enter themselves in order to transfer to another college.
The Transfer Portal took recruiting to another level in college athletics.
Instead of solely relying on recruiting high school players, colleges can now search other colleges for players that are willing to transfer.
Many WCU athletes and coaches use the portal to find different opportunities or come to WCU as the next chapter in their career.
Ronald Kent Jr. is one of the WCU athletes to take advantage of the portal.
Kent has played cornerback for WCU for four years. He started as a freshman and never looked back.
After his freshman season he was nominated a semi-finalist for the Jerry Rice award, Southern Conference All-Freshman team, and All-American selection by both Phil Steele and HERO sport.
Kent also went on to record two second-team All-Southern Conference honors.
He finished his career at WCU with 162 tackles, 29 pass breakups, two interceptions and three forced fumbles.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many spring sports teams didn’t have the opportunity to play their full season in 2020.
In response, in March of 2020, the NCAA Division I Council voted to allow schools to provide spring-sport student-athletes an additional season of competition and an extension of their period of eligibility.
Kent pounced on this idea.
Kent’s younger brother Donte Kent is a sophomore defensive back at Central Michigan University, which is the main reason he is choosing to transfer there.
When the transfer portal was first created, Division I athletes had to sit out a year if they transferred and were eligible to play the next year.
Under previous transfer rules, athletes in five sports, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and hockey are ineligible in the first year they transfer. The new rule would allow all athletes to move freely at least once but it does include some conditions.
Athletes must submit to their school a notification of transfer by certain dates to be immediately eligible at their next location. Fall and winter sport athletes must notify their schools by May 1, and spring sport athletes have until July 1.
Thanks to this rule Kent will be able to play his final season with his brother.
WCU deputy athletic director, Kyle Pifer, has access to the transfer portal at WCU.
According to Pifer, there are over 17,000 Division I athletes currently in the portal.
Pifer also says that for the 2021-2022 academic year, there are 65 WCU athletes in or have been in the portal. He says that around 20% to 25% of these athletes are graduate transfers looking to complete their degrees at other institutions.
Here is what he had to say about how WCU is using the portal and why.
In order for an athlete to enter their name into the portal, they must notify the head of compliance at their current school. Some schools ask the athletes to tell the coach first.
If the athlete is in Division I, the compliance department has two days to submit the transfer request. Division II has up to seven days to submit the request.
There is a possibility that schools can deny the transfer request but only for a few days. In most cases, schools let the athlete do what they want.
Once the athlete is in the portal, other coaches are allowed to contact them freely.
An athlete is not eligible to play right away if they have transferred to a Division I school for a second time, so therefore the athlete must sit out for a season.
A student athlete who transfers once within the division is allowed to be eligible immediately as long as they notify the new school they want to attend by the deadline.
As it stands, NCAA Division I rules limit student-athletes to four seasons of competition in a five-year period.
