Let's Talk Transfers

Since we are about a month or so away from the Transfer Portal absolutely blowing up, I figured now would be a decent time to talk about Transfers. First lets talk about what made some of the nearly 1,000 volleyball athletes go into the portal last year.

The "Covid Year" - The NCAA gave all athletes currently playing (2020) at the college level an extra year of eligibility.

2021 Grad Class - The NCAA allowed programs to go over their maximum scholarship amounts based on the number of returning seniors playing in their 5th year. Although, from my understanding only 25% of schools at the D1 level were going over 12 scholarship maximum. It's possible that other programs had more athletes on scholarship than 12, but with many programs not being fully funded, they still wouldn't necessarily need to surpass 12 full scholarships. Other programs had to choose between returning seniors and incoming freshmen. This is one reason you saw so many athletes in the portal.

2022 Grad Class - The NCAA did NOT allow programs to go over their 12 allotted scholarships in 2022. This created a sort of "bottle-neck" in that coaches couldn't pick both returning seniors and the incoming freshmen. Many coaches made the decision early on with their 2022 class if they were going to give that scholarship to an incoming freshmen or keep it for a senior. This will create a lot of seniors that still want to play to be searching for a place to play for one more season. Coaches on the flip side will be looking for transfers that could possibly come in and start right away.

Everything with COVID and the transfer portal has realistically created fewer places for athletes in the 2022 class to play.

When it comes to the transfer portal there are a few things to keep in mind:

1) "Can she transfer if she doesn't like it?" - I get this question a lot. Too much actually. In my opinion, you shouldn't be making a decision prior to walking on campus that you are thinking about transferring. It usually doesn't create a good situation for the athlete or the coaches.

2) Going from "walk-on" to "scholarship" through the portal is extremely difficult. Not impossible though. If you play and there is film of you for coaches to evaluate, that helps.

3) If you didn't play in the last season and you don't have any recent film, transferring is going to be more difficult as coaches don't really have a reference point.

4) "Why does she want to transfer?" is a question almost every single coach will ask. Be prepared to answer the question.

5) Coaches will look at your stats. If I am looking for a 6 rotation OH and I look at your stat line and you played in less than half the matches and your reception/dig numbers don't really add up to you being a good passer/defender, that doesn't help.

Transferring is hard. It isn't a slam dunk option for everyone. There are always exceptions and awful situations that athletes want to get away from and I completely understand that. I would still encourage all athletes to think about whether or not you would attend a specific school WITHOUT volleyball. Athletes that choose athletic and academic fits for their college experience tend to be happier with their decision overall and don't need to transfer.

Do the work. Engage in the process. Make the best decision for you.