I know that a player on scholarship needs to request to be released from their school and placed in the portal before having direct contact with another school. But do those same rules apply to a player whos season is over and has been told they wont be receiving scholarship money the next season? In other words if their contract for the year is over and they arent renewing a NLI then are they free to speak to whoever they want to gauge other interests?
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Member/Resident expert & gracious helper here is @Rick at Informed Athlete
Good morning all. An NCAA athlete must have their name entered into the Transfer Portal before coaches at other schools can speak with them (or technically, with anybody speaking on the athlete's behalf) about a possible transfer opportunity to another NCAA program.
It doesn't matter whether they are an athlete on scholarship, had their scholarship cancelled or whether they were a walk-on.
I wonder if coaches are developing more creative workarounds as portal recruiting plays a larger role in many teams' roster development. Hearing pretty crazy movement for players Lefty used to play with. Fairly certain one of those was from illegal contact as a normally chatty parent got very tight lipped when I asked a couple of questions after hearing about their son's new school/team. Probably should have just stuck with "Congratulations"
Honestly thought things would calm down this year but doesn't seem like they are.
Also, to clarify from Rick, does a player enter his own name in the Transfer Portal? Is he required/supposed to have a release from his current school first? Or does the school put his name in?
Presumably once a coach tells a player that he will not be renewed, the athletic department will expedite the process of release.
Literally every year on the HSBBW, going back 20 years, someone asks how a coach can contact a player before the official contact date. People who know how this works do it, and people who don't know are at a disadvantage.
Players can't enter their own name into the NCAA Transfer Portal. Only their school can do that for them when requested by the athlete.
And the athlete does not need to be released or to receive "permission" to transfer as in the "old days" of just a few years ago. A coach or athletic department can't stop an athlete from entering the Portal as long as they are entering during a permissible time period when the Portal is open for the athlete's sport.
@anotherparent posted:Presumably once a coach tells a player that he will not be renewed, the athletic department will expedite the process of release.
"The student athlete’s school must enter the student’s name into the NCAA Transfer Portal within two business days of receipt of the student-athlete’s request, provided the student-athlete has requested notification of transfer within their Division I sport’s legislated transfer window."
Comes from:
http://fs.ncaa.org/Docs/eligib...er/FourYearGuide.pdf
Having now done this 2x (undergrad and now as a grad), getting into the portal within this time frame was never an issue for my son.
