College athletes have leverage via the NCAA’s transfer portal. But what is it and how does it work?

The advent of the NCAA’s transfer portal has provided college athletes a great deal of leverage and flexibility on where they take their talents — and for highly-touted athletes the chance to find out which school can offer them the package of name, image, and likeness deals.

In the case of college football, the portal opened this week for the start of the upcoming season. As spring ball has commenced for many programs in both the Football Bowl Subdivision and the Football Championship Subdivision, players currently have a 15-day window to decide if they indeed want to stay at their current school or test the waters elsewhere.

If it turns out to be the latter, here’s how that process typically works, from start to finish.

A college athlete who wishes to leave school first has to notify the current program of an intent to enter the portal. At that time, the university notifies its compliance department, which then enters the athlete’s name into the portal.

Undergraduate athletes can enter the portal and test the waters for however long the window is open for in their particular sport. For example, in college basketball, athletes have a 44-day window (March 18 to May 1) to enter the portal and select another school.

In college football, there are two windows, one that runs from early December until early January, followed by a 15-day spring window that begins and ends in April. In 2024, that window began on April 16 and will end on April 30.

Graduate athletes can enter the portal at any time, which bodes well for your typical Ivy League athlete looking to continue their college career as the conference doesn’t allow graduate-level athletes to play, despite being at the NCAA Division I level across several sports.

Coaches, athletic directors, and administration from every NCAA program (Divisions I-III) have access to the portal and can search for players by name or position. Schools can then contact athletes and begin the courting and negotiation process to offer any player they choose.

A player can decide to stay at their current school at any time as long as they have remained a student at the university. Also, players who entertained offers don’t have to decide on a new school by the time the window closes. The window refers to the time during which players can enter the portal and programs can contact them and present what they’re offering.

Every NCAA-sanctioned sport has its particular window separated by season. The complete list ahead of the 2024-25 season can be found here.