After an uncontrollable two years, the NCAA transfer portal finally has a limit placed.

The NCAA has recently placed a new rule on the transfer portal limiting how many times an athlete can transfer schools. Athletes can now only transfer freely one time in their college career. 

If an athlete wants to transfer a second time, they will have to meet certain conditions to do so. Approved exceptions to transfer include physical and mental health problems and urgent circumstances, including abuse or sexual assault. An athlete wishing to transfer due to playing time can no longer do so after their first transfer.

The new regulation on the transfer portal is meant to limit the number of players entering the portal, which has become a problem of sorts for the NCAA.  According to FanNation, the portal saw over 2,000 entries within the first window. 

“I think everybody across any sport within the NCAA wanted more parameters around the transfer portal,” Interim Athletic Director Seth Hall said. “I would say I’d have to agree with that.”

ULM has seen both the positives and negatives of the transfer portal. Many players have come from bigger schools to play at ULM, but ULM consistently loses production every year to the transfer portal. 

Wide receiver Tyrone Howell, the leading receiver for ULM football last season, was a transfer from Kansas State. 

“It helped me get to ULM, so I was excited about it at first,” Howell said. “It also hurt us because we lost a lot of veterans on the team.”

ULM can now worry less about new transfers leaving just a year after coming to Monroe. However, the ability to recruit high school players becomes more important for the quality of the program. 

 “I think it’s going to have a big impact on recruiting,” Hall said. “Now student-athletes have to be very careful before they hop in that portal and go somewhere.”

Athletes will now be more hesitant to enter the portal at all. They will need to make sure that transferring in the first place will be worth it because they only have one free pass. 

Though the portal still offers much to be improved, there is at least a limit on the unpredictability of the portal.