As the semester draws to a close and the glow of March Madness and College Football Playoff victories fade in our memories, the eyes of all college sports fans have been on the NCAA spring transfer portal. The college football and basketball transfer portals, which closed this week, had several live trackers on major sports sites so eager fans could see which athletes were looking to leave their current college or university and where they may land. This included over 3,200 of the Division I men’s and women’s players we cheered for this spring. It is an expectation for top tier programs that they maximize their recruitment of an increasing number of transfer athletes during what has become known as the busiest time of the year for athletic departments.

The intense attention and high stakes surrounding the NCAA transfer portal has many schools closely scrutinizing their policies and processes around the transfer and acceptance of college credit. Top university athletic departments are now increasingly facing an issue that thousands of students transferring credit between institutions, particularly vertically from community colleges, have been facing for decades. Credit mobility, and particularly credit transfer applicability to degree programs, has consistently been one of the most challenging issues facing higher education.

Top university athletic departments are now increasingly facing an issue that thousands of students transferring credit between institutions, particularly vertically from community colleges, have been facing for decades.

Despite many years of attention and intervention, the outcomes for transfer students have barely improved. A recently released report from the Community College Research Center and Aspen Institute revealed that only 33 percent of students enrolled at community colleges in the fall of 2015 transferred to a four-year institution and of those less than half earned a bachelor’s degree. Loss of credits upon transfer to a new institution is one of the barriers students face, and it is often the result of a patchwork of rules, policies, and process across institutions that students are left to figure out on their own. Losing credit means losing money, time, and momentum and it often affects the most vulnerable students in higher education, those that are low income, first-generation, and from historically underrepresented groups. Many interventions for transfer are focused on community college to bachelor’s programs, but increasingly students are also transferring laterally between four-year schools and across state lines.

It is easy to overlook, as we celebrate or mourn the impact of the transfer portal on our favorite teams, that these student athletes are moving more than just their talents on the field to their new school—they are moving their college credits. A change in NCAA transfer rules in spring 2021 allowed athletes to transfer once and become immediately eligible at their new school, without sitting out a year. This led to an immediate escalation in transfer, and a late 2023 ruling by the US District Court in West Virginia allowed students who transfer more than once to also become immediately eligible, further increasing the churn of athletes into and out of programs. Division I quarterback JT Daniels famously transferred to four schools in six years before ending his career at Rice University.

In order to maintain eligibility athletes in Division I must maintain progress toward a degree by completing 40 percent of a program by the end of their second year, 60 percent by the third, and 80 percent by the end of their fourth year, and these percentages still apply when an athlete transfers.

So how are institutions who want to maintain eligibility for student athletes faring with this problem? They are encountering the same challenges. Daniels stated in an interview in CBS sports that upwards of 60 percent of transfer credits “go into the dust.” University of Michigan lost out on top basketball recruit Caleb Love when he couldn’t transfer enough credits from University of North Carolina to become eligible. Football player Myles Hinton reported losing credit when transferring from Stanford to Michigan. In these instances, strict academic credit transfer policies—not uncommon in higher ed—blocked or hindered these athletes from joining the University of Michigan. While these few high profile examples have garnered media attention, they also are representative of the experiences of thousands of other transfer students.

The University of Colorado chancellor announced a change to the institution’s transfer credit review policies in the same message that announced Deion Sanders as head football coach for the 2023 season. This policy change expedites the review of academic credits from other colleges and universities. Importantly, this new policy does not just benefit athletes, but all state residents who attended a school outside of Colorado and want to return. Sanders utilized this change to bring 53 transfers to the University of Colorado in Fall 2023 in a roster overhaul that was controversial.

In a press conference last fall, University of Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman was asked by the media about transfer friendly administrative and admissions policies. This is an area the athletic and admissions department had been working to improve in response to the transfer portal since the quick and timely review of academic credit evaluation is central to the university’s ability to admit these students. The athletic department in this case has been specifically working with academic deans to explain the need for additional review of credits and eligibility for transfer, an issue described as “complicated” but essential for adapting to the new world of college athletics.

Colleges and universities should let students know exactly what to expect in the transfer evaluation process and expedite evaluations in a timeframe that allows students to review their options before committing to an institution.

In the situations detailed above, institutions with speedy, consistent, and transparent policies for the review of incoming academic credit are at an advantage. College students transferring to new institutions often do not get a full picture of what credit will and will not be accepted and apply to a degree until they have applied and been accepted. This lack of transparency can complicate making an informed decision about transfer. Colleges and universities should let students know exactly what to expect in the transfer evaluation process and expedite evaluations in a timeframe that allows students to review their options before committing to an institution. Access to pre-transfer advising and a welcoming transfer culture are also critical. The City University of New York (CUNY) has recently collaborated with Ithaka S+R to launch a leaderboard on their Transfer Explorer site for students to review how long transfer admission takes. This coupled with the search features in Transfer Explorer and transfer advising provides a clearer picture of what to expect.

Institutions also need to ensure that students transferring have momentum toward a degree, and not just credits applied to electives. Colleges and universities should be proactive in seeking course-to-course equivalencies for incoming students, honoring a student’s learning in a holistic way. Too often the gatekeeper role in higher education admissions blocks institutions from expediting review of credit for prior learning, focusing on enrollment in the institution’s own courses as preferable. A recent report from the Beyond Transfer Policy Advisory Board (PAB) and SOVA Solutions highlighted the need to shift from a mindset of making students prove their learning counts, to assuming it should count until there is evidence that it should not.

The idea that process and policy changes motivated by the pressures to recruit top athletes can benefit all transfer students is very possible. This may be an example of incentive structures finally tilting in favor of all mobile students. Changes adopted by institutions to improve credit mobility should be monitored and studied as the chaos around the NCAA transfer portal expands. Certainly the academic advisors and faculty involved in assisting thousands of transfer students with these complex processes every day could greatly benefit from the visibility and pressure that the transfer portal is providing.

Credit mobility allows students to apply their learning from multiple sources to a degree that can have enormous social mobility benefits for them and workforce impacts for communities. Read more about Ithaka S+R’s Credit Mobility portfolio of projects.