The Student-Athlete Sessions
Cody Mitchell is a Senior at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, IL. He just finished up his D3 hoops career as the leader of the Titans Men's Basketball team - and is on his way to a 5th Year at Roosevelt University where he'll also study for an MBA.
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In this episode of the Student-Athlete Sessions, Cody discusses his college basketball recruiting process, his career highlights at IWU, the transfer portal, his plans after graduation, and much more.
Today’s episode has a special feature built in for our Substack subscribers. Keep scrolling to read about Cody’s experience using the portal in his own words.
He offers actionable tips for those interested in transferring or looking to make the most of extra years of NCAA eligibility.
Enjoy!
Here are a few basics on the NCAA Transfer Portal before we begin…
Transfer Portal Basics
The NCAA Men's Basketball Transfer Portal is an online database that was established in 2018 to streamline the process of transferring from one NCAA program to another.
Previously, players who wanted to transfer had to request permission from their current school to contact other programs, and the process could take weeks or even months to complete. With the Transfer Portal, players can now simply enter their name into the database and be contacted by coaches from other programs who are interested in recruiting them.
Once a player enters the portal, their current school is notified, and they have the option to revoke the player's scholarship. However, once a player has entered the portal, they are not required to transfer, and they can still choose to remain at their current school if they wish.
The Transfer Portal has greatly increased the number of transfers in college basketball, as players now have an easier way to explore their options and find the best fit for them. It has also created more competition among programs, as coaches are now able to easily identify and recruit players who may be looking to transfer.
Tales From the Transfer Portal
By Cody Mitchell
Here is Cody’s first-hand account of his experience with the transfer portal and how it set him up to continue both his athletic and academic careers 👇
What is the Transfer Portal?
The transfer portal is the biggest phenomenon in college sports today. Every athlete wants to throw their hat in the ring and every coach wants an experienced player.
Currently, there are over 1,000 players in the portal – at the Division 1 level ALONE. Adding in all three levels that number soars well past 2,000. This new realm is exciting in the world of college hoops.
For me, the emergence of the transfer portal has blessed me in so many ways. I have been fortunate enough to use my extra year of eligibility gained from COVID to pursue a Master’s degree in business administration.
In total, I spent about a month in the portal hearing from coaches and visiting schools before signing a full-ride scholarship to play basketball at Roosevelt University. Making this decision was not an easy thing to do and took a lot of consideration.
So, how do you navigate the transfer portal?
How do you sift through the madness and choose the right future home?
How to Prepare For the Transfer Portal
It can be extremely difficult to handle the chain reaction that follows entering your name into the transfer portal. There are a few things that I believe helped me immensely in my process. As a player you must first set goals and desires that align with what you want in a landing spot.
In doing this, you’ll give yourself a rubric of sorts to compare schools against when doing research on them. For me, I prioritized:
Full-ride scholarship
Location - being close to home
Large role on the team
& the strength of Master’s programs available
Once you have drawn up a set of criteria for potential schools, you can then begin doing research on your own, calling coaches, and moving forward with the transfer process.
Life in the NCAA Transfer Portal
Now, you have your criteria, and it’s time to enter your first 72 hours in the portal. This will undoubtedly be the craziest, most important time of your portal journey.
In my first three days in the portal over 50 schools reached out across my email, texts, and Twitter messages. Obviously that kind of outpour, while exciting, can be extremely overwhelming. The best advice I could give any athlete going through this is make a detailed list of your options.
On day one, I created a document where I organized the schools by division and listed important details about each school. These lists should include the criteria that you included in your rubric. My document had details about location, school, cost, team history, etc. for each school compiled in one place.
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You can also use this document to take notes about these criteria during phone calls with coaches. On the phone calls the coaches will give an athlete a ton of information on themselves as coaches, team history, potential role on the team, and culture. If you follow this model, by the end of the first week you’ll have created a master list containing the schools that are interested in you, and everything you need to know about them.
From this point forward the process becomes more about narrowing down the schools to a list of contenders and going on visits. Keep in mind that in each transfer scenario you will most likely have to make some type of sacrifice. Not every situation is going to be exactly what you’re looking for or check every box. You must be willing to make sacrifices and compromise to find the situation that is best suited for you.
With that in mind, go out and throw your hat in the ring! Enter the portal, make an informed decision, and go make an impact at your new home!
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