The NCAA transfer portal opened on October 15, 2018. It is a database for college athletes who want to change schools. In 2021 new rules let Division I athletes in football, basketball, men’s ice hockey and baseball transfer once without sitting out a year.
More than 15,000 athletes from all sports entered the portal in its first year. In 2021 the Ole Miss football coach Lane Kiffin said: “We have free agency in college football.” The Clemson coach Dabo Swinney said: “It’s total chaos right now.”