Academic advisors are supposed to guide college students through the chaos of earning their degree. However, for student-athletes, those relationships can be virtually nonexistent because of the new policies with the transfer portal and NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness).
While transferring to multiple universities isn’t limited to student-athletes, they have issues that stand out. One is the transfer portal window for some sports, including football, which starts on Jan. 2 and runs through Jan. 16, and the start of semesters for universities. By this time, most universities have already started their spring semester, including Florida Atlantic University, where the semester started on Jan. 10 in this past year and starts on Jan. 9 in Spring 2027. Advisors have to gather transcripts from previous institutions and help students get registered for classes; it’s not easy in a time crunch.
Billy Hawkins, a professor at the University of Houston in the Department of Health and Human Performance, thinks this is challenging for advisors. Hawkins has worked in academics for athletics for over 30 years. He shared that while you can get a degree despite multiple transfers, there is much more to the college experience than just earning a degree.
“The academic experience involves building lasting relationships, being taught and mentored by leading scholars in their respective fields, and engaging with the social environment of a college campus,” Hawkins wrote in a May 4 email to the University Press. “The ‘average’ ‘non-transferring’ athlete has a challenge in experiencing most of these, but a ‘transferring’ athlete will miss out on the majority, if not all, of these opportunities.”
According to an interview with Auburn professors Glenn Richey and David Martin, students who don’t transfer build valuable relationships with people in academic counseling and support services to make sure they get their degree.
“What is lost when it comes to the transfer portal, and NIL is the importance of education and being a student first,” wrote Assistant Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Mississippi, Raja Malikah Rahim, in a May 6 email to the University Press. She also mentioned “tramp athletes,” college athletes who transfer from one school to another multiple times to continue competing in sports.
“In both cases [transfer students and tramp athletes], there was little regard for academics and scholarship,” Rahim said. Overall, Rahim wants to see a uniform policy with rules and regulations that govern the good and bad caused by the transfer portal and NIL.
Martin, in the interview with Ares, shared that the universities themselves, not the athletic departments, need to have a greater level of control and the ability to monitor and help make decisions when it comes to transfer decisions.
According to the NACADA (National Academic Advising Association), higher education institutions have many responsibilities when it comes to academic advising. These responsibilities include recognizing it as an essential component of the educational process and empowering students to be active participants in academic advising relationships by creating structures, advising policies, and opportunities for individualized connection.
In an Aug. 22 study by Jacob Spotswood, a former track-and-field athlete and a transfer student at Virginia Tech, advisors share their difficulties when working with a student-athlete. The study did not include the real names of the people involved in the study and used pseudonyms instead.
The track and field academic advisor who goes by the name “Mary” for the study shared the struggles she faced as a result of student-athletes transferring, stating that bringing athletes into the university is complicated, and her job is figuring out whether a student can realistically get admitted because of grades or credits.
The advisor also mentioned the students’ transfer timeline and that the department at Virginia Tech falls short on how long the transfer process and transfer evaluation take.
Coeditor of the NACADA Journal, Lisa Rubin, explained how in the world of student-athletes transferring, advisors face multiple challenges. “Advisors who support athletes are often inundated with transcript evaluations for potential transfer students,” Rubin says. “The stress on advisors to evaluate transcripts, put pressure on campus colleagues, and help new transfer students acclimate quickly to a new institution is immense.”
The University Press reached out to the advising offices of the universities in the American Conference, including FAU, to speak on how the jobs for advisors have changed when it comes to assisting student-athletes. The University of South Florida, East Carolina University, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, and University of Texas at San Antonio all responded, declining to speak on the matter.
FAU’s Associate Dean of Undergraduate Studies and University Advising Services, Joe Murray, and Deputy Athletics Director Mike DeGeorge responded in an email to the University Press, not expressing concern about how an increase in transfers affects advising.
“The academic success of our student-athletes is paramount, as demonstrated by several metrics including 21 consecutive semesters and counting,” DeGeorge wrote in an Apr. 30 email to the University Press. “Our student-athletes have achieved a cumulative GPA of better than 3.0.” DeGeorge also stated that evaluating the academic profile of incoming student-athletes is a critical step in the transfer process.
Murray shared the steps to this process. “In all cases, transcripts are sent through Admissions, they are evaluated to see if FAU will accept the credit, and then determine which FAU courses the transfer work equates to,” Murray wrote in a message to the University Press. “The courses are then added to the student record, and advisors take that into account during the advising process.”
Murray also shared that the current Degree Audit (DAR) system will be changing to a new software that will bring improvements, including new “flight plans” that will allow students, in partnership with their academic advisors, to build out an entire 4-year course plan.
Anthony Ortiz is a Reporter for the University Press. Email him at [email protected] or DM on Instagram @ajortiz_38 for more information on these and other stories.
