An evolving landscape of athletics in the NCAA across all divisions has raised questions surrounding the recent spike in transfer portal entrants and what it means for the present and future of collegiate athletics. For UW-Whitewater – a high-level Division III athletics program – the transfer portal has a unique effect on the athletic department with the transfer landscape creating more moving pieces across the country. 

According to UW-Whitewater Athletic Director Ryan Callahan the transfer portal can be a useful resource for bolstering Warhawk athletic programs, but a significant portion of Whitewater’s talent still comes from day one recruits. A strategy that could change in years to come.

“The philosophy here has always been recruit regional talent, but if there is someone at a higher level who isn’t happy, let’s get them,” Callahan said. “That’s what we need. Many of our athletes that are in the hall of fame or [players on] teams that have won national titles didn’t necessarily start here.”

While this may be the overarching attitude towards recruiting for Warhawk athletics, each individual program has their own recipe for success. According to second-year head coach of UW-Whitewater football Jace Rindahl, the transfer portal has been a factor for the football program for at least two decades. 

“You’re always looking at all possibilities,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s emphasized more now than it has in the past, that’s always been a resource that the Warhawks have used and I’ve been a part of the program since 2005.”

On the other hand, Whitewater women’s head basketball head coach, Senior Woman Administrator and Assistant Athletic Director for Compliance Keri Carollo has a different approach for her program. 

“For us, we don’t use the transfer portal a whole lot. We don’t actively recruit out of it for our women’s basketball program, so it hasn’t really been helpful or hurtful from our perspective,” she said.

However, the current Warhawk women’s basketball roster does feature one student-athlete transfer, Katie Hildebrandt. The senior forward transferred to UW-Whitewater from Division I North Dakota State prior to the 2023-24 season and provided 9.7 points per game for the Warhawks last year. Hildebrandt provided necessary talent in a competitive conference fueled by an increase in transfer talent across the board.

“A couple of the teams in our conference have two or three transfers every year, so it’s challenging from a coaching standpoint, you kind of know who is returning each year but when they continually add transfers from other schools … there is a lot of shifting of rosters,” Carollo said.

And, it has become easier for student-athletes to transfer, Carollo added. 

“The NCAA pulled back a lot of rules as far as transferring goes and gave athletes much more freedom to transfer, which is a lot different than it used to be. Back in the day before the transfer portal and the changing of the rules most student athletes would have to sit a year before they could compete,” she explained. 

Although this may be a win for the athletes, Callahan thinks that it has made things more complicated and challenging for the coaches. 

“It’s really really difficult for coaches right now,” he said. “All the hours, the time, the emotions, the passions and the relationships they build, and a lot of these young people, they’ll be there for a year and then checkout.”

But, this isn’t always the case. Many athletes – past and current – who have had the opportunity to transfer out of Whitewater and move to a higher level division, decided to stick around with the program. 

For example, Christian Patzka, a Whitewater cross country runner finished second in the National Championships two years in a row prior to his senior year. Patzka could have easily gone on scholarship at a Division I program according to Callahan, but he decided to stay. A decision that paid off for both Patzka and the program with his first place finish at the NCAA National Championship race in 2o24. 

When players with the ability to go to the higher level choose to stay, Callahan said, it means that the Warhawk coaches and athletic program are doing their job and creating an atmosphere and culture of success that is attractive to those athletes. 

“It’s a testament to our coaches that they are recruiting high-level talent that can go [to Division I],” he said. 

Bringing in “Division I talent” is an important quality for Warhawk coaches at a program that is consistently in the hunt for more national titles. The reality is – according to Callahan – to win at the Division III level you have to have Division I talent. And, while Whitewater has historically been good at developing Division I talent, transfer portal trends have made it tougher to keep that talent on campus for four years. 

Miles Barnstable joined the Warhawk men’s basketball team in 2022-23, where he quickly found success with a breakout freshman campaign that led Whitewater to a Final Four appearance in the NCAA Tournament. After Barnstable posted even better numbers last season, he utilized the transfer portal to make the leap to the Division I level and is currently playing for the St. Thomas Tommies. 

Luckily for high-level Division III programs like Whitewater, a number of talented athletes have also made the opposite switch from the Division I level to Division III. In addition to Hildebrandt, other notable Warhawks began at the Division I level, including Jake Kumerow. Kumerow began his collegiate career as a wide receiver for the Fighting Illini at the University of Illinois. He then transferred to Whitewater where he won a national championship in 2013 and 2014, then went on to an NFL career with six teams after joining the Cincinnati Bengals in 2015.

And, while there is no transfer portal data for Division III as readily available as Divisions I and II, trends suggest significant increases in portal entrants and successful transfers across all Divisions with no sign of slowing down. 

“I think it is going to get even grander,” Carollo said.