Michigan infielder Riley Bertram announces transfer to Clemson

Michigan second baseman Riley Bertram announced Wednesday that he will transfer to Clemson, following his head coach Erik Bakich from the Big Ten to the ACC. The senior started 62 games in 2022 and will now use his final year of eligibility elsewhere via the transfer portal rather than working with a new staff.

In 2022, Riley Bertram finished with a .298 batting average with 23 walks and 45 strikeouts for Michigan. He finished with just two home runs but managed to accumulate 40 RBIs while helping lead the Wolverines into the NCAA Tournament.

With more than 100 career starts under Bakich, Bertram’s transfer will bring experience to the Clemson locker room and provide a steady presence as other returning players and newcomers adjust to the system.

Transfer portal background information 

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.