In the realm of collegiate softball, the recruitment and transfer of athletes play pivotal roles in shaping the competitive landscape of teams and conferences. With an increasing number of student-athletes transferring between institutions, it becomes imperative to establish an equitable ranking system that objectively assesses the impact of top transfers on the sport. By the count of CSE, 697 Division 1 softball players entered the transfer portal in hopes of finding a new home. At the writing of this article, a total of 390 players have come out of the transfer portal eager to take full advantage of the new opportunity that lies ahead of them.

CSE has aimed to identify the best players that have exited the transfer portal as well as assign a ranking to each school that landed a new player. This proprietary algorithm leverages a multifaceted approach that combines derived statistical metrics, player performance analysis, and player eligibility.

How are CSE’s Transfer Portal Class Rankings calculated?

Each player in the nation is ranked by awRAA (run creators) and aFIP (pitchers) from their 2023 performance. Those rankings are then used to give signed players a “recruiting rating” from 5-stars to 2-stars where the highest rated 5-star player is worth 100 points and the lowest rated 2-star player is worth close to zero points. These ratings are then boosted by the appropriate multiplier regarding their primary position and eligible years remaining.

CSE has adopted the theory that pitching performance should be weighted higher than run scoring thus receiving an additional factor of up to 2.5 times. A further bonus is applied if any player has more than one year of eligibility remaining.

These ratings are then summed for each university’s transfer portal class and arranged in descending order to determine team rankings. Bench players who did not meet a plate appearance or innings-pitched threshold were not given ratings and therefore did not contribute to their team’s total.

 It is imperative to understand that signing a higher number of players does not necessarily mean that their team ranking will also be higher. Each team’s athletes are placed in descending order of their rating on the Gaussian distribution. An athlete’s point contribution to their team is dependent on where they fall on the curve with a team’s best recruit garnering the most points. The average transfer portal recruiting class is 2 athletes with a standard deviation of 1.45, therefore, if a team signs two transfers, those two transfers are worth 100% of their rating value. One can then determine at which percentile the next whole numbers lie on the distribution to appropriately assign the percentage contribution for the 3rd, 4th, 5th…. 10th recruits.