Transferpalooza: COVID-19 causes transfer portal chaos (men's edition)

Back in March of 2020, the NCAA granted an extra year of eligibility to all student-athletes in spring sports. This applied to student-athletes of all years, not just seniors who had their final seasons cancelled. They also allowed schools to exceed the scholarship limits for the 2021 season. This meant that, for example, a women’s tennis team could have more than 8 scholarship athletes (the normal limit), contingent upon the school being able to fund it. This resulted in several “super teams,” like the UNC women who were able to have 3 super-seniors pursuing a fifth year (grad degree) along with their incoming recruits. The normal scholarship limits will be adhered to for the upcoming season. With the extra year granted to 4 classes of students, we now have essentially 5 years of student-athletes playing within the same season. We’ll continue to see this until the class of freshmen from the 2020 season graduate. While this had a noticeable impact on the quality of play, particularly towards the bottom of lineups, it resulted in a chaotic transfer portal with players looking for programs to take advantage of this extremely unique extra year, either to pursue grad programs or play at a higher level.

The men’s transfer portal is much crazier than the women’s. The quantity, and quality, of players transferring this year is unmatched. It’s more significant on the men’s side because you have players jockeying for more scholarship money. The men have 4.5 scholarships they can divide among all players; the women have 8 full head-count scholarships. So for the women, it’s straightforward -- you’re either on a full scholarship, or you’re not on an athletic scholarship at all; however, the men are often receiving partial scholarships, as those 4.5 need to be divided among all players. Both genders transfer for many reasons, e.g. school or coaching fit, location, teammates, academics, but only the men have the added motivation to try to secure a larger scholarship. I think that’s the main reason you’re seeing more transfers on the men’s side than the women’s.  

With that said, I wanted to highlight 3 players who are transferring this season that I think:

• Have the biggest ability to impact their future program

• Fill a critical gap in their program’s lineup

• Have a uniquely interesting storyline

I’m starting with the men this week. Let’s get to it!

1. Matej Vocel (Oklahoma State → Ohio State)

Don’t let the glasses fool you - Vocel is a beast on the tennis court. The Prague native will join the Buckeyes with 2 years left of eligibility after 3 successful seasons as a Cowboy. In 2019, he was named Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, going 10-7 at the #1 spot his freshman year. He continued to get better in 2020, reaching an ITA ranking of #19 in singles and #1 in doubles. This past season he was 12-5 as the top Cowboy and finished the season #32 in the country.

This past year, the Buckeyes finished their COVID-stunted season with a loss to TCU in the R16. From that starting lineup, they lose their #1, John McNally, who decided to forgo his final year of eligibility to turn pro, and a very reliable #5 in Kyle Seelig who graduated. Those losses, particularly McNally, are why this transfer makes the list; it keeps Ohio State in the conversation as one of the best teams in the country. Vocel will join Cannon Kingsley to make an extremely formidable top 2 and another transfer, Jake Van Emburgh from Oklahoma, will fill out the bottom of the lineup. Ohio State is always in the hunt come May, and I expect that to be the case in 2022 with the ability to play a full, non-conference schedule and the addition of Vocel. 

2. Richard Ciamarra (Notre Dame → Texas)

The Connecticut native and All-American joins the Texas Longhorns as a graduate transfer after earning his finance degree from Notre Dame. Ciamarra will bring a wealth of experience to a younger Texas team who made a run to the NCAA SFs this year with 5 underclassmen. Ciamarra was a main-stay at the top half of Notre Dame’s lineup throughout his career. He ended the shortened 2020 season as #8 in the ITA singles rankings.

The Texas men were incredible this past season; they were younger and less accomplished than other teams, but demonstrated immense maturity and grit as they gutted out multiple 4-3 wins throughout the season, culminating into a SF run in May. Good news for Texas: they return their entire top 6 singles players, which is why this addition of Ciamarra is so notable and could seriously impact the national title conversation. I expect Ciamarra to be right in the mix with Texas’s top 3 of Spizzirri, Braswell, and Woldeab. Give those guys another year of development, and we’re looking at one of the stronger top 4’s in the country, which has Cleeve Harper and Chih Chi Huang as anchors. I’m bullish on Texas next season and think this transfer, with Emile Hudd going to Tennessee coming in as a close second, cements Texas squarely in the tier right behind Florida for early season title favorites. 

3. Tyler Zink, (Georgia → Oklahoma State)

Everything at Oklahoma State is new: Head Coach, Assistant Coach, Players. When Dustin Taylor took over the Head Coaching position at Oklahoma State in June, he knew he’d have his work cut out for him. There was a mass exodus from Oklahoma State last season -- they lost every player from their roster except for Luke Hammond, who didn’t even play a singles match last year. Credit to Dustin Taylor though, he’s now built up a roster of 9 guys, made up of 5 transfers from Georgia, Baylor (2x), Texas, and Arkansas. Tyler Zink, the two-time All-American from Georgia with 3 seasons left of eligibility, will undoubtedly carry the torch for this new team as Dustin Taylor looks for Zink to “lead this program to new heights.”

Zink played the majority of his two seasons at Georgia at the #2 position, behind Trent Bryde. He reached a career-high ITA ranking of #26 in singles and #7 in doubles. In his new role as a Cowboy, Zink has the opportunity to be the face of the Oklahoma State program and begin to build the foundation of a nationally-relevant team. He’ll definitely play #1 this coming season, so he’ll face stiff competition week-in and week-out, but he’ll have to get used to taking a lot more team losses; a team run to the NCAA QFs like he had with UGA this past season is out of the question in the near-term. Oklahoma State has their eyes on 2024, when they’ll host the NCAA championships. Zink makes this list because it’s rare to have all eyes and hopes of success on a transfer, but that’s the case for this season and beyond for Zink. He has an opportunity to build the program into relevance and, hopefully, have an outside shot at the NCAA title on home soil in his final year of eligibility.

Honorable Mention:

• Baylor: Baylor was the first team to successfully take advantage of the extra year of eligibility and utilize grad transfers. Their 4-6 last year were all grad transfers who helped propel Baylor to their first NCAA final since 2005. Baylor will try that same tactic again this year. Their top 3 is returning, and they’re bringing in new transfers: Jacob Brumm (Cal), Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi (UCF’s #3), Tadeas Paroulek (TCU’s #5/6), and Cole Gromley (Georgia Tech).

• Mattias Siimar (Michigan → Florida): The rich keep getting richer! Florida returns their entire starting singles roster from their NCAA-winning squad and adds Mattias Siimar from Michigan as a grad transfer. Siimar reached a career-high singles ranking of #37 in 2019. The crazy thing is that I’m not even sure he’ll start in singles for Florida! At best, he’s competing for a 5 or 6 spot. He’ll be a huge boost to the Florida’s struggling doubles teams though, as he’s a great doubles player -- he reached #2 in both 2020 and 2021. 

• Hamish Stewart (Tulane → Georgia): Georgia needed to find a replacement for Tyler Zink if they wanted to be a threat in the loaded SEC. They’ve found that in Tulane’s former #1 player, Hamish Stewart. Stewart was ranked as high as #21 this year and should slot in nicely for UGA at #2. Stewart will also be joined by another notable transfer, Tristan McCormick, from Notre Dame. McCormick reached a career-high top 100 singles ranking and #9 in doubles.

• Emile Hudd (Oklahoma State → Tennessee): Tennessee was one big surprise of the 2021 season, ultimately becoming a serious national title contender before falling to Baylor in the NCAA SFs. While they lose their #4 and #5 players from that squad, they bring in Hudd from Oklahoma State who reliably played #2 singles for the Cowboys and reached career-high ITA rankings of #87 in singles and #19 in doubles. I expect Hudd to slot in at #3 or #4, thus keeping Tennessee near the top of the 2022 contenders list.