Big Ten Basketball: Top 20 impact transfers heading into 2021-22 season

Not only was the 2020-21 season like no other with the inclusion of COVID-19 protocols, game cancelations, and bubble tournaments, the off-season was just as unpredictable. The 2020-21 offseason saw an extra year of eligibility being granted, July 1, 2021, was established as the date that athletes had to declare their intent to transfer and still have immediate eligibility as well as athletes being granted the opportunity to make money by selling their name, image, and likeness (NIL) rights.

All these factors led up to – in various degrees – to over one thousand players entering the transfer portal. Big Ten Basketball was no exception to this trend with Penn State and Minnesota having eight players enter the portal each while Michigan became the sole team to have no players enter. With all this movement and change of personnel in the Big Ten – let alone the NCAA- rosters are going to look very different in some cases and nobody can be blamed for not keeping track of all the movement on their favorite team, conference, or in all of Men’s Basketball.

In order to provide some respite from the offseason melee, the top 20 transfers joining the Big Ten who fans should be looking forward to seeing are all neatly organized for you to easily consume and digest.

A number of factors were considered when determining the top transfers. While there is no concrete mathematical formula, past performance, projected roles on their new team, and their skillset are all taken into consideration when distinguishing between who is better and who will succeed the most during the 2021-22 season.

All this to say that there is plenty of room to disagree with if No.17 should be No.15 because No.14 is overrated ( or example). These 20 players are highly talented and the closest I have come to playing in the NCAA is being unable to fill out Sunday Eniojukan‘s jersey the year he left John Abbott College and losing to J.J. Brade in his driveway. These twenty players will impact the landscape of the Big Ten and the fans will benefit.