It’s March 2025, and the NCAA College Basketball transfer portal has just opened. Within hours, hundreds of players have jumped in. Some simply testing the waters and exploring their options, others quietly tagging themselves with a designation called “Do Not Contact.” This tag leaves fans and coaches puzzled. What does it mean? Is the player definitely leaving? Has he already chosen his next destination? Or is he merely looking to avoid a flood of calls and texts from inquiring programs?

The NCAA launched the transfer portal in October 2018 as a tool to customize and make the transfer process more convenient for college athletes. Its purpose is simple: let the athletes choose and control their own future. The portal is a player-focused tool that helps to assist their names being spoken for in possible recruiting processes. For an athlete to enter the transfer portal, all they have to do is ask their school’s compliance office to put their name in the database. After that, once the player enters their name into the portal, the school’s compliance office has 48 hours to put their name into it.

Now, for college basketball, the portal operates in a specific window. In 2025, the transfer window for men’s basketball opened on 24th March and closes on 22nd April. It is a 30-day window for players to decide what their next move will be. The window used to be 45 days but was shortened to make the process more streamlined. Once in the portal, players are allowed to explore their options unless they enter with a “Do Not Contact” tag.

What is the “Do Not Contact” in NCAA College Basketball?

As a matter of fact, it’s a device that gives players the ability to block communication from schools. There are reasons why an athlete might attach this tag to their profile. Sometimes, it means that players have already made up their minds about their next destination and aren’t interested in considering other offers. Other times, players just want to avoid the hassle of incessant texts and calls from programs across the country.

As per On3, “Players can opt to add a ‘do not contact’ designation on their transfer portal entry. Which means schools are unable to communicate with that player unless the player initiates communication first.” This simple step gives athletes much more control over their transfer process. And helps keep things from getting overwhelming.

The “Do Not Contact” tag is relatively new in college basketball. However, it has grown more common in the last few years. For example, Tucker DeVries entered the portal with the DNC tag. The understanding was that he intended to follow his father, Darian DeVries. Shortly after Tucker’s entry into the portal, Indiana announced Darian as its men’s basketball team’s head coach. Similarly, when Kentucky women’s basketball player Clara Silva entered the portal with the DNC tag, it was reported, “The DNC tag means that Silva already knows where she is going but has not officially announced her new landing spot.”

The growing use of DNC in college basketball

Meanwhile, the DNC tag has become an effective tool for players and coaches alike. 500-plus men’s basketball players entered the portal the first day it opened in the 2025 window. Now, the burden is on coaches to decipher which players are available and which aren’t, as the DNC tag directs coaches where to put in their efforts. However, there are questions about tampering.

Surprisingly, some critics believe players who enter the portal with a DNC tag already have private deals made with schools pre-dating their official transfer announcements. “Riley Leonard for one. Where it was widely known from the second his name went in the portal that he was a done deal to ND and couldn’t be contacted by anyone else,” one Redditor noted. In turn, that calls into question whether those players are being recruited before they’ve actually entered the portal, potentially in violation of the NCAA rules.

Surely, adding the “Do Not Contact” tag allows student-athletes to manage their recruitment process in the long run. At the same time, it is intended to protect student-athletes from potential unwanted attention. It often indicates that the young players already know their next destination. As the transfer portal continues to change the landscape of NCAA basketball, the utilization of the DNC tag will continue to signal a student-athlete’s intentions and the next steps.