SEC runner-up Liam Bell has decided to stay at Alabama after entering the NCAA transfer portal in mid-March, multiple people close to the situation have confirmed to SwimSwam.
In his rookie season, Bell finished 2nd at the SEC Championship in the 100 breaststroke and 4th in the 200 breaststroke. In total, he scored 63 individual points for the Crimson Tide, which made him their 4th-best scorer en route to a 4th-place finish overall at the meet.
Under first-year head coach Coley Stickels, Alabama had a very young core to their program last season. While their top scorer, and 50 back World Champion, Zane Waddell exhausted his eligibility, the team’s next 9-best scorers at the SEC Championships were all underclassmen, most of them freshmen and sophomores.
In his first season at Alabama, he dropped 8-tenths of a second in the 100 breaststroke and almost 4-and-a-half seconds in the 200 breaststroke. While the NCAA Championship meet was ultimately canceled because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Bell was seeded 6th in the 100 breaststroke and 16th in the 200 breaststroke going into that meet. He was also entered to swim the 200 IM.
TOP TIMES PRE-COLLEGE
- 50 free – 20.29
- 100 free – 44.18
- 200 free – 1:39.73
- 100 breast – 52.21
- 200 breast – 1:57.30
- 100 fly – 48.78
- 200 IM – 1:48.85
LIFETIME BESTS WHILE AT ALABAMA
- 100 breast – 51.39
- 200 breast – 1:52.93
- 200 IM – 1:44.35
While many programs have internal policies about athletes being removed from team activities when they enter the transfer portal, entering the portal does not require an athlete to transfer. The tool was developed originally as a digital compliance tool to help compliance administrators manage the transfer process from start to finish.
The system was developed for the 2018-2019 academic year, when the NCAA moved to a “notification-of-transfer” model, where student-athletes must be placed in the portal within 2 business days of a request to enter the portal. This deviated from a prior model, where student-athletes had to request permission from their coach, and then an increasingly-senior group of administrators, for permission to contact other coaches. Without that permission, student-athletes were unable to be offered athletics aid at the new school.
This, in addition to having to send paperwork to each school the student-athlete eventually contacted, created an administrative burden and inefficiency that the portal was designed to reduce.
Schools can reduce or stop giving athletics aid at the end of a term where a request was made to enter a transfer portal; once a student-athlete has withdrawn from the portal, schools can also add them back to their roster and restore athletics aid, if they choose to.
Bell is originally from Atlanta, Georgia, where he attended Druid Hills High School. In high school, he was the youngest male swimmer to qualify for the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials, and was the 2019 US Junior National Champion in the 100 meter breaststroke.
Last summer, before beginning competition for Alabama, Bell was the 20th-ranked American in the 100 breaststroke in long course with a 1:01.19.
https://youtu.be/BL8Oe9oh7mY
I’m a Liam fan and I’m excited.
With this announcement, and if GA Boy’s claim that less than half portal entrants actually transfer is true, does it make sense that SwimSwam and other aquatic media outlets should report on actual transfers and not potential transfers? Remember, the portal is not available to the public, reasons for transferring can vary including athlete embarrassing non-publicized circumstances, and uncomfortable team dynamics may exist due to unnecessary publication of a potential transfer. Of course, we must also consider the vitriol that is almost always attached with these announcements.
Don’t get me wrong, I read the gossip just like the rest of you (well, a large portion of you), but maybe we need to take a 30,000 foot approach more often. I… Read more »
I think GA Boy’s claim is more specifically about football or basketball players entering the portal and not leaving (please correct me if I’m wrong), but in swimming, it does appear that nearly every time swimswam posts about someone entering the portal, they end up transferring.
My claim is regarding all sports when it comes to the transfer portal. However, the transfer portal isn’t readily accessible to the public so it is possible that this also applies to swimming. I say that because SwimSwam can only report on the cases that they are informed of and it does make since for people who share to SwimSwam that they are entering the transfer portal to be more likely to end up transfering.
I say this because over half of the transfers reported on SwimSwam are “suprises”, there was no original announcement of that individual had entered the portal and then the information is suddenly available that they have picked a new school. So it is by… Read more »
Liam’s decision is a WIN-WIN situation. He has made a very wise decision that I humbly believe will reap great rewards for him and the team. RTR
I think he wanted his own news page on SwimSwam to impress the ladies
I heard he couldn’t bare to be away from his teammates. Awesome group of guys!!!! Great in the pool AND in the classroom.
*bear
Bryant?
Wondering if he got into the schools he was seeking to transfer to? You have to imagine with what a game changer he is that he’d be able to write his ticket anywhere. So him choosing to stay is clearly for his own reasons.
Respect the decision a ton though — he improved so much at Bama.
This dude looks like he stars in one of those tween shows on Netflix
I’ve considered starting my own Netflix series
VPDH, this is a disgusting comment. He should be focusing 100% on swimming instead of anything else. I kicked three children out of my age group swim team because they were playing other sports and asked to miss a Sunday morning practice for their soccer championship. As if I would let them miss practice to play a sport that started in Italy!
youre a good man caterpillar
🙁