Site Guidelines

Last updated October 26, 2026

The Portal Professor exists so athletes have the full picture before decisions that shape their lives. A great coach can change a player’s future, and so can a bad one. We want to celebrate coaches who build players up and hold accountable the ones who don’t, and that only works if every review is honest, firsthand, and fair. These guidelines are part of our Terms of Service.

Who can review

Only people who are or were players for the coach they are rating. You rate a specific coach at a specific school, based on your own time on that team. Parents, recruits, fans, and rivals can read the Site, but they can’t review. Every review has to be confirmed before it counts (see “How verification works” below).

What makes a good review

• Be firsthand. Write about what you saw, heard, and lived. Don’t pass along rumors or what a teammate told you.
• Be specific and fair. Tell the next player what it was actually like: development, playing time, communication, honesty, discipline, culture. Concrete details help far more than a one-line rant.
• Keep it about the coaching. Rate how the coach coached and led. Leave out personal attacks that have nothing to do with the job.
• Rate the person you played for, at the school where you played for them. If a coach moved, choose the school you were with them at.

What we remove

We may remove or decline a review, or limit an account, when a review includes any of the following:

• threats, harassment, hate speech, slurs, or encouragement of violence or self-harm;
• profanity, or insults about a person’s body or looks (an automatic filter blocks many of these words before a review can be submitted, and we may remove ones that get past it);
• accusations of crimes or serious misconduct that the writer cannot stand behind from direct knowledge;
• someone’s private information, such as medical, family, financial, or contact details, or comments about appearance, family, or personal life unrelated to coaching;
• content about people who are not coaches, including teammates, students, and recruits;
• reviews written by someone who did not play for the coach, or written for pay, as a favor, or at the direction of a rival program, agent, recruiter, or anyone with a stake in the outcome;
• more than one review of the same coach at the same school by the same person, or coordinated campaigns of reviews;
• spam, advertising, links, or text copied from somewhere else.

We do not remove a review just because it is negative, because a coach or school disagrees with it, or because it is unflattering. Honest criticism is the point of this Site.

How reports and complaints work

Anyone can report a review with the Report link on it. Coaches, schools, and their representatives can also email support@theportalprofessor.com with a link to the review and the reason. We look at each report against these guidelines and decide whether to keep or remove the review. We don't rewrite what players write. We never share who wrote a review.

How ratings and scores work

Players rate overall and in several categories on a 1 to 10 scale and say whether they would play for the coach again. A coach’s score is the average of verified ratings. A coach who moves schools keeps one profile, and the page shows how they rated at each stop. Every profile shows its overall score to everyone. Category scores and full written reviews unlock with a pass (90 days, 6 months, or a year), or free for a month after you submit a verified review of your own.

How verification works

When you submit a review, we email a link to the address you give us (ideally your school email). The review counts once you confirm it. If that address is your school’s and your name is on the team’s roster, you’re verified automatically. If we can’t match you, for example an alum whose school email has been shut off, a person checks it by hand instead of rejecting it outright. Your name and email are encrypted and never displayed, and we delete the email address itself once you’re verified. Nothing public shows your name, school, team, seasons, or role. The only thing shown is that we verified you.

About the coach and school data

Staff listings come from official athletics websites and user suggestions, and they change constantly. They can be out of date. If something is wrong or missing, use the “Something missing or wrong?” button on any school page, or tell us when a coach has moved to a new school. School names, team names, and logos belong to their owners, and we use them only to identify the programs reviews are about. We are not affiliated with any school, conference, or the NCAA.