Former Ole Miss catcher Will Plattner transferring to Alabama

Ole Miss catcher Will Plattner is taking his talents to Tuscaloosa, opting to join the Alabama Crimson Tide via the NCAA Transfer Portal.

On Saturday, Plattner took to Twitter to announce to move, sharing a photo of the Crimson Tide’s logo and letting the world know he was staying in the SEC.

Next chapter! Roll Tide🐘#RC17 pic.twitter.com/DwvnmFzra8

— Will Plattner (@willplattner) July 28, 2023

“Next chapter! Roll Tide (elephant emoji),” tweeted Plattner, the newest member of the Crimson Tide baseball squad.

Plattner only spent one season with the Rebels, amassing a .300 batting average at the plate in 7 games, adding two starts behind the plate last season.

Additionally, Plattner is joining another former Ole Miss baseball player in moving to Tuscaloosa, as former Rebels star TJ McCants announced he was headed to Alabama earlier this summer.

Last season, McCants hit .232 with nine home runs, 27 RBIs, and 27 runs scored in 47 games for the Rebels.

The duo will hope to bring success to Alabama, as the Crimson Tide look for another fantastic season in 2023.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.