Former UAB Safety Jaylen Key commits to Alabama

Former UAB safety Jaylen Key announced his transfer portal commitment to Alabama Friday afternoon. 

The 6-foot-2, 210 pounder will have one of eligibility remaining. 

Key on why he chose Alabama

“Just the process they use to prepare their athletes for the next level is insane. They use every resource available to ensure athletes have an advantage, when it comes to being successful on and off the field. Also the energy within the building to be special is unmatched.”

Out of high school, Key was ranked as a three-star recruit in the 2018 class.

He currently does not have an On3 NIL Valuation at this time. The On3 NIL Valuation is the industry’s leading index that sets high school and college athletes’ projected annual value (PAV). The NIL valuation does not act as a tracker of the value of NIL deals an athlete has completed to date. It rather signifies an athlete’s value at a certain moment in time.

Transfer portal background information

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.