Grant Nelson officially commits to Alabama over Arkansas

On3’s Joe Tipton was first to report that North Dakota State transfer Grant Nelson was expected to commit to Alabama. Now, the move is concrete, with Nelson deciding to play for head coach Nate Oats during the 2023-2024 season.

Stadium’s Jeff Goodman reported the commitment on Twitter on Wednesday afternoon.

This is a huge win for Alabama on multiple different fronts.

First up, the frontcourt depth was lacking in Tuscaloosa after Charles Bediako decided to stay in the 2023 NBA Draft. Oats desperately needed to add a contributor and Nelson’s production will be massive for the Crimson Tide.

Nelson was a first-team All-Summit player for North Dakota State last season, averaging 17.9 points and 9.3 rebounds per game. Something else Oats will love — Nelson wound up on the conference’s All-Defense team.

Next, Alabama was able to win out for Nelson over Arkansas and Eric Musselman. Not many coaches in the country are as lethal in the NCAA transfer portal as Musselman. He wanted to add Nelson to their already stacked roster.

Instead, Oats will officially be welcoming him in, hoping to defend their SEC regular season and tournament championships.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

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.

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.