Arizona State freshman wide receiver enters the transfer portal

According to Matt Zenitz of On3, Arizona State Sun Devils freshman wide receiver Lonyatta Alexander has entered the transfer portal. He played in two games this season against Southern Utah and Arizona.

Coming out of high school Alexander was a four-star prospect on the On3 Consensus. He ranked as a top 10 prospect inside the state of Washington, being at No. 6. Alexander was seen as a top 50 wide receiver as well, being the No. 44 prospect at his position in the 2021 class.

Before committing to Arizona State, Alexander held a top-five school list that included the Sun Devils alongside California, Utah, Washington, and Washington State. He was always going to stay within the Pac-12 coming out of high school. Now, with Alexander leaving Tempe, other schools within the conference will be put on alert.

Transfer portal background information for Arizona State Sun Devils, Alexander

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.