UTEP wide receiver Jacob Cowing announces transfer destination

One of the most sought-after wide receivers transfers Jacob Cowing announced his transfer destination on Monday. Cowing will be heading back to his home state to play for the Arizona Wildcats.

“First want to say thank you to all the coaches I have talked to these past couple weeks,” Cowing said via Twitter. “With that being said with the great conversations I’ve had with the coaching staff I have decided to commit to The University of Arizona for my last 2 years”

Cowing had a monster season for the UTEP Miners, hauling in 69 catches for 1,354 yards and seven touchdowns. He decided to enter the transfer portal on Dec. 21.

Florida, LSU, Oregon, and South Carolina were the other schools under consideration Cowing announced via Instagram on Sunday. In the end, Arizona ended up winning out and will have an instant boost to their wide receiver room.

Cowing was a second-team All-Conference USA nominee last season and had a breakout campaign this year before announcing his transfer. He had seven touchdowns in addition to the seventh-most receiving yards in the country as part of a strong UTEP offense.

The Miners went 7-6 in the regular season to become bowl eligible. UTEP fell to Fresno State 31-24 in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 18.

Transfer portal background information for Arizona, Jacob Cowing

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.