Auburn Tigers defensive lineman makes decision on future

Another player has entered the transfer portal for the Auburn Tigers. Former three-star prospect of the 2020 recruiting class, defensive lineman Daniel Foster-Allen has elected to move on from Auburn. On3’s Matt Zenitz confirmed the defensive lineman’s decision on Wednesday. Foster-Allen has spent two seasons with the Tigers but did not see a single snap in his time there.

Before committing to one of the two major programs in his home state of Alabama, the six-foot-five 260-pound defensive end had four additional offers. SEC east rival Mississippi State, Rutgers, Virginia Tech, and Georgia Tech all offered Foster-Allen.

Now that his time is up at Auburn, Foster-Allen can utilize one of two techniques with the transfer portal in finding a new program to call home. He can opt to head to another top-end program, such as Auburn or Mississippi State, and battle it out with elite talent for playing time or he can transfer out to a smaller school, in the past, it was usually a JUCO or junior college, where he stands a chance of seeing the field and getting some live-action reps in.

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.