Auburn wide receiver entering transfer portal

Auburn is losing another piece of their offense. According to On3’s Matt Zenitz, wide receiver Ja’Varrius Johnson is entering the transfer portal.

“Auburn wide receiver Ja’Varrius Johnson has entered the transfer portal, @on3sports has learned,” Zenitz wrote.

In his first season with the Tigers, Johnson showed what made him such an exciting recruit. The Auburn wide receiver caught 19 passes on the season, amassing 274 yards and two touchdowns. Additionally, he ran the ball twice on the season, gaining 59 yards and a touchdown on the ground.

Before joining Auburn, the four-star recruit was offered by other SEC schools, like Mississippi State and Kentucky. As Johnson looks for a new start, perhaps he looks towards two familiar SEC locations.

It didn’t workout for Ja’Varrius Johnson at Auburn, but the wide receiver will be a hot commodity in the transfer portal.

More on Ja’Varrius Johnson, transfer portal

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.