Baylor lands defensive tackle transfer from Group of Five program

In the second season under head coach Dave Aranda, the Baylor Bears were able to win the Big 12 and the Sugar Bowl. Heading into next year, he will be looking to reload and keep the momentum going forward in Waco.

On Sunday, they got a big boost through the transfer portal. Tulsa defensive tackle Jaxon Player announced he would be transferring to Baylor to play in Aranda’s defense.

“One of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make,” Player said via Twitter. “But it’s only right I stay home!!”

Player is a native of Waco and attended Midway High School. The Bears did not originally offer the defensive tackle, with no Power Five programs involved in his recruitment.

Of Tulsa’s 13 games this season, Player featured in all of them. He recorded 49 tackles and 14.0 tackles for a loss. Player was able to force a fumble against Cincinnati on the road and recovered one against Arkansas State.

Transfer portal background for Player, Baylor Bears

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.