Marcus Adams Jr., Kansas transfer & former Gonzaga pledge, commits to BYU

Freshman small forward Marcus Adams Jr., a transfer from Kansas and a former Gonzaga pledge, has announced his commitment to BYU.

The former four-star recruit initially signed with and enrolled at Kansas earlier this summer. He was participating in workouts with the Jayhawks and was attending summer classes. The 6-foot-8 California native spent roughly a month in Lawrence before deciding to enter the transfer portal in mid-July. However, the transfer portal window closed in May. The 60-day window allows first-time transfers to be immediately eligible. Since Adams entered the portal after the deadline had passed, he might need a waiver from the NCAA in order to be eligible this season.

After roughly a week in the transfer portal, Adams announced he would be committing to Gonzaga. On July 31st, the school announced Adams had officially signed with the Zags.

Less than a month later, Adams de-committed from Gonzaga and officially reopened his recruitment on August 27th.

Now, Adams is officially committed to BYU and plans to play for Mark Pope and the Cougars, who will be joining the Big 12 this season.

According to the On3 Industry Rankings, Marcus Adams Jr. is the No. 66 overall prospect in the 2023 cycle. He’s also the No. 14 small forward prospect and the No. 11 player in the state of California. The On3 Industry Ranking is a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Marcus Adams Jr. headed to BYU, 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.

Track transfer portal activity

While the NCAA transfer portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement.

If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Consensus recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).