Colorado flips Auburn transfer Tar'Varish Dawson from Cincinnati

On Monday afternoon, On3’s Hayes Fawcett reported yet another transfer commitment for the Colorado Buffaloes. This time, Deion Sanders and his staff were able to flip former Auburn wideout Tar’Varish Dawson from Cincinnati to CU. Here was Fawcett’s report:

“Former Auburn wide receiver Tar’Varish Dawson flipped his commitment from Cincinnati to Colorado Monday afternoon. The 5-foot-11, 165 pounder will have three years of eligibility remaining.”

He also included the following quotes from Dawson on why he made the move:

““I mean my city back home is a reason,” Dawson said. “Everybody loves Deion and wants to play for him, and we are from the same city. So why not? I got my old high school coach there. Deion coached me once on his 7v7 team. My family loves Deion and they know he will take good care of me.”

Dawson only appeared in four total games with the Tigers, totaling two catches for 30 yards and a pair of rushing attempts for 10 yards. He should have 3-4 more years of eligibility remaining.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

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 other 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).

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and senior national college football reporter Matt Zenitz’s Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.