Florida defensive lineman Lamar Goods announces his intent to enter transfer portal

Billy Napier and the Florida Gators received some bad news on Friday, as former On3 Consensus four-star defensive lineman Lamar Goods announced that he is entering his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal. Goods announced the news on his Instagram account.

“I wanna start by thanking everyone at the University of Florida and that I appreciate and care for all that you have done for me,” Goods wrote in his post. “But after long and hard talks with my family I have decided to enter my name in the transfer portal. I am excited to see where this next chapter in my life takes my academic and football career but will always be proud that I was a gator thank you GATOR NATION.”

Goods, a 6-foot-2, 332-pound defender, played in just one game as a freshman for the Gators in 2021 – registering a single tackle in a win over Samford on Nov. 13. He committed to Florida over offers from Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and West Virginia, among others.

Transfer portal background information for Goods

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.