Interesting SEC team emerges as landing spot for Ohio State transfer

After Florida just lost a quarterback to the transfer portal in Emory Jones, they may be gaining a quarterback from the same location. 

Former Ohio State quarterback Jack Miller has emerged as a potential transfer target for the Gators, per On3’s Matt Zenitz. Miller is a former four-star recruit who entered the transfer portal in late November. He is from the Phoenix area.

The redshirt freshman was the second quarterback to leave Columbus this season, as true freshman Quinn Ewers also departed and ended up at Texas. Quarterbacks C.J. Stroud and Kyle McCord remain on the Buckeyes roster.

Miller completed seven of 14 passes for 101 yards this season in four games as a reliever. His only career touchdown was a rushing score in 2020 against Nebraska.

Miller held offers from numerous SEC schools out of high school, but Florida was not on the list.

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.