Report: Florida expected to host highly-coveted Pac-12 transfer

Former Arizona State Sun Devil wide receiver Ricky Pearsall is one of the more coveted receiver prospects left in the transfer portal and this week, he’s expected to make his visit to the Florida Gators this week, according to Jacob Rudner of Swamp247. The Gators are set to host him on Friday, April 29.

The talented wide receiver led Arizona State in receiving last season, bringing in 48 catches for 580 receiving yards and four touchdowns. It’s been an offseason full of departures for the Sun Devils, as head coach Herm Edwards’ program has been under an NCAA investigation. Pearsall joined his former Sun Devil teammate Eric Gentry in the transfer portal a few days ago. The school’s star quarterback Jayden Daniels also hit the portal during the offseason and transferred to the LSU Tigers.

According to the On3 Consensus Rankings, Pearsall was rated as a three-star prospect in the 2019 class. The Tempe, Arizona native was also rated as the No. 163 wide receiver prospect in that recruiting class, according to the same rankings.

For updates on where all the different college football prospects across America are headed this offseason, keep it locked to the 2022 On3 Transfer Portal Wire.

Transfer portal 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.