Georgia Bulldogs wide receiver opts for transfer portal

Georgia redshirt freshman wide receiver Justin Robinson has entered the transfer portal, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. The former four-star recruit caught two passes, including one touchdown during the 2021 national championship run.

Over nine career appearances, Justin Robinson’s two catches went for 18 yards, and he recorded one tackle before entering the transfer portal. He also missed four games with injury during the season.

Robinson came to Georgia as the No. 367 ranked player in the 2020 recruiting class, according to On3’s consensus rankings. He also ranked as the No. 70 wide receiver and No. 38 player in his home state of Georgia. The 6-foot-4, 220-pound local product was part of the Bulldogs’ No. 1 overall ranked recruiting class which featured five five-star and 14 four-star recruiting to pull out a slim advantage over Alabama and Clemson.

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.

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.