Illinois quarterback set to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

An Illinois quarterback is preparing to transfer.

Fighting Illini quarterback Matt Robinson told the coaching staff he plans to enter the transfer portal, Illinois head coach Bret Bielema told reporters Tuesday. He’s not at the start of spring practice on Tuesday, Bielema confirmed.

Robinson didn’t play at all last year as he sat behind Art Sitkowski and Brandon Peters on the depth chart. He played in his previous three years with the program, completing 48 of 87 passes for 508 yards and a touchdown. His best year came in 2019 when he threw for 475 yards and a touchdown on 42-for-77 passing.

Robinson was a three-star recruit from the Class of 2018 and garnered interest from programs such as Montana, Coastal Carolina and Florida International. He was also a top-125 quarterback prospect from that class.

Illinois went 5-7 overall and 4-5 in Big Ten action in Bielema’s first season at the helm last season. Sitkowski is set to come back, and the Fighting Illini brought in former Syracuse quarterback Tommy DeVito, as well.

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.