Iowa State defensive back opts to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

The Iowa State Cyclones just lost an important part of their defense to the NCAA Transfer Portal. Defensive back Datrone Young, a four-year contributor for Iowa State, has entered the portal, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz.

“Iowa State defensive back Datrone Young has entered the transfer portal, @on3sports has learned,” Zenitz tweeted. “Has made 25 career starts, including seven last season.”

Young began his career at Iowa State in 2018, where he totaled 12 tackles and two passes defended. He then had 19 tackles and one pass defended in 2019, before finishing 2020 with 30 tackles, one tackle for loss, and two passes defended. This past season, Young totaled 31 tackles, two tackles for loss, two passes defended, and he grabbed the first interception of his collegiate career.

Young came to Iowa State as a three-star recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average.

Here are the full NCAA Transfer Portal rankings.

Transfer portal background information for Iowa State

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.