LSU lands special teams player out of NCAA Transfer Portal

After punting 58 times for an average of 43.1 yards and pinning three punts inside the 20-yard line last season for Notre Dame, Jay Bramblett has announced that he’s transferring to LSU to play for Brian Kelly. He made the news public Monday morning on his Twitter account.

“Heading down to the bayou! Couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity! Geaux Tigers!,” Bramblett wrote.

Heading down to the bayou! Couldn’t be more excited for this opportunity! Geaux Tigers! pic.twitter.com/VEkWIws2oT

— Jay Bramblett (@jbram_15) January 17, 2022

Bramblett, a 6-foot-1, 197-pound punter who’s a former On3 Consensus three-star recruit, spent three seasons at Notre Dame. Before recording 58 punts in 2021, he tallied 43 in 2020 and and 63 in 2019. Bramblett’s longest punt for the Fighting Irish last season went 72 yards. He entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Jan. 1.

A Tuscaloosa, Alabama native, Bramblett – who prepped at Hillcrest High School – had interest from LSU coming out of high school but ultimately committed to Notre Dame over Missouri.

Transfer portal background information 

Check out the NCAA Transfer Portal Tracker.

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.