Michigan State linebacker enters the transfer portal

Michigan State Spartans freshman linebacker Ma’a Gaoteote has entered the transfer portal according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. He played in eight games this season for the Spartans.

Gaoteote recorded seven tackles this season, making his debut against Youngstown State. The linebacker recorded a career-high of two tackles in the blowout loss to Ohio State.

Coming out of high school Gaoteote was a four-star prospect according to the On3 Consensus. He comes out of Las Vegas, NV, and St. John Bosco High School. Gaoteote ranked as the No. 22 linebacker in the 2021 recruiting class and the No. 179 overall prospect.

Gaoteote was a longtime USC commit before flipping on early signing day in Dec. 2020. Other programs such as Nebraska, Oregon, Ole Miss, and Washington were recruiting the linebacker as well.

The Gaoteote already has a connection inside of the Big Ten, with Gaoteote’s brother, Palaie, currently playing for the Ohio State Buckeyes. He transferred from USC this offseason, only recording nine tackles during the 2021 season.

Transfer portal background information for Gaoteote, Michigan State Spartans

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.