Notre Dame defensive back JoJo Johnson announces decision on future

Another member of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football program is off to find a new home for the 2022 season. According to Matt Zenitz, on Tuesday, Notre Dame freshman defensive back JoJo Johnson has decided to enter the transfer portal.

Johnson also released this statement from his personal Twitter account about his decision to find a new football home.

“I would like to thank God for blessing me with my abilities and for the opportunity to share them with the world. I would like to thank everyone who has supported me throughout my journey, and who will continue to support me through my next chapter,” he wrote. “To my teammates thank you for helping me get acclimated to the Notre Dame environment. I want to thank my coaches for always holding me accountable and teaching me to exceed limits I never thought possible.

“I enjoyed my time at Notre Dame and have created memories that will last a lifetime. having said that I will be continuing my education and football career at another university. stay tuned, this is just the beginning.”

Johnson is currently ranked 457 in On3’s transfer portal player rankings.

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.