Notre Dame loses former four-star recruit to NCAA Transfer Portal

Notre Dame tight end George Takacs has now officially entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, he announced in a Twitter post Monday.

Takacs, a rising fifth year tight end, is now seeking a new program to call home, as he transfers out of Notre Dame with two years of eligibility. Takacs was a former four-star recruit according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Takacs figures to draw interest from several high-profile programs given his 6-foot-7, 247-pound frame and his four years of experience with Notre Dame. He currently ranks as the No. 8-overall tight end in the NCAA Transfer Portal, and one of just three top-10 transfer tight ends that have not yet announced a destination (Click here for full transfer portal rankings).

“I want to thank our coaches, gas, academic staff, athletic trainers and anyone else who is a part of the Notre Dame football family for always supporting me and assisting me these past four years,” Takacs said, adding in a note to his teammates, “you all are my brothers for life and I cannot thank you enough for the best years of my life.”

Takacs redshirted his freshman season at Notre Dame, and in the three seasons since, he’s served largely as a reserve tight end. Over three years, Takacs tallied eight receptions for 78 yards and two touchdowns; his highest yards tally, 36, came in the 2021 season.

For a full list of NCAA Transfer Portal entries, click here.

Background on NCAA Transfer Portal after Takacs’ entry

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.