LOOK: Jacolbe Cowan pens farewell message with Ohio State after entering transfer portal

On Monday, Ohio State defensive lineman Jacolbe Cowan decided to enter his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal. Following the news of his decision, Cowan took to Twitter to deliver a message for his Ohio State family, sharing a touching message as he leaves the Buckeyes program.

“Timing is everything is a cliche but it rings true and is extremely relatable, in my situation,” Cowan said. “I committed to The Ohio State University and came to Columbus with such high hopes, however, the pandemic and season ending injury had a detrimental effect on the start of my college career. As we know, our plans are not always the plans that God has for us. I have accepted that and it’s time to move on. After much thought and prayer, I have decided to enter into the transfer portal.

“I’ve built relationships here that will last a lifetime and will always cherish the memories that were made! Thank you to the coaching staff for giving me the opportunity to be a Buckeye! Thank you to Buckeye Nation for welcoming me with open arms, I will always have love for Columbus! Last but not least, thank you to my family for all of your support and helping me to navigate through uncertain times! Onward & Upward! I’m ready to see what the future holds, time to play ball!”

Forever Grateful! It’s been real…❤️ pic.twitter.com/9UrZbfrcTI

— Jacolbe Cowan (@JacolbeC12) April 18, 2022

Cowan was a highly coveted defensive lineman out of Charlotte, North Carolina, coming to Ohio State over 37 other D-I offers. He took a redshirt year as a freshman in 2020, and totaled three tackles in three games during the 2021 season.

Transfer portal background information for Ohio State, Cowan

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.