Ohio State defensive back enters transfer portal

Ohio State defensive back Craig Young has entered the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

Young, a redshirt sophomore, had 15 total tackles this season (six solo stops) and half a tackle for a loss. Young has played in every game for Ohio State this year, just one year removed from playing in the first four games of the abbreviated 2020 season. Over his three-year career, he appeared in 24 games for the Buckeyes, logging 25 tackles (14 solo stops), half a tackle for loss, two passes defended and a pick-six, which came this season against Maryland.

Young was a three-star ATH in the class of 2019, per On3 Consensus rankings. He was the No. 6 ATH in the nation, and No. 656 overall recruit in the 2019 class. The Fort Wayne, Indiana native played on both sides of the ball in high school, starring as a wide receiver and outside linebacker. Young has two years of eligibility remaining.

For a full list of players in the transfer portal, click here.

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.