Ohio State safety enters NCAA transfer portal

Ohio State Buckeyes safety Marcus Hooker entered the NCAA transfer portal on Tuesday, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz.

The 6-foot, 180-pound safety signed with the Buckeyes in the 2018 recruiting class out of New Castle High in Pennsylvania. He was a three-star prospect, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Over four seasons, Hooker accumulated 31 total tackles for the Buckeyes. The 2020 season was his best year. He had 15 total tackles, including 13 solo, and his first career interception.

Last year, Hooker served a suspension after driving while impaired in the spring but rejoined the team in the summer.

Marcus Hooker is the younger brother of former Ohio State star Malik Hooker. The elder was a first-round draft pick for Indianapolis in 2015.

The junior will be immediately eligible to play thanks to new NCAA transfer rules.

Hooker joins boom transfer portal

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 goes 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. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request.

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 However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship is no longer valid. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school does not have to reoffer a scholarship.

According to new data from the NCAA, not all of them found what they were looking for.

Only 54% of FBS transfers wound up enrolling at a new school, the NCAA said Monday. About 5% of portal entrants withdrew their names and 41% either stayed in, enrolled at a non-NCAA school or left their sport.