Former SMU veteran lineman announces his commitment for 2022

Score another point for the TCU Horned Frogs in the battle against their in-state rival of SMU. Alan Ali, who has been with the Mustangs for the entirety of his college football career, has announced on Twitter that he will transfer and play for TCU in 2022.

Ali announced his decision on Friday afternoon with him donning the purple and black of TCU. He also attached this statement directed at the university and its fans.

“Firstly, I would like to thank SMU and the entire community from the bottom of my heart. My five years at SMU were nothing short of amazing. With that being said, I’m excited to announce I will be playing my last season of college football in my hometown of Fort Worth at TCU,” Ali said.

The 6-foot-5 senior is headed home to the Dallas Fort Worth area. Ali was given this opportunity thanks to the additional year eligibility provided to all players by the NCAA. The extra year was awarded following the COVID shortened 2020 season. Ali will join the only college football coach he has ever played for in Sonny Dykes. Dykes took over for TCU late in November after spending five years with SMU.

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.