SMU running back officially enters NCAA transfer portal

SMU running back Ulysses Bentley is in the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

Bentley ranked second on SMU’s roster with 610 rushing yards and four touchdowns in 2021, and totaled more than 1,500 yards and 15 touchdowns in his three years with the Mustangs. He also had 41 receptions for 294 yards and two touchdowns in the air during his SMU career.

He joined the Mustangs as a three-star recruit out of Texas and a top-150 running back recruit from the Class of 2019, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

SMU is coming off an 8-4 season in 2021 and saw a coaching change this offseason. Sonny Dykes left to become the head coach at TCU and Rhett Lashlee came in after two years as Miami’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach.

To stay up to date on the latest transfer portal entries, click here to view On3’s Transfer Portal Wire.

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.