Volunteers running back enters transfer portal

Tennessee running back Tee Hodge has entered the transfer portal, Patrick Brown of 247Sports has reported. The redshirt freshman played in just one game during his first year with the Volunteers last season.

Hodge was in the mix to compete for playing time in the Vols backfield this season, which kicks off Thursday night when they host Bowling Green.

The redshirt freshman tailback was a three-star recruit coming out of high school. The 6-foot-1, 218-pounder had offers from Michigan, Oregon, Penn State and Ole Miss coming out of East Tennessee powerhouse Maryville. A member of the SEC Academic Honor Roll last season, he was expected to be a contributor on special this year, too.

The Vols running back depth takes a hit with his departure. Tiyon Evans is expected to be the starter. Redshirt freshmen Dee Beckwith and Len’Neth Whitehead will have to take a larger role in the backfield this season.

NCAA 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 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.