BREAKING: Top Tennessee running back enters NCAA Transfer Portal

The Tennessee Volunteers have just suffered a major blow to their offense. Tennessee’s leading rusher Tiyon Evans has decided to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. Evans leads Tennessee with 525 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns on the season with 81 carries. He is averaging 6.5 yards per carry.

Evans also has one touchdown reception this season. After rushing for at least 119 yards three times in his first five games this season, Evans has just eight carries for 39 yards over his last two games. He last played on November 6 against Kentucky, where he had one attempt for nine yards.

Evans has been dealing with an injury over recent weeks, leading to his absence from Tennessee. This season was his first with the Volunteers after joining the team from junior college. He has run alongside running back Jabari Small, forming a great one-two punch.

Transfer portal background information for Tennessee, Evans

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.