Texas A&M defensive back enters NCAA Transfer Portal

Texas A&M defensive back Erick Young has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

Young was a top-ranked recruit coming out of high school, as he emerged from Richmond, Texas, as a four-star recruit according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

He was the No. 7 safety and No. 11-overall recruit in the state of Texas for the 2019 recruiting class; now, after entering the NCAA Transfer Portal, Young ranks as the No. 8 safety in the portal, per the On3 portal rankings.

Young played in seven games as a true freshman in 2019 but did not log any starts. In 2020, however, he became a frequent starter for Texas A&M, cracking the starting lineup in six of seven games played. He amassed 11 total tackles (seven solo stops) that year as a sophomore.

Young announced on Twitter earlier last week that he’d enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, as he penned a lengthy statement thanking Aggie fans for their support.

“This was a hard decision, but after numerous prayers and conversations with my family, I feel it is best for my future to enter into the transfer portal,” Young wrote in part.

For a full list of NCAA Transfer Portal entries, click here.

NCAA Transfer Portal background after Young’s entry

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.