Former USC catcher Garret Guillemette will transfer to Texas

Former USC catcher Garret Guillemette plans to transfer to Texas for the 2023 season, he announced via social media. The 6-foot-1 sophomore started 48 games for the Trojans in 2022 after starting 44 of 48 appearances in 2021.

A California native, Garret Guillemette opted the enter the transfer portal and make a move from USC to Texas after head coach Jason Gill parted ways with the program. He is a career .292 hitter with eight home runs and 46 RBIs over 336 at bats. Over two season, Guillemette also has a fielding percentage of .987 with just seven errors on 485 put outs behind the plate.

Texas has seen big turnover this offseason with two paid assistant spots open for head coach David Pierce to fill. They entered 2022 with high expectations as the top-ranked team and a great pitching staff.

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.

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.