Jared Wiley pens heartfelt note to Texas, fans after entering NCAA Transfer Portal

Texas Longhorns tight end Jared Wiley entered the NCAA Transfer Portal on Friday morning, according to On3’s Matt Zeintz. Following his decision, Wiley has penned a heartfelt message to Texas, as well as Longhorns fans.

“Dear Texas, these past three years have been nothing short of amazing,” Wiley said. “Thank you to my teammates and Longhorn nation for showing me so much love and support from day one. Thank you Coach Herman and Coach Warehime for believing in me and bringing me onto the 40 Acres and thank you to Coach Sark and Coach Banks for trusting me to play a role on the team last year.

“It hasn’t been an easy decision to make considering the love I have for the University of Texas and all of the teammates I have played with. With all of that being said, I’ve made the decision to be a grad transfer and use my last year of eligibility elsewhere. Thank you Longhorn Nation! 18 out.”

Thank You, Texas🤝 pic.twitter.com/Q83R4UNPul

— JDub (@Jaredwiley23) December 17, 2021

Wiley had nine receptions in each of the last two seasons on the Texas offense. This season, he had nine catches for 67 yards and two touchdowns. Last year, Wiley had nine receptions for 166 yards and one touchdown. In 2019, Wiley caught one pass for 15 yards.

Wiley originally chose Texas during his original recruitment over offers from Missouri, SMU, Houston and others. A former On3 Consensus three-star recruit, Wiley was rated as the 27th tight end and the 79th overall player out of the state of Texas in the 2019 recruiting class.

Transfer portal background information for Texas, Wiley

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.