UCLA all-conference cornerback enters NCAA Transfer Portal

UCLA Bruins cornerback Jay Shaw has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, On3 Sports’ Matt Zenitz has learned.

Shaw is the second UCLA player to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal on Monday. Shortly before his name made an entry, former four-star wide receiver Chase Cota entered the portal and opted to use his last year of eligibility elsewhere.

Shaw, a native of Corona, California, just finished his fifth year with the UCLA program. He redshirted in 2017, then after playing three full seasons with the Bruins, he still has one year of eligibility remaining due to the COVID-19 blanket waiver.

Shaw first appeared as a reserve nickel back in 2018, appearing in all of UCLA’s 12 games and notching six total tackles. He made his first four starts in 2019, appearing in all 12 games, then started all seven games in 2020 and five of 12 games in 2021.

Shaw finished his UCLA career with 87 total tackles (71 solo stops), two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and six interceptions. He led the Bruins with three intrceptions in 2021, and he was named a second-team All-Pac-12 selection in his final year with UCLA.

Shaw was a three-star recruit out of Centennial High School via the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, making him the No. 74 cornerback in the 2017 class and the No. 70 recruit in the state of California.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal after Shaw’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.