Virginia Tech wide receiver enters transfer portal

Virginia Tech wideout Tayvion Robinson has entered the transfer portal, per Matt Zenitz of On3. 

Robinson is a big loss for Virginia Tech, as he has been a big contributor in his three years in Blacksburg. In total, the Virginia Beach native has 113 receptions for 1,555 yards and nine touchdowns. Of those numbers, 44 receptions, 559 yards and five touchdowns came in 2021. He led the team in both receptions and touchdowns this year, and he started every game.

Robinson was a three-star recruit out of Frank W. Cox (Va.) High School. On3 had him listed as the No. 11 wide receiver in Virginia in the 2019 class.

The news comes shortly after new Hokies head coach Brent Pry’s introductory press conference. The Hokies are 6-6 and are presumably headed to a bowl game in the coming month.

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. 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.