Former New Mexico running back announces commitment to Washington

A former New Mexico Lobos running back announced on Sunday that he would be transferring to the Washington Huskies for his sophomore season. Aaron Dumas will play for Washington after a freshman season that saw him rush for 658 yards on 4.8 yards per carry.

My home away from home! #committed pic.twitter.com/WrGTG6mDbh

— Aaron Dumas (@AaronDumas22) January 23, 2022

Former New Mexico running back chooses Washington

The young talent joined New Mexico ranked No. 101 per the On3 Consensus rankings among all running backs in the nation. While Dumas didn’t have much of an opportunity to showcase his talents as a freshman, he will look to continue his college career with Washington as of next season.

As a junior in high school, Dumas rushed for 3,184 yards and 36 touchdowns in 12 games. He was named to the Class 6A First Team All-State, and in 26 varsity high school games he rushed for over 100 yards in every game. He finished at the high school level with 57 touchdowns on the ground.

In 11 games with New Mexico, he averaged just over 11 carries per game for 4.8 yards a touch. Despite his consistent rushing presence, he only reached the end zone two times as a freshman while rushing for 658 yards total.

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.