Former Auburn quarterback Bo Nix announces transfer destination

Former Auburn quarterback Bo Nix will transfer to Oregon, he announced Sunday. The junior spent the past three seasons as the Tigers starting quarterback before officially entering the transfer portal on Dec. 13.

He missed the final two games of 2021 after undergoing ankle surgery. Nix finished the season with 2,294 yards passing, 11 touchdowns and three interceptions. Auburn went 6-4 in the 10 games he played.

The Ducks finished 2021 as the Pac-12 runner up before coach Mario Cristobal left for Miami. They hired Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning as his replacement. Interestingly enough, the Ducks face the Bulldogs in Week 1 of next season.

Nix’s departure comes as a shock given his strong connection with the program. His father, Patrick, played quarterback for the Tigers from 1992-95. A Pinson, Alabama, native, Nix grew up cheering on Auburn and playing for them seemed like a dream come true.

He didn’t shy away from the hype upon arrival in 2019, either. Nix became the first freshman to start at quarterback for Auburn since 1946, earning SEC Freshman of the Year. He broke Tigers freshman records for passing yards (2,542) and touchdowns (16). They finished 9-4 that year but lost in the Outback Bowl to Minnesota.

The ensuing seasons weren’t nearly as successful as Auburn went a combined 12-10. Gus Malzahn, the coach who Nix signed with in 2019, was let go at the end of the quarterback’s sophomore year. The Tigers brought in Bryan Harsin from Boise State and ended the 2021 season on a four-game losing streak to finish 6-6.

Despite the timing, Bo Nix has stated that his decision to transfer was not because of Harsin.

“I think Coach Harsin was one of the main reasons that I developed this year,” Nix said. “Like I mentioned to him a lot, I appreciate him for what he did when he came in and allowed me to kind of transform my game. … He taught me a new system and he was very good at teaching that system.”

Bo Nix, NCAA 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.