Miami (OH) stars Ivan Pace, Lonnie Phelps enter NCAA Transfer Portal

Miami (OH) just lost two star defensive players to the NCAA Transfer Portal. According to On3’s Matt Zenitz, Miami (OH) linebacker Ivan Pace Jr and defensive end Lonnie Phelps have entered the transfer portal.

Losing Pace and Phelps to the portal is a big blow for Miami (OH)’s defense. Pace was a first-team All-MAC linebacker this season. He ranked eighth in college football with 125 total tackles. Phelps, a second-team All-MAC defensive end, is third in the MAC this year with 9.5 sacks.

Pace is in his third season with Miami (OH). He really broke out this season, as his previous career-high in tackles was last season, where he had 26. In his collegiate career, he has 170 tackles, 11 sacks, one forced fumble, five passes defended and one interception.

Like Pace, Phelps has also enjoyed a bit of a breakout this season. On the year, he has 30 tackles and 9.5 sacks. Entering this season, he had a total of 27 tackles and 6.5 sacks. Now, Phelps has amassed 57 tackles, 16 sacks and two forced fumbles in his three-year collegiate career.

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.