New Mexico State star Teddy Allen explains decision to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

New Mexico State guard Teddy Allen decided to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal on Sunday. Allen, who is also in the 2022 NBA Draft, has since explained the decision to enter his name into the portal to Stadium’s Jeff Goodman.

“New Mexico State guard Teddy Allen told me that he is fully committed to staying in the draft process, but put his name in the portal just to ‘cover his bases,'” Goodman tweeted. “Smart for most of these guys to do just in case they change their mind, or get hurt, or whatever.”

Even though Allen intends to remain in the NBA Draft, those plans can change rather quickly based on the feedback he receives through the process.

Allen began his collegiate career at West Virginia, playing in 35 games off the bench during the 2017-2018 season. There, he played 11.9 minutes per game and averaged seven points and 2.7 rebounds. Allen then took a redshirt year in 2018-2019, and played the 2019-2020 season at Western Nebraska Community College.

During the 2020-2021 season, Allen played in 22 games with 21 starts for Nebraska, playing 27.2 minutes per game. That season, he averaged 16.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. Last season, Allen transferred to New Mexico State, and he became a star on the biggest stage in the NCAA Tournament.

Last season, Allen averaged 19.6 points, 6.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.2 steals per game while playing 33.4 minutes per contest. In a NCAA Tournament victory over UConn, Allen starred with 37 points, six rebounds and three assists.

See the top available prospects with On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings.

Transfer portal background information for Allen

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.