Mark Sears receiving interest from multiple SEC, ACC schools

Former Ohio Bobcats guard Mark Sears, who entered the NCAA Transfer Portal after two seasons with the Bobcats, has received major interest from several high-level schools, per Jon Rothstein.

Scott Whittle, Sears’ AAU coach, told Rothstein that Sears has received interest from the Auburn Tigers, LSU Tigers, Alabama Crimson Tide, Ole Miss Rebels, Texas Longhorns, Creighton Bluejays, Miami Hurricanes, West Virginia Mountaineers, Florida Gators, Notre Dame Fighting Irish, Georgetown Hoyas, South Carolina Gamecocks, Samford Bulldogs and Appalachian State Mountaineers.

Coming out of high school, though, the story was quite different for Sears, who hardly received much attention as a 6-foot-1, 185-pound guard from Muscle Shoals, Alabama. He was an unranked recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

The story quickly changed for Sears in two years at Ohio, as he immediately emerged as a star for the Bobcats. In the 2020-21 season, as a true freshman, Sears only started five of the 24 games in which he appeared, averaging 8.5 points, 2.8 rebounds and 3.3 assists per contest, but in 2021-22, he was the team’s leading scorer. He finished this past season averaging 19.6 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.1 assists per contest, drawing interest from several Power Five programs in the process.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal after Sears enters

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.