Top transfer wide receiver sets commitment date

UTEP transfer wide receiver Jacob Cowing will announce his commitment Monday, according to The Athletic’s Max Olson. The 5-foot-10 sophomore posted that his top schools include Arizona, Florida, LSU, Oregon and South Carolina on Instagram.

Originally a member of the 2019 recruiting class, Cowing has gone from a three-star recruit to one of the nation’s top transfer targets over the past three years. The Arizona native has drawn interest from many programs since entering the transfer portal on Dec. 21.

In 32 games, Cowing caught 141 passes for 2,595 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns, adding 75 rushing yards and one touchdown. He also ranked among the best in the country with 1,354 receiving yards this season.

Jacob Cowing was a second team All-Conference USA nominee last season and had a breakout campaign this year before announcing his transfer. He had seven touchdowns in addition to the seventh-most receiving yards in the country as part of a strong UTEP offense.

The Miners went 7-6 in the regular season to become bowl eligible. UTEP fell to Fresno State 31-24 in the New Mexico Bowl on Dec. 18.

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.

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.