Florida baseball lands commitment from Colby Shelton

Thursday the Florida baseball team landed a commitment from Alabama freshman infielder Colby Shelton. The infielder from Valrico, Florida announced on his Twitter.

Shelton was one of the best power hitters in all of college baseball in 2023. He blasted 25 home runs in his rookie season and knocked in 51 runs for the Crimson Tide. He was named a Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and to the Freshman All-SEC Team. Shelton started 59 games for Alabama in 2022. He slashed .300/.419/.729.

Shelton was the No. 2 shortstop and No. 13 player overall from the talent-rich state of Florida according to Prep Baseball Report.

Florida views Shelton as an infielder that can play either third base or shortstop for the team in 2024. The Gators will lose shortstop Josh Rivera to the MLB Draft after this season. Infielder Tyler Shelton, who has been playing outfield due to a need in 2023, is also draft eligible, although he could return to school. The Gators also have Deric Fabian returning in 2024.

Colby Shelton Freshman accolades

Career Accolades

• Freshman All-American – Collegiate Baseball News (2023)
• Second Team Freshman All-American – NCBWA (2023)
• Freshman All-SEC Team (2023)
• SEC Freshman of the Week (March 6, 2023)
• National Player of the Week – College Baseball Newspaper (March 6, 2023)
• Position Player of the Week – SEC Extra (March 6, 2023)

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.