Florida baseball lands commitment from Landon Russell

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — The Florida baseball team has added another player to its ranks. On Tuesday, Landon Russell announced his commitment to the Gators on Twitter.

“I am excited to announce that I will be continuing my athletic and academic career this fall at the University of Florida,” Russell said in his announcement. “I would like to thank everyone that has supported me along this journey. All the glory to god for giving me this opportunity to [play] the sport I love.”

From Phenix City, Alabama, Russell played all over the field in high school. He originally committed to Auburn before enrolling at Gulf Coast Community College. As a freshman, he hit .305 with six home runs, 39 RBI, 42 runs scored, and stole 18 bases. On the mound, he made 13 appearances, including one start.

Florida baseball players in the transfer portal

Players added

Colby Shelton – INF – Alabama
Tanner Garrison – C – Coastal Carolina
Brody Donay – C – Virginia Tech
Kelly Austin – RHP – UCLA*
Landon Russell – INF – Gulf Coast

Players departed

Anthony Ursitti – RHP – Florida Gulf Coast University
Deric Fabian – SS – Auburn
Rene Lastres – C – Charolette
Matthew Prevesk – OF – UCF
Tyler Nesbitt – RHP – UCF
Clete Hartzog – RHP – Troy
Yoel Tejada – RHP – FSU
Chris Arroyo – LHP – TBD
Salvy Alzarez – C – Florida Southwestern
Erik Blair – OF – TBD
Carsten Finnvold – LHP – UCF

Background on the transfer portal

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.

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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.

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