Sooners Portal Offer: Sam Franklin

With Oklahoma losing three of its own running backs to the transfer portal in the last few weeks there was a thought they might look to replenish their hopes beyond just the 2024 recruiting class. And on Wednesday Demarco Murray made his first step in that direction. That step was made toward UT-Martin running back Sam Franklin. The highly productive back, who is a Walter Payton award finalist for the Skyhawks, is one worth a long look.

Career Stats: 24 career games (13 starts). 315 rushes for 2,129 yards and 20 touchdowns. He also had 27 receptions for 174 yard and a touchdown.

PFF Grade in 2023: 76.1

High: 80.5 – Missouri State

Low: 50.2 – Abilene Christian

Eligibility Remaining: Two years

Why he and Oklahoma Make Sense: Oklahoma’s running back room went from massive numbers to being very lean in a short amount of time. And to have a back who has produced far more than anyone on the Sooners roster? That’s an idea that has a lot of merit and he’s someone Oklahoma can be involved with.

What’s on Tape: The Sooners undoubtedly like Franklin’s direct style. He hits the hole quickly and wastes as little motion possible getting downhill. He’s got some speed and also is a guy that is physical enough to run through tackles.

NCAA Transfer 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 begins. 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 short, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship.

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.

Track Transfer Portal Activity

While the NCAA transfer portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement.

If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity. That activity includes basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Consensus recruiting ranking, as well as NIL valuation.

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.