Former Oregon running back Sean Dollars commits to transfer to Nevada

Former Oregon running back Sean Dollars has found the next stop of his college career, and he will be reunited with one of the coaches who brought him to Eugene.

Dollars, a fourth-year sophomore who entered the transfer portal earlier this week announced on Twitter Sunday that he has committed to transfer to the University of Nevada, Reno.

He becomes the second former Duck in the past three days to commit to Nevada, joining linebacker Jackson LaDuke.

Committed to The University of Nevada 🐺 #HomeisNevada pic.twitter.com/LLOkWc7cdi

— Sean Dollars (@SeanDollars) December 12, 2022

At Nevada, Dollars will be reunited with former Oregon running backs coach Jim Mastro, who serves as senior director of football administration and operations for the Wolf Pack.

In 18 games over four seasons, Dollars ran for 316 yards on 49 carries (6.1 yards per carry) and one touchdown. He also caught 18 passes for 144 yards.

Dollars was a 4-star recruit in the class of 2019 and arrived at Oregon with no shortage of fanfare. He was the No. 166 overall player and the No. 11 running back in his class and chose the Ducks over USC, Washington, and a host of other schools.

After contributing as a true freshman in 2019, Dollars suffered a serious knee injury in 2020 that wiped out his entire 2021 season.

He entered the transfer portal last January, but he reversed course soon after and cited a conversation with Oregon coach Dan Lanning as a major reason for staying with the Ducks.

This season, he was Oregon’s fourth-leading rusher and carved out a role as a pass-catching specialist out of the backfield.

In 12 games this season, Dollars racked up 336 yards from scrimmage.

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.