Former Tennessee, West Virginia defensive lineman Darel Middleton still available in transfer portal

Darel Middleton is making another go-round through the transfer portal and was thought to be committed to head coach Deion Sanders at Jackson State. However, a recent tweet from Middleton goes against that, saying his recruitment is still “100% open.”

June 4 was the original date Middleton committed to Jackson State, announcing he decision via Twitter and adding a graphic. Plenty of other offers have rolled in for the defensive lineman, with Florida State, Georgia Tech, Louisville, and Texas Tech have reached out as well. As of now, there is no official timeline for Middleton to make his decision.

Previously in his career, Middleton has played for both Tennessee and West Virginia. He began at East Mississippi during the 2018 season before the Knoxville native played for the hometown Volunteers. Middleton then entered the NCAA transfer portal and played for the Mountaineers in the Big 12 last season.

More transfer portal background information for Darel Middleton

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.