Jacksonville forward Omar Payne enters NCAA Transfer Portal

Jacksonville forward Omar Payne is back in the Transfer Portal, according to On3’s Jamie Shaw. The 6-foot-10 senior spent two years at Florida, one at Illinois and then one at Jacksonville this past year and has just one more year of eligibility. Given that this will be his third time transferring, most players would need a special waiver to avoid sitting out. However, since Payne is a graduate transfer, he can play immediately wherever he would like.

As a player, Omar Payne is a career reserve everywhere he’s been. He was the No. 48 player in the 2019 class, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, but has just never panned out as a high-level forward. He averaged 3.8 points and 3.4 rebounds in 15 minutes per game during his first two years at Florida, then only played seven minutes a night during his one season with the Illini. This past season, despite transferring down a few levels to Jacksonville, Payne still played less than 20 minutes a night and only averaged 4.8 points.

It’ll be interesting to see where the journeyman big fella ends up for the final year of his collegiate career.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

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.