North Carolina transfer safety Dontavius Nash commits to East Carolina

Former North Carolina safety Dontavius Nash has announced he’s joining East Carolina via the NCAA Transfer Portal.

On Thursday afternoon, the former Tar Heels defender took to Twitter to share the news that he’s taking his talents to the Pirates.

COMMITED🏴‍☠️💛💜 @ECU_Coach_Weave @Coach_B_Harrell pic.twitter.com/fMgQIqbpwo

— Dee Nash (@DontaviusNash21) December 29, 2022

Moreover, Dontavius Nash was a four-star recruit in the Class of 2021 out of Hunter Huss (NC), per the On3 Consensus. The defensive back was the No. 282 recruit nationally, the No. 18 overall safety and the No. 18 recruit out of North Carolina.

While he was used sparingly over his time with the Tar Heels, Dontavius Nash will be looking to make a greater impact at East Carolina.

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.