San Diego State transfer Patrick McMorris commits to California Golden Bears

San Diego State safety Patrick McMorris entered the transfer portal on Saturday afternoon in search of a new home across the college football landscape. It didn’t take him very long at all to find a new one. Only hours after entering the portal, McMorris committed to the California Golden Bears on Saturday evening, he announced on his Twitter page.

The gifted corner back was one of the most coveted prospects in the transfer portal. He was named the 2022 Mountain West Co-Defensive Player of the Year.

Check out his announcement below.

🐻🔵🟡 pic.twitter.com/b1YDet4Rmb

— Patrick McMorris (@McmorrisPatrick) April 16, 2023

McMorris has been a productive player for the Aztecs for the last four years, recording 162 tackles, 6.5 tackles for a loss, five interceptions, two fumble recoveries and 20 passes defended.

In fact, even prior to the 2022 season beginning On3 had named McMorris as one of seven non-Power 5 defenders with strong NFL Draft grades.

Wrote On3’s Matt Zenitz, at the time:

“After serving as a backup in his first two seasons at San Diego State, Patrick McMorris was a 2021 first-team All-Mountain West selection in his first year as a starter. McMorris (6-0, 210) led the Aztecs’ No. 12-ranked defense with 90 tackles and four interceptions. Feedback gathered by On3 on McMorris has been in the mid-Day 3 range.”

McMorris has now significantly outplayed his ranking out of high school, when he was not a highly sought-after prospect.

He was ranked a three-star prospect and the No. 2,598 overall recruit in the country in the 2019 recruiting class, according to the On3 Industry Rankings. He was the No. 251 ranked cornerback in his class and the No. 240 overall player from California, hailing from Santa Ana (Calif.) Santa Ana.

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.

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, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Industry Recruiting Rankings, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and senior national college football reporter Matt Zenitz’s Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

On3 Staff Reports and On3’s Matt Zenitz also contributed to this article.