Alabama linebacker enters transfer portal

On3 imageby:Wade Peery01/13/22

Alabama junior linebacker Shane Lee has entered the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned. In 2019, Lee led all SEC freshmen in tackles with 86 stops. He was named to multiple freshman All-America teams.

The junior linebacker was limited during the season as he worked his way back from injuries. In the very limited game action that he saw in 2021, he had six tackles for the Crimson Tide.

A former four-star recruit coming out of St. Frances Academy (Burtonsville, Maryland), Lee will now be searching for a new home across the college football landscape. Coming out of high school, he chose the Crimson Tide over offers from LSU, Michigan, Clemson, Penn State, and many others.

Lee joins former Alabama linebacker Jaylen Moody in entering the transfer portal on Thursday afternoon.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal

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.