Auburn players Ze'Vian Capers, Tar'Varish Dawson, Landen King officially enter NCAA transfer portal

On3 imageby:Nick Schultz11/01/22

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In the wake of Auburn’s decision to fire Bryan Harsin, multiple players are on their way into the transfer portal. Three players entered their names into the portal Tuesday afternoon, On3’s Matt Zenitz has learned.

Wide receivers Ze’Vian Capers, Tar’Varish Dawson and Landen King officially entered the portal after previously announcing their intentions to do so. They originally had to wait until Dec. 5 to enter, according to new NCAA rules, but they can enter immediately now that Auburn decided to make a coaching change.

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None of the three saw much action this year under Harsin as Auburn went 3-5 through eight games. Dawson had two receptions for 30 yards this year while King had one catch for 24 yards and Capers had one reception for 16 yards.

Check out the On3 Transfer Portal Rankings.

Auburn announced its decision to fire Harsin on Monday after two tumultuous years on The Plains. The Tigers named Carnell “Cadillac” Williams as the interim head coach and are now embarking on a full search for Harsin’s replacement, led by new athletic director Jeff Cohen.

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.