Auburn wide receiver officially enters NCAA Transfer Portal

Auburn Tigers wide receiver Kobe Hudson has officially entered the NCAA Transfer Portal, On3 Sports has learned.

The receiver joined the Tigers in 2020 as a four-star recruit and the No. 21 receiver in the class according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He chose Auburn over offers from Alabama, Georgia, Michigan State and others.

Hudson played a limited role as a freshman, but took on more responsibility in 2021. He finished this season with 44 catches for 580 yards receiving and four touchdowns. That was good enough for the team lead, edging out Shedrick Jackson by less than 100 yards.

The Tigers finished 2021 with a 6-7 record in Bryan Harsin’s inaugural season. They earned a trip to the Birmingham Bowl, were they lost to Houston by score of 17-13. Hudson played in that game, recording four catches for 57 yards and the offense’s lone touchdown.

More on the Transfer Portal after Hudson enters

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.

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.