Two Notre Dame players enter transfer portal

Hours after an embarrassing loss to Oklahoma State in the Fiesta Bowl, Notre Dame got some additional bad news from two of its players.

Top punter Jay Bramblett and backup safety Paul Moala have entered the transfer portal, per Matt Zenitz of On3.

Bramblett is a native of Tuscaloosa, Ala. and was the No. 1 punter in the 2019 class according to On3. He entered 2021 on the Ray Guy Award Watch List, the honor given to the nation’s top punter. He averaged 44.1 yards per punt this year, which was 31st in the nation.

Moala did not play after Notre Dame’s first game this year after suffering a torn Achilles against Florida State. He was a third-string defensive back in that game and is from the South Bend area. In total over his career in South Bend, Moala played in 10 games with 22 tackles, a tackle for loss and a fumble recovery.

Moala’s decision comes just hours after defensive-minded head coach Marcus Freeman got a commitment from top 2023 safety Peyton Bowen.

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.