Vanderbilt baseball transfer Parker Noland commits to South Carolina

South Carolina baseball has landed one of its top targets out of the transfer portal as Parker Noland of Vanderbilt has committed to the Gamecocks, according to On3’s Collyn Taylor.

Noland is joining the South Carolina program after spending four seasons at Vanderbilt. He started 61 of 62 games this past year, hitting .277 with nine home runs and 39 RBIs. Noland can play all over the infield for the Gamecocks.

As a junior in 2022, Noland started 39 of 62 games, hitting .274 with six home runs and 26 RBIs.

The Knoxville native was also a starter for the Commodores in 2021, hitting .260 with seven home runs and 43 RBIs, while starting 66 of 67 games.

Parker Noland is joining a South Carolina team that had an excellent year in 2023. The Gamecocks swept their way through the Columbia Regional, before falling to eventual national runner up Florida in a super regional. South Carolina returns plenty of talent for next season, including all-SEC performers Ethan Petry and Cole Messina.

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.