Former Texas A&M running back reverses course on transfer destination
Former Texas A&M running back Deondre Jackson announced on Tuesday that he is no longer planning to attend Nebraska – the program he announced he was transferring to in January. Jackson hit the transfer portal and found his new home quickly. However, academic issues kept him from enrolling at Nebraska in the spring and apparently the plan is officially off.
“No I will not be attending Nebraska anymore but thanks to all the fans for welcoming me!” Jackson tweeted.
Jackson, a 2020 signee with Texas A&M, has just three rushing attempts on his stat sheet so far through two seasons. It’s unclear what the 5-foot-11, 215-pound redshirt freshman plans to do now.
Coming out of Stephenson High in Stone Mountain, Georgia, Deondre Jackson was a three-star prospect, according to the On3 Consensus. Despite his ranking, the Georgia native had 21 D-I offers, including Auburn, Florida, and several more SEC programs.
Transfer portal booming post-spring practices
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 goes 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. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request.
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 However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship is no longer valid. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school does not have to reoffer a scholarship.
According to new data from the NCAA, not all of them found what they were looking for.
Only 54% of FBS transfers wound up enrolling at a new school, the NCAA said Monday. About 5% of portal entrants withdrew their names and 41% either stayed in, enrolled at a non-NCAA school or left their sport.