Texas A&M punter Alan Guerrieri announces plans to enter transfer portal

Wade-Peeryby:Wade Peery10/26/22

Texas A&M punter Alan Guerrieri announced his plans to enter the transfer portal on Wednesday, he wrote on his Twitter page. The junior did not see any action during his time in College Station, so he’ll likely search for a school that will offer him more playing time.

Below is the brief post he put on his Twitter profile.

He wrote in his post: “After 4 years at Texas A&M, I have decided to enter my name in the NCAA transfer portal as a grad transfer with two years of eligibility. I’m extremely grateful for the lessons learned in my time here and will always call this home. With that being said, I am looking for a new opportunity. Proverbs 3:5-6,” Guerrieri wrote.

He was buried on the depth chart behind punter Nik Constantinou and kicker Randy Bond, so it’s pretty clear playing time was a driving force in him hitting the portal. Guerrieri is a native of College Station and like his announcement above noted, he’ll have two years of eligibility left. When he was a high school prospect, he impressed at the Kohl’s Future Stars Event in January of 2018. The Texas native kicked multiple punts of more than 50-plus yards. He also drilled six of eight field goal attempts at the camp.

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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.