Texas A&M linebacker announces decision to transfer
Texas A&M sophomore linebacker Antonio Doyle is transferring out of the program, he announced in a tweet Thursday afternoon.
Doyle, a consensus top-150 recruit in the 2020 class, posted: “What an experience it has been—to be an Aggie & live my dream by playing for Coach Jimbo Fisher. But, as we say, each man must search his own soul… Thank you for having me AGGIELAND.”
As a freshman in 2020, Doyle played in all 10 of Texas A&M’s games, primarily on special teams. He expected to take on a bigger role this season and to some degree did. As a reserve linebacker, Doyle notched seven total tackles, including a career-high five in against New Mexico earlier this season.
The 6-foot-3, 235-pounder was an Army All-American in high school and chose the Aggies over offers from Missouri, Oklahoma, Illinois, Auburn and others. Antonio Doyle committed to Missouri from June to August 2019 before backing off of his pledge and committing to Texas A&M in December.
Doyle will have three years of eligibility remaining at his new school.
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 school no longer needs to honor the current scholarship.
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 is placed on the report. In those instances, the players do not want to be contacted by schools unless they have 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.