Purdue WR Deion Burks a name to know in transfer portal for USC
Deion Burks has quickly become one of the most sought-after names in the transfer portal.
The Purdue wide receiver announced his intentions to enter college football’s free agency last week. Since then, the hype has only continued to build around the 5-foot-11, 195-pound redshirt sophomore.
Burks, being three years into his career, has the opportunity to enter the NFL Draft. But by entering the portal, he is giving himself the chance to see what else is available in college football. And he is a hot commodity on the open market.
“Just about everybody is after him,” a source told On3.
On3’s Pete Nakos wrote today that USC, Texas, Miami, Auburn, Utah, Washington and Oregon have all expressed interest and offered scholarships to Burks.
The Belleville, Michigan, native finished the season with 47 catches for 629 yards and seven touchdowns.
USC will looking to replace the production of Trojans wide receivers Brenden Rice and Tahj Washington (likely) as they move on to the NFL. There is plenty of young talent on the roster who Lincoln Riley will look to step up next year
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.
