Auburn cornerback AD Diamond announces intention to enter transfer portal
Another Auburn player is planning to enter the transfer portal. Tigers cornerback A.D. Diamond announced his decision Wednesday, just a few hours after Bryan Harsin said Diamond is no longer with the program.
Diamond made the announcement via Twitter Wednesday night, saying he’ll enter his name into the portal once the window opens Dec. 5. Harsin told reporters Diamond is “no longer on the team” on the SEC coaches teleconference Wednesday afternoon, and now he’s planning to hit the portal.
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“First I would like to thank God for blessing me in ways beyond imaginable,” Diamond wrote. “Next, I want to thank the coaches that gave me a chance to fulfill my dream of competing at the highest level. I have made many lifelong friendships in my time here at Auburn. I will miss playing with this group of guys, though many of our best memories came off the field. I will cherish the moments I’ve had at Auburn forever.
“To the current staff, I love who love me. With that being said I will be entering the transfer portal in December. Thank you to everyone who believed in me.”
Diamond arrived on The Plains last year as a three-star recruit and the No. 37 recruit in the state of Alabama from the class of 2021, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He redshirted last season and didn’t register any stats this year.
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Diamond is the latest Auburn player to announce his plans to enter the portal. Earlier Wednesday, wide receiver Tar’Varish Dawson announced his plans to transfer, and tight end Landen King did the same on Tuesday.
In August, the NCAA voted to adopt transfer portal windows, meaning players can’t enter until those dates. For football, that date is Dec. 5 because that’s the day after conference championships, and players have 45 days to enter the portal after that. If they don’t by then, they’ll have to wait until May 1.
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.