Michigan State wide receiver Antonio Gates Jr., the son of the former NFL star, has entered the college football transfer portal, per 247Sports’ Chris Hummer. Gates played in all 12 games and caught five passes for 82 yards and a touchdown last season as a redshirt freshman and is a former four-star signee for the Spartans.
Michigan State’s had a few transfer portal departures since the hiring of former Oregon State coach Jonathan Smith as its new leader on the sideline after Mel Tucker was fired last fall amid accusations of harassment. Gates’ bio was removed Monday from Michigan State’s football roster database.
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The portal is an online database that players will enter their name into if they decide to pursue a transfer. Players notify their current school’s compliance office that they wish to put their name into the portal — typically, players’ names show up within 48 hours. Coaches have access to the database and can contact any player who has entered.
When will the transfer portal open?
Technically, players can enter the transfer portal at any time. But unless they do so within their sport’s official “windows,” they will have to sit out one season.
College football has two windows: one following the regular season and one following spring practice. The fall portal window first opened Dec. 3, one day after conference championship games and remained open for 30 days, closing at the end of the day on Jan. 2, 2024. Players who compete in a postseason contest (the CFB Playoff or a bowl game) were given an additional five-day window to transfer after their final contest.
Prior to this school year, players had 45 days to enter their name in the portal following the end of the regular season. The NCAA amended that rule this fall, cutting down the window to 30 days. The other portal window occurs during the spring and opened last week. It will remain open through the end of April.
Is a player forced to leave his school after entering the portal?
No. In fact, players sometimes withdraw their names from the portal and end up staying with their respective programs.
Often times, however, the decision to enter the portal comes with some amount of displeasure on either the player’s side or the program’s side. Most players who enter the portal do not return to their previous school, and they’re often removed from the team immediately upon entering.
