FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Whoever Arkansas athletics director Hunter Yurachek chooses to replace Eric Musselman, he’s going to have to round up a lot of players in record time. Oh, and do it without the leading scorer from last season coming back because he apparently wanted to get as far away from the Razorbacks’ disintegrating program as fast as possible.
They are literally down to one scholarship player on the roster, a walk-on and a committe freshman with no idea if he’s going to come here or not. Tramon Mark put his name in the transfer portal on Sunday:
Trevon Brazile is the only returning player and that’s only as good as Sunday night.
Mark is the ninth Arkansas player to enter the portal this season, joining Joseph Pinion, Denijay Harris, Keyon Menifield, Davonte “Devo” Davis, Layden Blocker, Khalif Battle, Baye Fall and walk-on Cade Arbogast. Incoming freshman Jalen Shelley was released from his national letter of intent. Five players exhausted their eligibility. Arkansas has 11 open scholarships for the next coach to fill.
Transfer portal opened on March 18 and will remain open until Wednesday, May 1
Anytime during that window, a player can submit paperwork to their current school to request a transfer and within 48-hours of receiving the paperwork, a player must be submitted into the NCAA Portal database.
Before the window opens on March 18th and after the window closes on May 1st, players who have earned enough credits to graduate are able to enter the portal at any time, listed as a “Grad Transfer”.
Simultaneously, with any coaching movement – whether a head coach is fired or gets another job – players of that team are also given a 30-day window in which they can enter the portal which is not bound to the March 18th-May 1st window.
When a player has officially entered the portal, other schools are permitted to contact the player and begin the recruiting process.
There is also a new rule this off-season that will have major ramifications on the transfer market.
In recent years, players were given a one-time transfer waiver and if transferring for a second time, a waiver had to be granted to be immediately eligible by the NCAA. For the transfers this spring, transfers are expected to be immediately eligible for the 2024-25 season according to a recent memo by the NCAA.
