All-American linebacker enters college football transfer portal

One of the more productive defensive players from the Group of Five will enter his name into the college football transfer portal ahead of the 2026 season.

New Mexico State linebacker Tyler Martinez plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal and search for a new school ahead of the 2026 football season, the player’s representatives told 247Sports.

Martinez has been a consistent producer on the defensive side of the field over the last several seasons, recording 145 combined tackles while adding 3.5 tackles for loss and intercepting one pass over 16 games in the last two-plus years.

The linebacker was named a preseason Group of Five All-American selection prior to the 2025 season, but was slowed by a high ankle sprain injury in late September that prevented him from playing the rest of the year, and redshirted instead.

One of the Aggies’ single-best defensive players, Martinez was an All-Conference USA player last season, leading the team with 96 stops, and had double-digit tackles in three games, including a personal-best 12 each in games against New Mexico and Louisiana Tech.

How the college football transfer portal works

College football’s transfer portal officially opens on Jan. 2, but that hasn’t stopped a flurry of players from entering their names for consideration at a new school right now.

The new 15-day transfer portal window from Jan. 2-16 and the elimination of the spring transfer period has condensed the timeline for players and programs to make their moves.

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office.

Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him.

And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.

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