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Ohio State WR Carnell Tate Announces Transfer Portal Decision Amid Massive NIL Offer

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | Last updated Jan 24, 2025 7:15 PM ET

Over the past few days since the Ohio State Buckeyes won the national championship over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, players on the roster have been announcing their decisions about what they will do in the future.

Some are declaring for the draft, while some have announced that they will come back to Columbus for another year under Ryan Day. A few have ended up entering the transfer portal as well, looking for a new team to play for in 2025.

One of the players who was speculated to potentially enter the portal was wide receiver Carnell Tate. In his two seasons at Ohio State, Tate played in 28 games, catching 70 passes for 977 yards and 5 touchdowns. When you consider the fact that he has always had to battle with the likes of Emeka Egbuka, Jeremiah Smith, and Marvin Harrison Jr., it's not hard to believe that Tate could have a much bigger role on a different team.

Over the past 48 hours, reports have come out that other teams in the nation offered Tate NIL deals as big as $1 million to enter the transfer portal and join their team in 2025.

On Friday night, Tate finally made his decision.

Apparently that decision is to return to Columbus and play for the Buckeyes for one more season, at the very least.

According to On3's Steve Wiltfong and Pete Nakos, Tate has announced that he will be sticking with Ohio State for 2025 and passing up on the reported offers to enter the portal. This is a big with for the Buckeyes, who will now have another year of Tate and Jeremiah Smith together in the offense, which helps after Emeka Egbuka heads to the NFL.

In 2024, Tate caught 15 passes for 733 yards and four touchdowns.

One of the teams that was speculated to be after Tate was the Oregon Ducks, who have been major players in the transfer portal this year. While the Ducks have some real talent at the WR position in 2024 with guys like Evan Stewart, Jeremiah McClellan, Dakorien Moore, and Kyler Kasper, they are also losing establish vets like Tez Johnson and Traeshon Holden to the NFL.

There's nothing to confirm the idea that the Ducks were one of the teams that offered Tate a big NIL deal to enter the portal, but it wasn't hard to connect the dots, seeing as Tate's girlfriend plays soccer for the University of Oregon.]

In any case, Tate will be sticking with the Buckeyes for one more year before making a decision on the NFL draft a year from now.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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