Let me add some insight on a few things...and I apologize for the length of the reply, too many words, etc.
Fields - his sister will attend Georgia to play softball and that family has been all Georgia FOREVER. His transfer is strictly playing time related and the racism cry is just an excuse.
Rising and Thompson (and possibly Overshown) - welcome to a new generation of athlete and kid. This portal stuff will be the worst thing to happen to college athletics in a long time. Some will call it entitled, and to a degree it is, but this generation of kids is used to instant gratification, in all facets of life. Patience is a word that does not exist in this generations vocabulary.
The Portal - I have pretty intimate knowledge with it and how it works. I can tell you that currently, in one small female NCAA D1 sport, there are 160ish players on the portal, today. That is for a non-revenue, no life after college, female sport. I can't imagine what Football, Basketball and Baseball look like. Here are some facts on how the portal works:
A student-athlete does NOT have to inform their coach of an intent to transfer. They can walk into the compliance office and request to be put on the portal. Once that request is made, the compliance office has 48 hours to put the student-athletes name on the portal.
Once the student-athlete requests to be put into the portal, all contact from any sport coach to that athlete is cut-off. So in this case, no football coach can contact Rising or Thompson directly. That athlete can contact coaches, that is ok, and a coach can request a meeting with the student-athlete but it has to be done through the compliance office and a compliance office official must be present during the meeting. This is assuming the player went in without telling the coach. If the coach was notified prior, the student-athlete can waive the no contact rule.
Once on the portal, a student-athlete can be contacted by any coach in the country...it's free reign. And every coach has access to the portal.
Yes, a student-athlete can start taking visits, including official ones, if they have any remaining from their original recruitment. Remember, you only get 5 paid official visits.
Student-athletes on the portal are not required to sit out a year automatically. The conference transfer rules will be applied to the student-athlete...coaches may NOT individualized transfer rules to be applied to individual student-athletes.
Once a student-athlete enters the portal, their future financial aid cutoff. So, if you do it before the beginning of the spring semester, you will not be on scholarship in the spring. So essentially Rising and Thompson have forfeited their scholarships for the spring. Also, your access to athletic facilities, trainers, etc. is immediately terminated. The coach from the sport can ask for that sanction to be waived - so if Rising and Thompson went to Herman and gave him a heads up, and he's ok with it, he can tell compliance that he would still like for them to have access to athletic facilities and such. This is how they can be currently practicing with the team while on the portal.
Athletes on the portal do not fall under the same recruiting guidelines as first time recruits when it comes to contact period, dead period, quiet period, signing period, etc. They can be contacted any time after their name shows up on the portal.
Football is the only sport that has a set game number to determine a redshirt. All other sports operate as any participation constitutes using a year of eligibility. If you're going to redshirt in non-Football sports it has to be declared before the season begins. The shirt can be pulled at any time, but one can not be applied after the start of the season.
Hope this helps give a little bit of clarity on how this thing works. I have no idea how this thing came about, but it really is an awful thing to have right now. I know that several sports have already proposed legislation to change the portal drastically, or to get rid of it all together. But those things only happen every two years, so this will be the model for at least two years.