Former Oregon big man Kel’el Ware cancels visit to Alabama

Former Oregon big man Kel’el Ware is looking for a new home after entering the NCAA Transfer Portal in March. One of the teams on the former Ducks’ list to visit is the SEC champs Alabama. The former five-star recruit was scheduled to have an official visit with the Crimson Tide to see if the two sides fit together, but that plan has been put on ice. According to On3’s Joe Tipton, the trip has been canceled.

Ware didn’t have an amazing freshman campaign, but it’s rare a player of that recruiting pedigree hits the open market. Heading to Alabama could do wonders for his career, given the Crimson Tides’ recent success developing bigs. Alabama’s head coach Nate Oats has been instrumental in turning the program into a powerhouse in the SEC, and he’s done it with talented bigs similar to Ware, such as likely top-three pick in the 2023 NBA Draft Brandon Miller.

Ware is definitely a portal gem in the eyes of the almighty On3 Transfer Portal Rankings, which rate the former Duck as the No. 2 center in the portal and the No. 7 overall player — and folks, that’s among roughly 1,4000 players and counting. He’d be a heck of a get for Alabama or any school that’s able to land him.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

Transfer portal background information

The NCAA Transfer Portal, which covers every NCAA sport at the Division I, II and III levels, is a private database with names of student-athletes who wish to transfer. It is not accessible to the public.

The process of entering the portal is done through a school’s compliance office. Once a player provides written notification of an intent to transfer, the office enters the player’s name in the database and everything is off and running. The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player’s request and that request cannot be refused.

Once a player’s name shows up in the portal, other schools can contact the player. Players can change their minds at any point and withdraw from the portal. However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship no longer has to be honored. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school is not obligated to provide a scholarship anymore.

The database is a normal database, sortable by a variety of topics, including (of course) sport and name. A player’s individual entry includes basic details such as contact info, whether the player was on scholarship and whether the player is transferring as a graduate student.

A player can ask that a “do not contact” tag be placed on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want to be contacted by schools unless they’ve initiated the communication.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.