Former Florida defensive lineman Chris Thomas enters transfer portal

Another Florida player cut by new head coach Billy Napier, Chris Thomas, has entered the NCAA Transfer Portal. Thomas was one of the recent players cut by Napier as they trim down their total scholarship number entering fall.

Chris Thomas enters transfer portal

“Another one of the players cut by Florida is now in the portal, Chris Thomas,” explained On3 Sports’ Matt Zenitz on Monday. Thomas was a former four-star recruit in the 2021 recruiting class, according to the On3 Consensus Rankings. Thomas played limited time for the Gators last year, appearing in just a handful of games.

Prior to joining the Gators, Thomoas played in 22 games during his high school career — amassing 193 tackles, 57 tackles for a loss, 16 sacks, three forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries. As a senior, he only appeared in five games but recorded 97 tackles, 32 for a loss and nine sacks over the five games.

More on the NCAA Transfer Portal

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.