Florida center Jason Jitoboh enters NCAA transfer portal

Florida center Jason Jitoboh entered the NCAA transfer portal, according to On3’s Jamie Shaw.

Jitoboh played four seasons at Florida but averaged 8.8 minutes per game during his career with the Gators. He averaged 4.1 points per game in 2021-22, a career high.

As a member of the Class of 2010, Jitoboh was a three-star recruit out of Chattanooga (Tenn.) Hamilton Heights Christian Academy, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 7 overall prospect in the state, the No. 33 center in the class and the No. 202 overall prospect in the class.

Florida had an up and down season under first-year man Todd Golden. The team finished 16-17 on the year with an NIT appearance.

At one point, Florida was 13-9 on the year and looked like it could make a run for the NCAA Tournament. However, the Gators went 1-6 over their next seven games but won their final two games to grab the No. 8 seed in the SEC Tournament

However, an overtime loss to Missouri bounced them from the conference tournament. Florida then lost to UCF in the first round of NIT.

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.