Kentucky wide receiver Clevan Thomas enters NCAA Transfer Portal

The Kentucky Wildcats just lost some offensive depth on the football field, as veteran wide receiver Clevan Thomas has opted to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. On3’s Matt Zenitz first reported the news on Friday afternoon.

Thomas began his collegiate career in 2017, and he has 16 receptions for 169 yards and one touchdown in his four years of action on the field.

Unfortunately for Thomas, his 2021 season ended after he suffered a torn ACL during spring ball. He did not return during the year, and is now looking for a fresh start as he enters the transfer portal and leaves Kentucky.

Thomas is a former three-star receiver in the 2017 class out of Florida, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average.

Now, Thomas enters the transfer portal and joins a few other talented receivers that are still looking for new homes.

Transfer portal background information for Kentucky

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.