Kentucky defensive back entering transfer portal

As they look to improve upon a successful season, Kentucky will have to do so without a piece of their secondary. According to On3’s Matt Zenitz, defensive back Cedrick Dort is entering the transfer portal.

“Kentucky defensive back Cedrick Dort has entered the transfer portal, On3 has learned,” tweeted Zenitz. “A former starter for the Wildcats who had 14 tackles this season.”

Since 2017, Dort has been a member of the Wildcats. However, it looks like the defensive back wants a change of scenery. Throughout his four seasons with Kentucky, Dort accumulated 51 tackles, seven pass defenses and one forced fumble. He’s still looking for his first interception.

A former three-star recruit out of Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, Dort visited the Cincinnati before deciding to attend Kentucky. Time will tell where the next steps of Cedrick Dort‘s career are taken.

More on Cedrick Dort, 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.

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.