Kentucky Wildcats freshman wide receiver Earnest Sanders IV enters transfer portal

Kentucky Wildcats freshman wide receiver Earnest Sanders IV has elected to move on from the team and has entered the transfer portal. According to On3’s Matt Zenitz, the freshman from Mount Morris, MI, announced his decision to enter the portal on Friday. Sanders himself confirmed the move with a post on his social media account.

“Thank you Kentucky. All love this way thank you for taking a chance on me!” wrote Sanders via Twitter.

The 6-foot-1 receiver is a two-time all-state selection from Michigan. Sanders was a three-star recruit in the 2020 class. He was the No. 96 receiver in his class and the No. 17 player to come out of the state of Michigan. Sanders picked the Wildcats over the Michigan State Spartans, where his father played back in the mid-1990s from 93 to 95.

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.