Former Virginia linebacker commits to LSU transfer

A former Virginia linebacker committed to transferring to LSU on Saturday, giving the Tigers a young player that played 11 games as a true freshman. West Weeks committed to LSU via an announcement on Twitter shortly after an official visit to the campus.

Thankful! Let’s Work!! #GeauxTigers 🐯 pic.twitter.com/iI5eYtveNU

— west.weeks (@weeks_west) January 15, 2022

LSU gets former Virginia linebacker

“Thankful! Let’s work! #GeauxTigers,” read Weeks’ official announcment.

The 6-2, 220-pound linebacker made an immediate contribution for the Cavaliers as a true freshman. Appearing in 11 games, Weeks recorded 31 tackles, one tackle for a loss, a sack and five passes defended.

A native of Georgia, Weeks attended the same high school as former LSU quarterback Max Johnson and Jake Johnson. In the year after Johnson joined LSU, Weeks helped lead Oconee County to the Class AAA semifinals. In his 2020 senior season, he had 91 total tackles, a forced fumble and one interception.

Weeks chose LSU over South Carolina, having visited both campuses ahead of his decision. Weeks will now be a member of the new-look LSU Tigers as they prepare for head coach Brian Kelly’s first year at the helm.

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.