Former Missouri defensive lineman announces transfer destination

Former Missouri Tigers defensive lineman Antar Thompson has committed to Valdosta State, he announced on Twitter. The veteran Tigers defender recently entered the NCAA Transfer Portal before finishing out his collegiate eligibility.

A lot of people might not know but I am blessed to have received an scholarship offer from Valdosta a few weeks back and have been committed sense that’ day super excited to see what the future brings pic.twitter.com/jPO55KzD9v

— Antar Thompson (@tar_56_) February 19, 2022

A native of St. Louis, MO, Thompson took the long route to his hometown Missouri Tigers, opting to attend Highland Community College before his commitment. In 2018, Thompson’s first with Missouri, he appeared in just four games and made one tackle. Thompson began to contribute a bit more in 2019, his second season with Missouri, as he totaled four tackles (three solo stops) but still appeared in just four games.

Thompson prepped at Maplewood-Richmond Heights, where he blossomed into a four-star recruit, according to the On3 Consensus,  a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

More on transfer portal after Thompson leaves Missouri

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.