Oklahoma edge rusher will enter transfer portal

Oklahoma edge rusher Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge announced Saturday afternoon that he plans to enter the transfer portal and explore his options elsewhere this offseason. The four-star recruit and Oregon native spent just one season with the Sooners under Lincoln Riley before he departed for USC.

Stay up to date on the latest news with On3’s Transfer Portal Wire.

Nathan Rawlins-Kibonge has not officially entered the transfer portal at this time, but made his intentions clear on social media.

“My experience at Oklahoma has truly been once in a life time I will miss the lifelong friends I’ve made,” Rawlins-Kibonge said on Twitter. “But with that being said, I’m going to enter the transfer portal. Who knows what life has instore for me.”

See the top available prospects with On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings.

After arriving as a mid-year enrollee, he did not appear in any games during the 2021 season. However, the four-star recruit ranked No. 286 overall player in the On3 Consensus. He also ranked as the No. 26 edge rusher and the No. 2 player in his home state of Oregon.

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.

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.