USC loses four-star running back to NCAA Transfer Portal

USC running back Kenan Christon has entered the NCAA transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz confirmed Tuesday night.

Formerly a four-star recruit, Christon was the No. 30 running back in the 2019 class, via the On3 Consensus, and the San Diego native was the No. 49 overall prospect in California. A two-sport athlete, Christon was both a running back on the football team and a sprinter on the track team — he was part of a Pac-12 Championship sprint relay quartet last season.

Christon entered USC in 2019 towards the end of the depth chart, since the Trojans had a crowded running back room, but as a freshman he managed 68 carries for 373 rushing yards and two touchdowns. He was again an infrequent contributor in 2020, racking up just 70 yards on 10 carries, and he did not play in 2021 due to suspension. In rather strange fashion, Christon “vanished from USC’s football team in early September,” the Los Angeles Times reports, after USC student affairs found him responsible for seven separate violations of the student code of conduct. No arrests were made, and the incident was reported to be a physical alteration with another male in which no charges were filed.

Christon finished his career with 443 rushing yards on 78 attempts, along with two rushing touchdowns. He added 13 receptions, 126 yards and three touchdowns to that total. Though he’s a junior, Christon still has two years of eligibility because of the COVID-19 blanket waiver (that is, assuming he is not granted another additional year after sitting out with a suspension).

For a full list of transfer portal entries, click here.

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.