Virginia Tech offensive lineman Bryce Goodner announces he's entering NCAA Transfer Portal

Virginia Tech has taken a hit on its offensive line, as Bryce Goodner has announced that he is entering the NCAA Transfer Portal. Goodner took to Twitter to share the news of his decision.

“I am incredibly thankful for the teammates and coaches that I’ve had and been around at Virginia Tech,” he said. “I’ll forever remember all the good times and lessons I’ve learned here. I want to thank Kyle Chung, Coach Vice, Coach Fuente, Coach Rudolph, Coach Price, and Coach Pry for really taking me in and letting me be part of the program. I’m thankful for all the coaching I’ve gotten from them as well, I think I’ve become a better young man because of it.

“I’ve decided to enter my name into the transfer portal with 4 years of eligibility left as a 6’3 300 pound OL. Very excited to begin this new chapter of my life and I know God has a good plan for me.”

I’d like to thank God, my family, my friends, and my coaches for supporting me. Having said that, I’d like to announce that I’ll be entering the transfer portal pic.twitter.com/AScSK6WQSr

— Bryce Goodner (@BryceGoodnerOL) April 29, 2022

Goodner is a former three-star recruit, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average.

Transfer portal background information for Virginia Tech

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.