Virginia Tech quarterback Braxton Burmeister enters transfer portal

Virginia Tech quarterback Braxton Burmeister has entered the transfer portal, On3’s Matt Zenitz confirmed. With the move, he is set to play for his third school in the past six seasons.

Burmeister was not at practice on Saturday with his teammates and will not play in the Pinstripe Bowl.

Burmeister originally committed to Oregon in 2017 as the No. 28 quarterback in the class according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He transferred to the Hokies in 2019.

The California native started four games for Virginia Tech in 2020 before taking over as the full-time starter this season. He finished this year with 1,960 yards passing and 14 touchdowns. He added 521 yards and two more scores on the ground.

The Hokies finished the 2020 season with a 6-6 record, earning a trip to the Pinstripe Bowl against Maryland. Virginia Tech parted ways with coach Justin Fuente with two games remaining. It’s possible that may have contributed to Braxton Burmeister’s decision to enter the transfer portal.

Virginia Tech hired Penn State defensive coordinator Brent Pry and Fuente’s replacement.

The move leaves Connor Blumrick and true freshman Tahj Bullock as the only two available scholarship quarterbacks for the bowl matchup against Maryland. Backup quarterback Knox Kadum entered the transfer portal on Dec. 1.

Transfer portal background information for Braxton Burmeister

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.