West Virginia star defensive player enters transfer portal

West Virginia Mountaineer star linebacker Josh Chandler-Semedo officially entered the transfer portal on Friday afternoon, per On3’s Matt Zenitz. He’s currently the No. 1 ranked linebacker prospect in the On3 2022 Linebacker Transfer Portal Prospect Rankings. Overall, he’s ranked as the No. 6 prospect in the On3 2022 Transfer Portal Prospect Rankings. The 5-foot-11, 215 pounder will surely have a long list of suitors.

He led the Mountaineers with 110 tackles last season and was an honorable mention All-Big 12 selection. He started the last three seasons for West Virginia, tallying 257 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, 1.5 sacks, three interceptions, and three forced fumbles during his career. Previously, he’d announced that he would return to the Mountaineers for another season in a message he posted on social media.

 “I have been blessed to have a great career at West Virginia, which has allowed me to be in a position to have an opportunity to play at the next level and pursue my dreams. I am extremely grateful for that.

However, there is still unfinished business. With that being said, I am returning to play my Senior year in pursuit of closing this chapter with one more country road!”

However, it appears, that Chandler-Semedo has changed his mind and he’ll be looking for a new college football home for next season. The news that he’s in the transfer portal is obviously, tough news for West Virginia fans to digest. The star linebacker announced the news himself in a social media post on Friday afternoon.

I have officially entered the transfer portal 🙏🏾

— Josh Chandler-Semedo (@jc_2018) February 25, 2022

It’s going to be fascinating to see where the gifted linebacker ends up. Former West Virginia cornerback Daryl Porter, Jr. recently just announced that he committed to the Miami Hurricanes.

For constant updates on where all the different college football prospects are going this off-season, keep it locked into the 2022 On3 Transfer Portal Wire.

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. 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.