Wisconsin officially adds wide receiver transfer from UCLA

Wide receiver Keontez Lewis is official with the Wisconsin Badgers, the school announced on Wednesday. Lewis, a former member of the 2021 recruiting class, originally signed with UCLA before deciding to enter the transfer portal.

Wisconsin is looking to spark their offense, with Lewis being a part of the plan. A new offensive coordinator has been brought into town as well, as Bobby Engram is leaving his role as the tight ends coach with the Baltimore Ravens for the Badgers.

According to the On3 transfer rankings, Lewis was the No. 56 wide receiver available in the portal. He is the second transfer the Badgers have taken from UCLA, with defensive back Jay Shaw heading to Madison as well.

Coming out of high school, Lewis was a four-star prospect according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services. He came out of East St. Louis High School and was the No. 9 player to come out of the state of Illinois.

Transfer portal information for Lewis, Wisconsin Badgers

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.