Former Oregon receiver Dont'e Thornton commits to transfer to Tennessee
One of Oregon’s former highly-touted receivers is headed to the SEC.
On Monday, former Ducks’ wideout Dont’e Thornton announced on Twitter that has committed to transfer to Tennessee.
Thornton entered the transfer portal on Nov. 28.
Thornton, a former 4-star signee in the class of 2020, played in 11 games for the Ducks in 2022 and caught 17 passes for 366 yards and two touchdowns.
He saw an increased role in recent weeks with starter Chase Cota injured and had his most productive game of the season in Oregon’s win over Utah when he caught four passes for 151 yards and a touchdown.
Thornton is one of two Oregon receivers that have opted to leave the program this season. Sophomore Seven McGee did so in October.
The Ducks have since bolstered their receiver depth by adding former Alabama standout Traeshon Holden via the transfer portal. They also landed a commitment from Tez Johnson, the adopted brother of Bo Nix. Johnson was Troy’s leading receiver last season.
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.
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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.
