Former Oregon running back Byron Cardwell signs with Cal Golden Bears

Former Oregon running back Byron Cardwell has officially closed the book on his career in Eugene and has transferred to play for a direct Pac-12 rival.

On Wednesday, the University of California, Berkeley, announced that Cardwell has signed a National Letter of Intent to play for the Golden Bears.

Cardwell’s transfer was announced on the same day the Golden Bears received a commitment from former Clemson linebacker Sergio Allen.

Stacking up that RB room 👀@ByronCardwell2 is a Golden Bear!#GoBears pic.twitter.com/YB7kfSw17S

— Cal Football (@CalFootball) December 21, 2022

In 14 career games with the Ducks, Cardwell ran for 493 yards on 72 carries (6.8 yards-per-carry) and caught eight passes for 37 yards and one touchdown.

As a true freshman in 2021, Cardwell established himself as Oregon’s backup running back during the second half of the season after starter CJ Verdell went down with a season-ending injury.

He ran for 127 yards in Oregon’s win over Colorado last season, and 98 yards in a win over Washington State.

Cardwell was a preseason second-team all-conference selection entering the 2022 season but played just two games with the Ducks. His absence during Oregon’s final 11 games of the regular season seemed to indicate that he was headed for an exit from the program.

Though he dealt with a right leg injury early in the year, Cardwell was healthy and practicing for much of the year but did not figure into Oregon’s running back rotation. Instead, Bucky Irving and Noah Whittington established themselves as the Ducks’ primary ball carriers.

Prior to Oregon’s Week 8 showdown with UCLA, head coach Dan Lanning was asked about the circumstances of Cardwell’s continued absence.

“Byron is a guy that has worked extremely hard,” Lanning said on Oct. 17. “It’s about him feeling comfortable with himself to step back out there on the field. We support him in every way from a medical standpoint, our coaching staff. He’s a great kid. He does everything the right way.

“Once he feels like he can go out there and compete for us, we welcome him out there to be able to see him on the field for us.”

A former 4-star recruit, Cardwell was the No. 220 overall prospect and the No. 13 running back in the class of 2021.

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.