Former Oregon pitcher Makenna Kliethermes commits to Ole Miss
Former Oregon softball star Makenna Kliethermes has found her next career stop.
Kliethermes, who was one of Oregon’s top pitchers last season, announced on Monday that she has committed to Ole Miss. She has two years of eligibility remaining.
During the 2021 season, Kliethermes was second among Oregon pitchers with a 3.65 ERA and 116 strikeouts in 117 innings. She finished the year with an 11-7 record in 32 appearances, 16 of which were starts.
She entered the transfer portal last month.
Kliethermes isn’t the only Oregon pitcher on the move. Last week, Ducks’ All-American Brooke Yanez entered the transfer portal. On Monday, Yanez issued a farewell to the University of Oregon via her Instagram account.
Oregon third baseman Rachel Cid and outfielder Gabby Herrera have also entered the transfer portal since the season ended.
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.
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.
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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 came 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.
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.
