Oregon linebacker Jackson LaDuke enters transfer portal

One of Oregon’s highly-touted young linebackers could be set for a departure from the program.

Jackson LaDuke, a redshirt freshman inside linebacker, announced on Sunday that he will enter the transfer portal.

“Thank you Oregon football for the opportunity of a lifetime over the past three years. I am extremely grateful for all of my coaches, teammates, and the rest of the support staff.

“I especially want to thank the entire medical/training staff that helped me recover through two season-ending injuries.

“With that being said, I would like to announce that I will be entering the transfer portal with three years of eligibility remaining.”

🖤 🦆 pic.twitter.com/JIvmghmtSG

— Jackson LaDuke (@Jackson_laDuke) December 4, 2022

In three seasons at Oregon, LaDuke played in 17 games and recorded 19 tackles and one pass deflection.

He began the 2022 campaign in contention for significant playing time at linebacker but slowly saw his opportunities diminish as the season went on.

LaDuke played 20 snaps in the season-opener against Georgia and a season-high 31 in Oregon’s Week 3 win over BYU. But he did not see the field in Oregon’s key games against Washington and Oregon State and played just one defensive snap against Utah.

LaDuke, a former 3-star recruit according to the On3 Consensus, was the No. 474 overall prospect in the class of 2020 and the No. 47 linebacker.

He will have three years of eligibility remaining.

As of Sunday afternoon, LaDuke was the seventh Oregon scholarship player to declare his intention to enter the transfer portal.

Keep tabs on all of Oregon’s transfer portal additions and departures here.

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.