Oregon's Sedona Prince announces transfer to TCU

Former Oregon star Sedona Prince isn’t closing the book on her college career quite yet.

Approximately six months ago, Prince announced that she would undergo season-ending elbow surgery and forgo her senior year with the Ducks. At the time, her plan was to pursue a professional basketball career.

But earlier this week, Prince entered the transfer portal and seemingly indicated that was open to using her final season of eligibility at the college level.

On Saturday, the 6-foot-7 forward announced that she has committed to transfer to TCU, where she will reunite with former Oregon assistant coach Mark Campbell.

In three seasons at Oregon, Prince played 50 games and started 28. She averaged 9.5 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.4 blocks per game while shooting 54% from the field.

When she announced her decision to undergo season-ending surgery back in October, Oregon coach Kelly Graves issued a heartfelt farewell to Prince.

“We are going to miss Sedona,” Graves said in a press release. “She has done so many wonderful things and has been an incredible representative of our program and the University. Her impact on collegiate athletics, especially in the area of gender equity, has been immense and will be felt for generations to come. I wish her only the best in all of her future endeavors. I cannot wait to see the ways she will continue to positively impact and change our world. Once a Duck, always a Duck.”

The 6-foot-7 fifth-year senior began her career at Texas and missed her freshman season due to injury. She then transferred to Oregon but was forced to sit out the 2019-20 season after being denied immediate eligibility by the NCAA.

In addition to being a key contributor for the Ducks, Prince has established herself as one of the more well-known college athletes in the nation due to her work off the court. She has built a massive social media following due in part to her work as an advocate for gender equality in college athletics.

Prince is one of three Oregon players to enter the transfer portal this off-season.

All-conference senior guard Endyia Rogers, the Ducks’ leading scorer last season, opted to do so on Saturday. Oregon’s other all-conference guard, Te-Hina Paopao, entered the portal earlier this week.

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.