Pair of Oregon Ducks named to On3's "preseason all-transfer portal" team

Few teams in all of college football saw a greater amount of transfer portal movement this offseason than the Oregon Ducks.

After a 10-3 finish during Dan Lanning’s first season in Eugene, the Ducks added 14 scholarship players via the portal while 30 former Oregon scholarship players opted to seek opportunities elsewhere.

According to On3’s Jesse Simonton, two of the Ducks’ transfer portal additions were among the most impactful in the nation.

Earlier this week, Simonton published his 2023 preseason all-transfer portal team. The 27-player squad features 11 offensive starters — plus one backup tailback — as well as a 3-4 defense with an extra defensive back, and a full group of specialists.

Oregon offensive tackle Ajani Cornelius and edge defender Jordan Burch each made the cut.

Cornelius, who began his career at Rhode Island, is projected to start at right tackle for the Ducks. Burch, a former 5-star signee who starred at South Carolina last season, is expected to be Oregon’s most productive pass-rusher in 2023.

Here’s the rundown from Simonton on each player.

OT Ajani Cornelius, Oregon

“An unranked prospect out of high school, Cornelius has skyrocketed up NFL Draft boards after starting at right tackle the last two seasons at Rhode Island. The 6-4, 315-pound was among the most coveted transfers as a premium position this offseason.”

DE Jordan Burch, Oregon

“The former 5-star recruit hasn’t quite ever lived up to his recruiting rankings, but the South Carolina transfer did have his best season to date in 2022, leading the Gamecocks with 4.0 sacks and 14 quarterback hurries. The 6-6, 280-pound lineman can play with his hand in the dirt or standing up as a hybrid edge lineman for Dan Lanning this fall.”

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.