Gamecocks EDGE entering NCAA transfer portal
Another starter from the 2022 South Carolina Gamecocks football team is departing the program and entering his name into the NCAA transfer portal.
EDGE Jordan Burch hit the portal on Thursday, first reported by On3’s Matt Zenitz.
The 6-foot-6, 275-pounder emerged as a starter at his position in 2022 after sitting behind entrenched starters in 2020 and 2021. He put together his best season as a junior this season, racking up 56 tackles, 7.5 tackles for loss, and 3.5 sacks.
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Out of high school, Burch was given the “Five Star Plus” designation by the On3 Consensus, meaning he was ranked as a five-star prospect by all four major recruiting services.
The On3 Consensus ranked the Columbia (South Carolina) Hammond School product as the number one EDGE prospect nationally, the top prospect in the state of South Carolina, and as the nation’s number 11 prospect overall in the 2020 class.
South Carolina won a major recruiting battle in that cycle for Burch’s services, beating out Clemson, Georgia, LSU, and numerous others.
As a sophomore in 2021, Burch played in all 13 games and made his first career start against North Carolina in the Duke’s Mayo Bowl. He accumulated 26 tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss, and a sack.
As a true freshman in 2020, Burch played in USC’s former defensive scheme at the BUCK position and saw action in 8 games. He had 19 tackles and 2.5 tackles for loss.
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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.
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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 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.
