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The transfer portal sorta closes today. Why that date doesn't really matter

wesby:Wes Mitchell•about 24 hours•

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LSU Transfer Portal Targets
LSU Transfer Portal Targets

The transfer portal sorta, kinda closes at the end of today (Dec. 28) but for South Carolina fans following this offseason’s movement, that date is largely inconsequential.

The only programs that date matters for are those that didn’t make a bowl game at all or that played in a bowl game before Dec. 24.

For every other team, the real date their fanbases should be paying attention to is the one five days after their team’s bowl game.

South Carolina Transfer Portal Resources:

With South Carolina playing in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl on Dec. 31, a five-day window will open for Gamecock players who wish to enter the portal, meaning the real date to watch is Jan. 5.

Any Carolina player who has not entered the portal when Jan. 5 turns to Jan. 6 can reasonably be expected to be on the roster at least through the spring semester, though there are a few other caveats.

The school does have a 48-hour leeway time to actually file the paperwork for the portal entry. Graduates are still allowed to enter the portal at any time. And there’s still a spring transfer window, albeit shortened to 10 days, that runs from April 16, 2025 to April 25, 2025.

But for the most part, the end of Jan. 5 is the date to watch for South Carolina. 

Since the regular season ended, the Gamecocks have put forth a huge effort to retain their current contributors who have eligibility left with superstars like LaNorris Sellers and Dylan Stewart locking in deals with Garnet Trust, the official South Carolina collective.

While the Gamecocks have had some players hit the portal, none of their main contributors have chosen to leave the team.

“We started a lot of our retention talks in the beginning of our first bye week,” South Carolina Director of Player Personnel Darren Uscher told GamecockCentral in early December. “So you sit down, have some conversations where you think things are with certain guys, you have a little bit better of an idea after the second bye week and you intensify some of those conversations. And then by the time it gets to the end of the season, you’re feeling pretty good about your roster and where they’re at and that way you can go fill and supplement your needs.”

The other reason Saturday’s date doesn’t matter much? Players who are in the portal already do not have a deadline for when they have to choose a new school. They only have to be in the portal by whatever deadline applies to their particular school.

So those hoping to see South Carolina continue to add more talent from the portal will surely get their way.

As of Thursday, there were 2,546 FBS players in the portal and that number will surely balloon even higher in the coming days as last-minute decisions are made and teams in the later bowl games enter their five-day window.

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