Former LSU, Gonzaga center Efton Reid commits to Wake Forest

Former LSU and Gonzaga center Efton Reid now has a new college home after he previously enter the Transfer Portal. On Thursday afternoon, On3’s Jamie Shaw reported that Reid has committed to Wake Forest for the 2023-24 season.

Reid started every game as a true freshman at LSU after he came out of high school as a top-30 recruit by the On3 Industry Rankings. After starting as a rookie and anchoring a really solid 2022 team, head coach Will Wade was fired and Reid eventually hit the portal, where he landed at Gonzaga.

Frankly, that was never the right fit for him and he now lands a sort of transfer haven. Since taking over the Demon Deacon job, head coach Steve Forbes has toyed with the NCAA Tournament but never broke through to make it. However, he’s had a knack for flipping less heralded transfers into Wake Forest stars.

Take Alondes Williams for example, who went from six points a game at Oklahoma to an 18-6-5 points-rebounds-assists stat-line. Then, this past year, he helped Tyree Appleby jump from 10 points per game with Florida to lead the ACC in 2023 with 18.8 points per night.

After those improvements, with Sallis and Reid, you now should expect something similar. A good move for Reid here.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire.

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.