USF safety Ray Thornton III plans to re-enter NCAA Transfer Portal

USF safety Ray Thornton III plans to re-enter the NCAA Transfer Portal, he announced on his Twitter page on Friday afternoon. Thornton made the announcement with a brief statement on his Twitter page. Before transferring to South Florida, Thornton spent his first two years of college football with the Clemson Tigers.

Check out his announcement below.

🙏🏾 pic.twitter.com/SfJA1HShC5

— R E X R A Y ⚔️ (@rexx_ray) April 21, 2023

He wrote, “When I started my college career I never thought of myself as a portal player! But with trying to find my way in a grown up world comes growth and maturity…At Clemson I was taught to find my purpose, At USF I tried to find my way! I would like to thank each and every coach that have coached me in any way on this journey…However this next chapter will be that of MATURITY, MENTAL COMPASSION AND GRIT! With that being said I will be entering my name in the transfer portal with 2 healthy years of eligibility left! LETS BE GREAT!”

During his three years of college football thus far, Thornton has racked up 30 total tackles. His best season came during the 2020 campaign with Clemson, when he tallied 17 tackles and a pass breakup in 158 snaps of work.

Per the announcement on his Twitter page, he’ll have two years of college eligibility remaining.

He played his high school football at Central High School (Phenix City, Alabama), the same high school that former Clemson star Justyn Ross attended. In the 2019 recruiting class, Thornton was rated as the No. 578 overall prospect in the country and a three-star recruit, according to the On3 Industry Rankings.

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

Thornton re-enters the portal and more 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.

Track transfer portal activity

While the NCAA transfer portal database is private, the On3 Network has streamlined the reporting process tracking player movement.

If you find yourself asking, ‘How can I track transfer portal activity?’ our well-established network of reporters and contacts across college athletics keeps you up to speed in several ways, from articles written about players as they enter and exit the transfer portal or find their new destination, to our social media channels, to the On3 Transfer Portal.

The transfer portal wire provides a real-time feed of player activity, including basic player profile information, transfer portal ranking and original On3 Industry Recruiting Rankings, as well as NIL valuation (name, image and likeness).

The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and senior national college football reporter Matt Zenitz’s Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.