Wisconsin loses starting defensive back to transfer portal

Wisconsin cornerback Donte Burton has entered the transfer portal, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. The 5-foot-10 junior started five games for the Badgers over his first two seasons.

Burton is a former three-star recruit from Loganville, Georgia. He chose Wisconsin over Notre Dame, Indiana and others.

Over his career he appeared in 23 games, making 22 tackles with five pass breakups. Burton recorded his first career interception on Sept. 11, against Eastern Michigan. Despite the uptick in production throughout the 2020 season, he fell out of favor this year. After playing a limited roll for Wisconsin over the first seven games, the cornerback decided to enter the transfer portal.

Sophomore fullback Quan Easterling also entered the transfer portal Thursday, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz. The former three-star recruit played in two games for the Badgers, including one in 2019.

Check out On3’s full list of transfer portal entries here.

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. 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. 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 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.