Kardell Thomas transferring from LSU as graduate transfer
LSU offensive lineman Kardell Thomas confirmed with On3 on Wednesday that he will be entering the NCAA Transfer Portal as a graduate transfer. The news was first reported by LSUOdyssey’s Lonn Phillips Sullivan.
Thomas, a Baton Rouge native, will have two years of eligibility remaining. Thomas played in four games in the 2022 season, including the Citrus Bowl win over Purdue.
In 2021, he played in a career high six games with two starts under his belt. The starts came against Louisiana-Monroe and Texas A&M, finishing the regular season with a win in Tiger Stadium.
In 2019, he suffered a preseason ankle injury that set him back. He watched the Tigers win a National Championship that season. In 2020, he played in one game, seeing action against South Carolina.
According to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies, Kardell Thomas was a Top 100 prospect in the 2019 recruiting class.
The Transfer Portal Windows
The NCAA Transfer Portal’s newest rules will allow 60 days per year for student-athletes to enter the portal and maintain immediate eligibility for first-time transfers. For fall sports like football, the window will be split into two periods.
The first, a 45-day period, began December 5. A second window will be instituted from May 1-15, giving players an option to enter the transfer portal after spring camp.
The first portal window will close on January 19.
The Transfer Portal Guidelines
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.
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.
