Ohio State defensive back Lejond Cavazos enters the transfer portal

According to Matt Zenitz of On3, Ohio State Buckeyes defensive back Lejond Cavazos has entered the NCAA transfer portal. Spending the past two seasons with head coach Ryan Day, Cavazos will be looking for more playing time going forward.

Cavazos played in 12 games during his time in Columbus, with 11 of them coming during the 2021 season. The defensive back was not able to gain a start but contributed eight tackles throughout the year. He also defended two passes, with one coming against the Minnesota Golden Gophers and Michigan State Spartans.

Coming out of high school, Cavazos was a four-star prospect according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting services. He ranked as the No. 362 overall player in the 2020 recruiting class and No. 55 within his home state of Florida after attending IMG Academy.

Now, Cavazos enters the transfer portal seeking a new home. Five other programs were considered finalists for the defensive back, with the Florida Gators, Georgia Bulldogs, LSU Tigers, Miami Hurricanes, and Oregon Ducks falling short of Cavazos’ original commitment.

Transfer portal background information for Cavazos, Ohio State Buckeyes

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.