Virginia Tech wide receiver Kaleb Smith announces plans to enter NCAA transfer portal
Virginia Tech wide receiver Kaleb Smith announced his intent to enter the NCAA transfer portal on Monday.
Smith will have one year of eligibility remaining after contributing for the Hokies for four seasons. In 2022, he posted 37 catches for 674 yards and three touchdowns.
In 2021, the 6-foot-2, 215-pound wideout had 20 catches for 260 yards and two touchdowns. A former walk-on, Smith earned a scholarship after playing in 11 games with five starts in 2019.
Smith was a three-star prospect coming out of high school, according to the On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He attended Patrick Henry High School before transferring to Louisa County High School for his senior season.
As this is his first transfer, Smith will be immediately eligible to play at his next program.
To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portalwire.
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 starts with the 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.
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 However, once a player enters the portal, the current scholarship is no longer valid. In other words, if a player enters the portal but decides to stay, the school does not have to cover their scholarship.
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 for a “do not contact” tag on the report. In those instances, the players don’t want contact from schools unless they initiate the communication.