College football transfer quarterback Tanner Mordecai heading to Wisconsin

Former SMU quarterback Tanner Mordecai has announced he committed to Wisconsin for the 2023 college football season after entering the transfer portal.

"After conversations with Coach Fickell and Coach Longo, I am excited to announce I will utilize my last year of eligibility at the University of Wisconsin," Mordecai announced on Twitter.

"I could not be more fired up to play at a school with rich history and a winning culture. Let's ride!"

#OnWisconsin pic.twitter.com/f70br8h9ET
— Tanner Mordecai (@t_mordecai) December 30, 2022

Mordecai initially emerged as a backup for Spencer Rattler at Oklahoma since coming out of Waco as a former four-star prospect in high school.

But he transferred to SMU and went on to critical acclaim as the Mustangs' starting quarterback, passing for 7,152 yards with 72 touchdowns and 22 interceptions while completing 66.4 percent of his passes at the school.

Now he'll take part in helping to open up the Badgers' offense as first-year head coach Luke Fickell seeks to implement his changes at the program next fall.

Keep up: College football transfer portal tracker for 2023's top players

Fickell hired Phil Longo to spearhead Wisconsin's offensive renaissance next season and it's expected that he will implement major structural changes to the team's approach that will put more focus on the quarterback position and institute a more aggressive, downfield strategy.

Longo was on staff at North Carolina and Ole Miss, working with quarterbacks like Sam Howell and Drake Maye before landing in the Big Ten.

Mordecai isn't alone in picking Wisconsin out of the transfer portal: former Oklahoma quarterback Nick Evers also announced his commitment to the Badgers for next season.

College football transfer portal

The NCAA Transfer Portal is a private database that includes the names of student-athletes in every sport at the Division I, II, and III levels. The full list of names is not available to the public.

A player can enter their name into the transfer portal through their school's compliance office. Once a player gives written notification of their intent to transfer, the office puts the player's name into the database, and they officially become a transfer.

The compliance office has 48 hours to comply with the player's request and NCAA rules forbid anyone from refusing that request.

The database includes the player's name, contact information, info on whether the player was on scholarship, and if he is a graduate student.

Once a player's name appears in the transfer portal database, other schools are free to contact the player, who can change his mind at any point in the process and withdraw from the transfer portal.

Notably, once a player enters the portal, his school no longer has to honor the athletic scholarship it gave him. And if that player decides to leave the portal and return to his original school, the school doesn't have to give him another scholarship.

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