Why Wichita State fans shouldn’t panic about Kenyon Giles in the transfer portal
At some point this week, Wichita State basketball fans are likely going to see some news and have the same immediate reaction.
Kenyon Giles in the transfer portal? Karon Boyd too?
What in the world is going on?
At first glance, it reads like a nightmare scenario — the Shockers’ two all-conference stars from last season suddenly show up in college basketball’s most anxiety-inducing database for fans. But before anyone assumes the worst, this is not the kind of transfer story.
Giles and Boyd are not planning to leave Wichita State for another college program. They are not actively talking to other schools. They are not reopening their recruitments in hopes of extending their college careers somewhere else.
In fact, both players are out of eligibility.
So why are they in the portal?
Because in the current chaos of college sports, even that no longer makes it a pointless move.
Wichita State coaches actually encouraged both Giles and Boyd to enter the portal simply to keep every possible option open, no matter how remote. With lawsuits flying, eligibility rules being debated and political pressure adding even more uncertainty to the system, players around the country with no eligibility left have still been filing portal paperwork just in case something unexpectedly changes.
That is the key to understanding what this really is: think of it more as a clerical move to preserve the faintest long-shot scenario.
If some future ruling, rule change or legal twist were to somehow create a path for another season, Giles and Boyd would at least have that avenue preserved while continuing to pursue professional basketball opportunities.
That possibility remains incredibly unlikely.
This is not even new at WSU. After the 2024-25 season, Xavier Bell, Ronnie DeGray III, A.J. McGinnis, Matej Bosnjak and Zane Meeks all entered the transfer portal despite having no eligibility left. None wound up playing another season of college basketball, but the filings served the same purpose then as they do now — preserving a long-shot option just in case the rules shifted.
There is no current rule change that gives Giles or Boyd another year. There is no obvious path today for either player to suit up again in college basketball. The odds of that happening appear extremely slim. But if the impossible somehow becomes possible, neither player will be shut out by failing to file paperwork in time.
For Giles and Boyd, portal entry does not mean the relationship with Wichita State has changed. It does not mean they are searching for a better offer, a better role or a better exit.
The backdrop to all of this is a college athletics model that feels increasingly unsettled by the week. The NCAA has been discussing broader eligibility ideas. Courtrooms across the country continue to shape the edges of what the NCAA can and cannot enforce. And recent political involvement has only added more noise to an already confusing picture.
A lot of that uncertainty stems from President Donald Trump’s April 3 executive order calling for the NCAA to adopt a “5-for-5” eligibility model, which would grant athletes five years to compete in five seasons. In theory, that is the type of change that could matter for players such as Giles and Boyd, both of whom completed full, four-year careers but would potentially have a fifth season if such a model ever became reality.
But that remains a massive if. The order faces significant legal hurdles and is widely viewed as unlikely to create a timely path for either player to return to college basketball.
For Wichita State fans, that should take the panic out of the headline. Seeing Giles and Boyd enter the portal sounds jarring, because normally it would be.
But in this case, the portal is not the start of a new chapter somewhere else.
Giles and Boyd remain what they were before their names ever landed in the database: cornerstone pieces of a 24-win team that injected fresh life and optimism into the program.
Their portal entries do not change that reality.
They only reflect how bizarre college sports has become.
This story was originally published April 20, 2026 at 12:52 PM.
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