Two Boise State players plan to be in transfer portal with no eligibility. Why?
Three Boise State basketball players appear set to enter the transfer portal when it opens on April 7.
Redshirt senior guard RJ Keene announced his intention to leave the program on March 25 via social media. Five days later, On3 reported that senior forward Javan Buchanan also intends to be in the portal.
Meanwhile, while junior forward Drew Fielder confirmed his plans to enter the portal to the Idaho Statesman.
The strange thing about this news it that neither Keene nor Buchanan has any eligibility remaining at the moment.
So what gives? Why are two players whose college careers, at the moment, are over bothering to put their names out there for other programs to see?
Here are the details.
RJ Keene
Keene has spent all five years of his collegiate career at Boise State, having arrived in the Treasure Valley in 2021.
Keene redshirted his freshman year but then missed his entire redshirt freshman year in ‘22-23 because of injury. Since that setback, he’s been a three-year constant presence for the Broncos, including starting 24 of his 31 games in 2025.
Although Keene participated in Boise State’s Senior Day activities in March, he confirmed that he was seeking a retroactive medical hardship waiver for missing that redshirt freshman season. The NCAA will consider medical hardship waivers for players who played in 30% or less of a season that was cut short by injury.
However, an institution’s compliance office must submit the waiver request. Keene’s announcement of his decision to leave the university came around the same time coaches were meeting with players ahead of preparations for the new season.
That means if Keene does go somewhere else in the portal, the compliance office at his new school would have to then submit the waiver, along with a physician’s statement confirming his injury.
Notably, Keene’s younger brother, Howie, just finished his freshman season at Montana State.
Javan Buchanan
Buchanan seemingly wrapped up his college career this year, having spent two seasons at NAIA school Indiana Wesleyan and two at Boise State.
The 6-foot-7 forward quickly became a fan favorite in Boise, winning the Mountain West Sixth Man of the Year award as a junior and then becoming the team’s second-leading scorer (12.6 points per game) last season.
His intention to enter the transfer portal indicates that he’s looking to obtain a waiver that allows former non-NCAA transfers an extra year of eligibility.
A blanket waiver was awarded for the 2025-26 season to any student-athlete who transferred from an NAIA school or junior college granting a fifth year of eligibility. That one-year waiver was created in response to a 2024 court appeal initiated by former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia, who spent two years playing for a JuCo program.
No waiver is in place for the 2026-27 academic year, so a final year of college basketball for Buchanan will hinge on whether something similar will be enacted again for non-NCAA transfers.
