Temple transfer Khalif Battle commits to Arkansas

Former Temple guard Khalif Battle has committed to Arkansas, On3’s Joe Tipton reports. Battle visited with the Razorbacks on Thursday after entering the transfer portal last month.

Battle averaged 17.9 points, 3.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists this season for the Owls. On3’s Jamie Shaw ranked Battle as the No. 4 available shooting guard in the portal at the time he entered and it didn’t take long for Eric Musselman and company to gain his commitment.

This was Battle’s second time in the portal. He originally committed to Butler out of Trenton Catholic School (NJ) where he was a four-star recruit, per the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services. He was the No. 99 overall recruit and No. 7 CG in the 2019 class.

He left Butler via the portal after his freshman season following a lack of playing time. Battle has since spent the last three seasons as the star of Temple’s offense. In 2021, he averaged a career-best 21.4 points per game while leading his team to a 17-12 record. Now, he’s set to showcase his skills on a national level in the SEC.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. 

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 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.

The portal has been around since Oct. 15, 2018 and the new calendar cycle within the portal begins each August. For example, the 2021-22 cycle started Aug. 1. During the 2020-21 cycle, 2,626 FBS football players entered the transfer portal (including walk-ons). That comes after 1,681 entered during the 2019-20 cycle and 1,709 during the abbreviated 2018-19 cycle. In comparison, 1,833 Division I basketball players entered the portal during the 2020-21 cycle after totals of 1,020 in 2019-20 and 1,063 in 2018-19.