Former North Carolina guard Caleb Love decommits from Michigan, reopens transfer recruitment

Former North Carolina guard Caleb Love has decommitted from Michigan and re-opened his transfer recruitment, per On3’s Joe Tipton. Love originally committed to the Wolverines on April 7.

Love’s decision to part ways with the Wolverines comes in the wake of former Michigan center Hunter Dickinson announcing his commitment to Kansas earlier in May.

As other players announced their decisions throughout the past month, rumors began swirling that Love could back off his commitment. However, just two weeks ago, he shot down any rumblings.

“Yes, I will play for Michigan next year! Stay tuned! Go Blue,” Love tweeted, along with blue and yellow heart emojis.

Now back on the market, Love becomes the top available transfer target and remains the No. 3 ranked player to enter this cycle, according to On3’s Transfer Portal Rankings.

Love averaged 16.7 points and 3.7 rebounds per game over the 2022-2023 season. He rose to prominence for his clutch shooting and innate scoring ability, which was all on display during North Carolina’s run to the NCAA Tournament title game in 2022.

Love is a former five-star recruit and was the No. 14 overall player in the nation from the 2020 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

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.