Report: Michigan loses playmaking trio to NCAA Transfer Portal

In a week of departures from the Michigan program following the Orange Bowl to conclude their 2021 season, three more Wolverines have entered the transfer portal.

Michigan quarterback Dan Villari has put his name in the portal, per Angelique Chengelis of The Detroit News. Additionally, cornerback Andre Seldon is officially in the portal after announcing his intention to to do on Twitter on Wednesday, as is fellow defensive back George Johnson.

Villari did not see the field as a freshman in 2020, and he played in four games — Western Michigan, Northern Illinois, Wisconsin and Maryland — in 2021. The sophomore finished the year with one pass for three yards and nine carries for 35 yards.

The quarterback was a three-star recruit according to On3 Consensus, a complete and equally weighted industry-generated average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He was the No. 75 quarterback and the No. 12 player out of New York in the 2020 class.

Seldon played in two games at Michigan but did not record any stats, while Johnson played in three games as a junior this year with one tackle.

Cornerback Darion Green-Warren and linebacker Anthony Solomon entered the transfer portal on Monday.

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.