Texas A&M WR Caleb Chapman Enters the Transfer Portal

Texas A&M senior wide receiver Caleb Chapman has entered the transfer portal, per On3’s Matt Zenitz.

The senior was entering his fifth season with the Aggies after joining the program as a three-star recruit in 2018 out of Clear Brook High School in Friendswood, Tex.

As a junior, Chapman played in six games, making two starts, and recorded 13 catches for 210 yards. In his Texas A&M career, he recorded 28 total catches for 413 total yards and three touchdowns.

Chapman is the third Aggie player to enter the portal in recent weeks as former five-star wide receiver Demond Demas and former five-star tight end Baylor Cupp both announced their intentions to enter the portal in March.

Cupp, who was a four-star recruit and the No. 1 tight end in the country in the 2019 cycle per the On3 Consensus, had struggled with injuries throughout his Texas A&M career. As a freshman, he suffered an ankle injury during fall camp and received a medical redshirt. As a sophomore, he was once again injured during fall camp and missed the 2020 season. Cupp finally saw the field in his redshirt sophomore season, playing in ten games and making one start against Praise View A&M, though he recorded no statistics. 

Demas played in 14 games during his time with Texas A&M, making his debut against the Alabama Crimson Tide during the 2020 season. More recently this past year, he made six starts and played in 10 games before suffering an injury late in the season, missing the Aggies’ last three regular-season games. Demas was arrested earlier this offseason in connection with an assault family violence charge stemming from an incident which later led to more charges and an additional assault. 

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.