UVA transfer, Argentinian national player Francisco Caffaro commits to Santa Clara

Virginia center transfer Francisco Caffaro has committed to play for Santa Clara, he announced via Twitter on Monday. Caffaro also plays for the Argentinian national team and is considered a major addition to the Broncos’ 2023-2024 roster.

Caffaro spent four seasons with the Cavaliers, being listed as a redshirt senior. He appeared in 20 games this past season under head coach Tony Bennett, making three starts. An efficient shooter down well when on the court, Caffaro averaged 2.0 points per game but shot 75%.

Playing at the center position, Caffaro brought in 1.8 rebounds per game during the 2022-2023 season.

Go Broncos pic.twitter.com/4QD69Eqcdh

— Francisco Cáffaro. (@fcaffaro123) April 10, 2023

Before entering the college basketball world, Caffaro was not a ranked prospect. He enrolled at Virginia via Buenos Aires, Argentina, the nation’s capital. Now, he will be heading out west to play for Santa Clara.

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.