I woke up Saturday morning to a frantic text from a friend, who happens to be a North Carolina fan.

It was accompanied by a screenshot of a Tweet that screamed “Breaking News: Caleb Love will transfer to former rival Duke.”

My first reaction was OMG!

Then I realized what day it was, April 1, and I immediately knew that it was just the work of a social media prankster.

And yet, before I hit the send button on a reply text telling my friend he’d been April Fooled and to come down from the ledge, I did a little checking just to make sure. Because the way things are going with the portal and the NCAA’s relaxed rules regarding transfers these days, you just never know.

It used to be nearly impossible for athletes to transfer from 1 ACC school to another because of a restrictive conference rule. As recently as 2017, Pittsburgh fought vigorously to block Cameron Johnson’s attempt to play for North Carolina without having to sit out a year.

ACC bylaw 2.6.2 was finally rescinded in 2021, opening the door for intraconference transfers to become part of the ACC’s new norm. There have already been 3 such moves announced in just the past few weeks, with more likely to come now that the basketball season has reached its conclusion.

All-Rookie team guard JJ Starling has left Notre Dame for Syracuse, UNC forward Tyler Nickel has moved to Virginia Tech while NC State big man Ebenezer Dowuona will continue his career at Georgia Tech.

And while the shock value isn’t quite the same as if Love really did choose Duke – Michigan, Missouri and Indiana are his most frequently mentioned as his potential landing spots – another Tar Heel expat Dontrez Styles has another Triangle school – NC State – among the finalists for his new home.

The movement within the conference has been even greater in football, with at least 17 players joining an ACC rival since the end of the 2022 season – including high profile quarterbacks Brennan Armstrong and Phil Jurkovec.

The fact that a lot of players are transferring is hardly breaking news.

According to NCAA research, approximately 40% of all Division I basketball players coming out of high school will end up at another school by the time they finish their sophomore season. There are more than 1,000 names currently in the transfer portal.

The reasons for all that volume range from playing time issues and coaching changes to name, image and likeness potential and the desire to find a more compatible playing style.

Then there are some who leave simply because they can.

But in the case of the ACC’s intraconference transfers, there seems to be at least 1 common theme. Whether it’s a residual aftereffect from the COVID pandemic or some other factor, the gravitational pull of home seems to have gotten stronger than ever. 

“Being able to have my parents and other relatives come out to games and support me sounds amazing, especially when they rarely were able to do so through my career,” Starling, a native of suburban Syracuse, told ESPN.com after he became one of the first to make his transfer announcement, less than 24 hours after entering the portal in mid-March.

“I did not know all along that I wanted to go home. I was going to entertain the coaches that were calling and getting in contact. However, instead of making it more stressful for my parents and myself, we had a long conversation and realized that ‘Cuse was the spot for me.”

Nickel’s selection of the Hokies also returns him to familiar territory, bringing him back to Virginia, where he holds the state high school association’s career scoring record with 2,909 points. Dowuona will be heading back to Georgia, where he played his prep ball after coming to America from his home country of Ghana.

There are just as many examples among the ACC’s football transfers, Headlining the group is quarterback Phil Jurkovec, who came back to his Pittsburgh roots to spend his final year of eligibility with the Panthers after playing the 2 previous seasons at Boston College.

Only time will tell if the wave of athletes wanting to stay close to home or remain in a conference that’s comfortable and familiar is a trend that will continue or just a passing fancy. In the meantime, it’s 1 more consideration to make the already inexact science of college recruiting that much more difficult for their coaches.

And while the intraconference transfers will undoubtedly make for some happy homecomings, there are likely to be an equal number of uncomfortable reunions when those players are scheduled to face their former teams, teammates and fans.