2026 Transfer Portal - General

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DomeFieldAdvantage

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maxwell said:
College football transfer portal: Tracking who's on the move

4500 D1 players in the portal 😳, avg of ~33 players per team . Wtf
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I think the average is off. On3's portal list states 2034. They have at least some FCS guys listed (I saw a Sac State guy), but when selecting by team, the options are only FBS. So I think the 4500 is FBS and FCS. That would be ~265 teams, or ~17 per school. That is also close to the On3 number if we assume that 2034 is just FBS. That would be ~15 per FBS team.
 
stlnd01

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maxwell said:
College football transfer portal: Tracking who's on the move

4500 D1 players in the portal 😳, avg of ~33 players per team . Wtf
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I'd be curious what percentage of players who transfer as an undergraduate - let alone transfer multiple times - finish a bachelors degree.

I know, I know...

But one of the unambiguously good things about college football is that it has traditionally given people access to an education that many of them would not otherwise have received. I'm sure some transfers figure out how to cobble together credits and stay on track to graduate, but it's harder that way. And even at schools far less prestigious than Notre Dame, a college degree (and what you learn along the way) can be a life-changing opportunity - for people who mostly are not going to make any sort of real living as professional football players.

I know it's the times, and these guys DO get paid now (which I fully support), which is one of the reasons for all the transfers. And maybe I'm just the parent of a high school kid who's working hard and hoping in a couple of years to be able to pay to attend the sort of schools we talk about all the time here.

But still it's sad to see so many walking away from that sort of opportunity for a small raise or the hope of a little more playing time. Such short-term thinking.

Dismounting the soap box now...
 
Huntr

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stlnd01 said:
I'd be curious what percentage of players who transfer as an undergraduate - let alone transfer multiple times - finish a bachelors degree.

I know, I know...

But one of the unambiguously good things about college football is that it has traditionally given people access to an education that many of them would not otherwise have received. I'm sure some transfers figure out how to cobble together credits and stay on track to graduate, but it's harder that way. And even at schools far less prestigious than Notre Dame, a college degree (and what you learn along the way) can be a life-changing opportunity - for people who mostly are not going to make any sort of real living as professional football players.

I know it's the times, and these guys DO get paid now (which I fully support), which is one of the reasons for all the transfers. And maybe I'm just the parent of a high school kid who's working hard and hoping in a couple of years to be able to pay to attend the sort of schools we talk about all the time here.

But still it's sad to see so many walking away from that sort of opportunity for a small raise or the hope of a little more playing time. Such short-term thinking.

Dismounting the soap box now...
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The thing about portal numbers is they can also count those who end up giving up football entirely or medically retiring, not necessarily give up going to school.

Also, look at the guys on ND who are trying to transfer. They're basically being pushed out by having their NIL reduced. At some schools, they are reducing or taking away the scholarship or roster spot completely.

You really need to take arguments predicting doom and gloom based on portal numbers, how many enter, how many find a new team, etc with a grain of salt.
 
Jimmy3Putt

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Big money and a great start on life hitting the portal multiple times.
Be smart with the money and walk away from college with 1-2 million earning some interest and they're set for life.
Even without the degree.
 
stlnd01

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Huntr said:
The thing about portal numbers is they can also count those who end up giving up football entirely or medically retiring, not necessarily give up going to school.

Also, look at the guys on ND who are trying to transfer. They're basically being pushed out by having their NIL reduced. At some schools, they are reducing or taking away the scholarship or roster spot completely.
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Fair point on medicals, though I don't think they account for a particularly large number of portal entrants (we seem to average about one per year).

On the other part. Barring real misconduct - as opposed to not being as good a football player as the coaches hoped - I don't think schools should ever pull scholarships, and I'm glad Notre Dame does not do that. I also think with 105 scholarships instead of 85 and widespread transferring, there's less need to pull scholarships for roster management reasons.

As for reducing NIL, I get why that can feel like "pushing" someone out, but those guys are still getting a full-ride scholarship to an elite university that costs $90,000 a year, with considerable benefits on top of that, plus world-class coaching, training and teammates. As long as they're still on the team, maybe they'd better off sticking around, working on their degree, helping us win a national championship and maybe earning that NIL back vs. heading off to play at UConn or wherever the fuck. Just a thought.
 
Dale

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The Ga Tech beat having a coordinated he’s not entering the portal he’s not entering the portal, he just got a mysterious bowl practice injury didn’t pass the sniff test at all
 
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jprue24

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stlnd01 said:
As for reducing NIL, I get why that can feel like "pushing" someone out, but those guys are still getting a full-ride scholarship to an elite university that costs $90,000 a year, with considerable benefits on top of that, plus world-class coaching, training and teammates. As long as they're still on the team, maybe they'd better off sticking around, working on their degree, helping us win a national championship and maybe earning that NIL back vs. heading off to play at UConn or wherever the fuck. Just a thought.
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If you know the result of the action will be them leaving, the action is pushing someone out. The player leaving might only elicit a shoulder shrug, but they are still being pushed out as a part of roster churn. I also can't believe you dusted off the "school is compensation enough" argument to make this point. That argument is a big part of the reason cfb is in the mess that it is.
 
stlnd01

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jprue24 said:
If you know the result of the action will be them leaving, the action is pushing someone out. The player leaving might only elicit a shoulder shrug, but they are still being pushed out as a part of roster churn. I also can't believe you dusted off the "school is compensation enough" argument to make this point. That argument is a big part pf the reason cfb is the mess that it is.
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Notre Dame, at least, has always taken the school part seriously. If more other places had done the same, I agree that CFB would not be the mess that it is.
 
Fbolt

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jprue24 said:
If you know the result of the action will be them leaving, the action is pushing someone out. The player leaving might only elicit a shoulder shrug, but they are still being pushed out as a part of roster churn. I also can't believe you dusted off the "school is compensation enough" argument to make this point. That argument is a big part of the reason cfb is in the mess that it is.
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And it's improved?
 
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tirishman505

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I'm not sure the "pushing out" frame is the appropriate one. Despite all of the efforts in recruiting, staffs don't really know what they have until they get a guy into the program and evaluate him for a year. The recruiting NIL deals are the price to do that. After the year eval, the staff knows with 95% certainty what they have. In the past, the missed evals would just be riding the bench, used a break-glass-in-emergency situation. The player responses to this treatment were very unappealing, only a 1 time transfer and had to sit out. In the current regime, drastically cutting a guy's NIL deal is "benching" him. But the player has options now so they push themselves out.

As has already been pointed out, a third of all NCAA players are currently in the portal. This feels like the pendulum swinging too far the other way. A lot of guys are going to end up in less desirable situations, not starting and at a lesser program/school. It feels like this will be eventually worked out, kids will start getting better advice and more kids will stay to "earn their degree" and either surprise the current staff and get a leg up when a new staff rolls into town.
 
Dale

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“Never in a million years did I think I would be going into the portal looking for a new home. Some things are out of my control.”

Sounds like Texas dumped him. Target for Indiana.
 
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stpeteirish

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Dale said:


“Never in a million years did I think I would be going into the portal looking for a new home. Some things are out of my control.”

Sounds like Texas dumped him. Target for Indiana.
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He was Arch Manning’s roommate and a favorite target. Pretty damned surprising
 
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