2026 Transfer Portal - General

Rocketman84

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IrishInOntario said:
I suspect they'll be very targeted and aggressive. Especially at DT, WR and Kicker. I'll be curious to see what they do at DE, Nickel, RB, TE and depth QB.
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Depth QB is going to be very interesting to say the least with someone coming in knowing they will be 2nd string AT BEST in this era of CFB.
 
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IrishInOntario

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Rocketman84 said:
Depth QB is going to be very interesting to say the least with someone coming in knowing they will be 2nd string AT BEST in this era of CFB.
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Money solves a lot of problems in today's game though. And it can work for both parties.

1. ND might be willing to slot, for example, $300,000 for a backup QB to come be a 1 year insurance policy for CJ Carr, in a year they have Championship hopes. It might be worth it for ND to pay for that caliber of player as an insurance policy.

2. Meanwhile, if you're said player, and likely a graduate transfer, without an NFL future, you might be getting a really nice payday and the opportunity to focus on a grad degree, at the cost of only playing mop up minutes in ND blowouts, unless God forbid, CJ Carr gets hurt.

When you add the financial incentive and ND graduate degree and connections to the equation, a smart kid that realizes that his future is not in professional football might jump at the chance to join ND under those circumstances.
 
NDWarrior

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Pretty strong kicking record over past three years on the West Coast: Perfect on extra points and strong accuracy on FGs; one year remaining.

 
Rocketman84

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IrishInOntario said:
Money solves a lot of problems in today's game though. And it can work for both parties.

1. ND might be willing to slot, for example, $300,000 for backup QB to come be a 1 year insurance policy for CJ Carr, in a year they have Championship hopes. It might be worth it for ND to pay for that caliber of player as an insurance policy.

2. Meanwhile, if you're said player and likely a graduate transfer, without an NFL future, you might be getting a really nice payday and the opportunity to focus on a grad degree, at the cost of only playing mop up minutes in ND blowouts, unless God forbid, CJ Carr gets hurt.

When you add the financial incentive and ND degree to the equation, a smart kid that realizes that his future is not in professional football, might jump at the chance to join ND under those circumstances.
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I agree that #2 is 90% the likely outcome, don't see any starter coming here from a Top 30-40 program to backup Carr. It would be nice but history shows us its not happening over here. It would be nice to get a Chambliss type "Diamond in the rough" from a smaller program who could be a legit starter in case of an emergency but those type of gems can be hard to find.
 
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IrishInOntario

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NDWarrior said:
Pretty strong kicking record over past three years on the West Coast: Perfect on extra points and strong accuracy on FGs; one year remaining.

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Good option, but depending on cost I might be more inclined to go after a kid like the Illinois kicker, who routinely kicks in Midwestern weather. Obviously, this kid got some exposure to that this year playing in the Big 10, but I'd take it into consideration.
 
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IrishInOntario

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NDWarrior said:
Highly recruited out of HS; had a strong 2025 for KY. Was recruited by ND.

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Yep, he's getting paid. He was always a little bit light coming out of high school. 6'5, 275lbs is still a little bit light, however, he's only a sophomore and might have another 10-15lbs in him heading into year 3.

I'd be shocked if he doesn't end up on the roster of a playoff contender.
 
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IrishInOntario said:
It's not just about cashing in outright. I don't know Mukam's situation exactly, but it's 100% true that a lot of top programs are basically cutting Rev Share substantially to depth players, in order to ensure that their starting caliber players are competively compensated such that they don't get poached by other peer programs.

It's been widely reported, for example, that ND is in the game of giving large (six figure) signing bonuses to high school recruits to get to them to South Bend. However, beyond that first payment, their future Rev Share is based on playing time / production. Therefore, if you got paid $200,000 as a freshman, and didn't play, ND might be re-negotiating you down to $20,000-$50,000 in year two, saying that they'll re-negotiate heading into year three and re-evaluate your worth depending on your value to the program at that point.

If you go from making $200,000 to making $50,000 and you don't see a reasonable path towards you getting back to that $200,000 (or more), you might just look around... If some mid-tier program says "you're making $50,000? We'll pay you $100,000 to transfer and guarantee playing, giving you the opportunity to be productive and make even more next year." That's enticing for a lot of guys.

If you don't think that's happening all over the country, I don't know what to tell you. Lots of kids are transferring with that in mind.

 
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None of us knows Mukam's situation but he isn't entertaining offers from MAC schools for $250k. Let's get real.
 
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Penick44@ said:
None of us knows Mukam's situation but he isn't entertaining offers from MAC schools for $250k. Let's get real.
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Who knows where he'll end up or what he'll get paid. I don't claim to know. Based on his sample size against the likes of Pitt and Stanford, he's definitely good enough to play in the ACC though. Some of those schools are willing to pay money.

We'll wait and see!
 
IAIrish

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IrishInOntario said:
It's not just about cashing in outright. I don't know Mukam's situation exactly, but it's 100% true that a lot of top programs are basically cutting Rev Share substantially to depth players, in order to ensure that their starting caliber players are competively compensated such that they don't get poached by other peer programs.

It's been widely reported, for example, that ND is in the game of giving large (six figure) signing bonuses to high school recruits to get to them to South Bend. However, beyond that first payment, their future Rev Share is based on playing time / production. Therefore, if you got paid $200,000 as a freshman, and didn't play, ND might be re-negotiating you down to $20,000-$50,000 in year two, saying that they'll re-negotiate heading into year three and re-evaluate your worth depending on your value to the program at that point.

If you go from making $200,000 to making $50,000 and you don't see a reasonable path towards you getting back to that $200,000 (or more), you might just look around... If some mid-tier program says "you're making $50,000? We'll pay you $100,000 to transfer and guarantee playing, giving you the opportunity to be productive and make even more next year." That's enticing for a lot of guys.

If you don't think that's happening all over the country, I don't know what to tell you. Lots of kids are transferring with that in mind.

 
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Agree that it's absolute fact that Rev share is getting slashed. I believe no one has a great handle on the going rate for retention or portal additions. My guess is that it's cheaper to retain players than it is to acquire via the portal.

One interesting nugget Sampson shared a few weeks back regarding nil when they mentioned nil budget and keeping Freeman was that they were targeting $20/30 million and "the powers that be" came back with, let's just do $40/50 million.

If this is accurate, i my hope is we'll see things move quickly with portal acquisitions.
 
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IrishInOntario

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IAIrish said:
Agree that it's absolute fact that Rev share is getting slashed. I believe no one has a great handle on the going rate for retention or portal additions. My guess is that it's cheaper to retain players than it is to acquire via the portal.

One interesting nugget Sampson shared a few weeks back regarding nil when they mentioned nil budget and keeping Freeman was that they were targeting $20/30 million and "the powers that be" came back with, let's just do $40/50 million.

If this is accurate, i my hope is we'll see things move quickly with portal acquisitions.
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The problem with Rev Share is that the current cap is insanely low for large athletic departments. I've heard it rumored that ND is aloting something in the neighborhood of $15-17 Million from their Rev Share cap to football. If that's case, assuming 85 of the kids are getting Rev Share funding, that averages out to only $176,000-$200,000 per year, per kid.

Let's assume that the starting 22 + key backups are all north of $200,000, with guys like Carr north of $1 Million (with NIL covering the rest), and significant funding allocated to signing bonuses for incoming recruits, you can see how the bottom 25-30% of the roster would be asked to take paycuts to as low and $25,000 and $50,000, in order to coming up with the funding for everyone else.

Thought experiment. Let's say ND puts aside $17 million in Rev Share, for 85 members of their football roster. Below is a realistic (although imperfect) version of what that might look like, with the rest being made up from NIL.

#85: $25,000
#84: $25,000
#83: $25,000
#82: $25,000
#81: $25,000
#80: $25,000
#79: $25,000
#78: $25,000
#77: $25,000
#76: $25,000
#75: $25,000
#74: $25,000
#73: $25,000
#72: $25,000
#71: $25,000
#70: $25,000
#69: $25,000
#68: $25,000
#67: $25,000
#66: $25,000
#65: $25,000
#64: $50,000
#63: $50,000
#62: $50,000
#61: $50,000
#60: $50,000
#59: $50,000
#58: $50,000
#57: $50,000
#56: $50,000
#55: $50,000
#54: $50,000
#53: $50,000
#52: $50,000
#51: $50,000
#50: $50,000
#49: $100,000
#48: $100,000
#47: $100,000
#46: $100,000
#45: $100,000
#44: $100,000
#43: $100,000
#42: $100,000
#41: $100,000
#40: $100,000
#39: $150,000
#38: $150,000
#37: $150,000
#36: $150,000
#35: $150,000
#34: $150,000
#33: $200,000
#32: $200,000
#31: $200,000
#30: $200,000
#29: $200,000
#28: $200,000
#27: $250,000
#26: $250,000
#25: $250,000
#24: $250,000
#23: $250,000
#22: $250,000
#21: $300,000
#20: $300,000
#19: $300,000
#18: $300,000
#17: $300,000
#16: $400,000
#15: $400,000
#14: $400,000
#13: $400,000
#12: $400,000
#11: $500,000
#10: $500,000
#09: $500,000
#08: $600,000
#07: $600,000
#06: $700,000
#05: $700,000
#04: $800,000
#03: $800,000
#02: $1,000,000
#01: $1,000,000
 
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CanadalovesND

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NDMatt91 said:
How does he compare to Absher?
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Brunner has been one of the better pass blocking IOL in the Big Ten the past two seasons. This year, he only allowed eight pressures on nearly 300 pass blocking snaps. Zero sacks allowed.

He played his best games against the best competition in the Big Ten this past season... Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana
 
NDWarrior

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A strong Edge entry to the portal. SDSU has a 9-4 season with a close North Texas loss and wins over Fresno State and Boise State; good production (strong sack production) over the past 2 years but a bit on the smaller side for Edge player.

 
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Irish5Saint said:
On3 board is saying the Wisconsin site has said we are kicking the tires on the starting LG for them
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Joe Brunner would be interesting. That would indicate to me that ND doesn't feel great about Sullivan Absher and / or the health of Charles Jagusah.

Brunner is definitely a fit for ND. He'll be 3x Academic All Big 10 (2023, 2024, 2025). 6'5, 318lbs and pretty darn good. He'd have his Wisconsin degree with another year remaining. Definitely has NFL upside and would be a Draft target at the conclusion of 2026.

With Schrauth reportedly turning down north of $1 million to stay, maybe ND's willing to use some / all of that money on a plug-and-play OG.

You would also be taking one of the 3-4 best players from the team you're opening the 2026 season against. That never hurts!
 
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Irishdawg said:
Dude is extremely talented. Gonna get paid!!
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Perich can absolutely play. Not a need for ND with as loaded as our secondary is (especially given what he'll cost), but somebody is going to get a very good player! Huge loss for Minnesota.
 
NDWarrior

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This piece and sentiment (written by an ESPN radio host) should used by MF and staff as bulletin board material for this upcoming season.



1767328710287.png
 
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IrishInOntario

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I'll be extremely surprised if ND doesn't make a run at Miami (OH) DE Adam Trick, to fill the role vacated by Josh Burnham. He's an excellent fit for what ND does.

Grad transfer. Academic All MAC in 2024 and likely 2025. 6'4, 250lbs. 8.5 sacks and 3 Forced Fumbles in 2025. From Dayton, Ohio and Wayne High School, the same high school as Marcus Freeman and Mike Mickens. Basically an ideal #3 DE to rotate with Traore and Young.

Trick plays with a really high motor, in a defense that does a lots of stunting and twisting, much like what ND does to sew confusion and create pressure. His game reminds me a lot of Burnham's. He also has a long frame and looks, at least on film, like he might have more room for weight on his frame. Wouldn't shock me at all if the ND strength staff got him up to 255-260lbs.


 
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NDWarrior

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In re: to the Transfer Portal, the most common profile for top players entering the portal and their 3rd or 4th year as a player, includes having 1-2 years of strong production under their belt where they're now looking to leverage that experience to upgrade teams and profile for NFL visibility and/or get paid; which means they have 1-2 years remaining where many have only 1 year remaining.

What's interesting is that I don't see hardly any Graduate Transfers in the portal. I believe now GTs have the same 15-day window as all the players do.

What I'm curious about is:

- Is this a new TP/NIL trend where most of these players are looking to primarily leverage their final year of eligibility to get paid / position themselves for The NFL? And so, although they should have an undergrad degree by now, they just haven't focused on school enough for a degree?
- Or, will many actually earn their degree by the end of the 2026 academic year to officially earn GT status before the 2026 season begins?
- If the players with one year remaining mostly won't be GTs, how does ND and admissions deal with this challenge of getting a number of these top and needed players on to the team in this current TP window?
 
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