As college football recovers from an anticlimactic weekend in the first round of the 12-team Playoff, the transfer portal remains busy.
More than 1,900 FBS players had entered their names into the portal as of Sunday evening, and more than 650 of those student-athletes have already found new homes.
The portal opened on Dec. 9 and remains open through Dec. 28. Athletes on teams competing in the postseason are allowed to enter during an additional five-day window in January. The portal will then reopen for 10 days in the spring from April 16-25.
So, which programs are winning and losing? We dive into the biggest takeaways from the first two weeks of portal action.
Belichick’s progress
So, how is Bill Belichick doing at North Carolina? No coach has done a better job convincing players who entered the portal to come back to school than him.
Of the more than 30 FBS players to withdraw their names, UNC leads the way with four, followed by Nebraska (2), Arkansas (2), UCF (2), Purdue (2), Fresno State (2) and Charlotte (2). All four started at least seven games in 2024 for the Tar Heels: left guard Aidan Banfield, center Austin Blaske, receiver Kobe Paysour and linebacker Amare Campbell.
Belichick also landed one top-100 ranked player in the portal from elsewhere: linebacker Khmori House, who started five games for Washington last season as a true freshman. He had 35 tackles, an interception, a forced fumble and four pass breakups.
Who’s losing high-end talent?
We won’t be able to say who ended up losing the most talent via the portal until those players take the field and perform at a high level elsewhere. But if we’re going to use the 247Sports Transfer Portal player rankings as a guide, nobody has seen more high-end talent walk out the door than USC.
As our Antonio Morales noted last week, Lincoln Riley has struggled to keep his top recruits in Los Angeles. Six of the top-100 ranked players in the portal, according to 247, are Trojans, including standout receivers Zachariah Branch and Duce Robinson, a pair of former five-star recruits in the 2023 recruiting cycle.
The other ex-USC players ranked in the top 100 are defensive lineman Bear Alexander (Oregon), starting right tackle Mason Murphy (Auburn), quarterback Miller Moss (Louisville) and running back Quinten Joyner (Texas Tech). That list doesn’t include receiver Kyron Hudson, a nine-game starter not ranked in the top 100 who left for Penn State.
Other programs that have lost multiple top-100 ranked players to the portal include Washington State (4), Florida (4), Alabama (4), Purdue (3), Mississippi State (3), Oklahoma (3), Kentucky (3), Florida State (3), Virginia Tech (3) and Texas A&M (3).
Digging into departures
From a conference perspective, the SEC has had more players (261) enter the portal than any other league, followed by the Big Ten (249), Big 12 (232), Conference USA (209) and ACC (200).
Unsurprisingly, many of the programs among the leaders in departures have had recent head coaching changes: Charlotte (31), Marshall (31), New Mexico (29), Tulsa (27), Washington State (27), Purdue (26), UCF (24), Utah State (24), FIU (21) and West Virginia (18) all hired new head coaches in the past month.
Coastal Carolina (31) and Arizona (29) are also among the programs that have seen more players enter than others. But both hired new coaches after the 2023 season.
One program that has seen a lot of exits but has had the same coach for some time now is Arkansas. Sam Pittman’s Razorbacks have had 27 players enter the portal, with more than a dozen ending up at Power 4 programs.
Among them: guards Joshua Braun (Kentucky), Patrick Kutas (Ole Miss) and Addison Nichols (SMU), safeties TJ and Tevis Metcalf (Michigan), receivers Isaiah Sategna (Oklahoma) and Jaedan Wilson (UCLA), cornerback Jaylon Braxton (Ole Miss), tight end Luke Hasz (Ole Miss), quarterback Malachi Singleton (Purdue), edge rusher Nico Davillier (UCLA) and linebacker Brad Spence (Texas).
On the flip side, eight of the 13 additions Arkansas has landed in the portal have come from P4 programs.
Notable additions
As of Sunday night, Big 12 schools had combined to land the most commitments (134) among transfers, followed by the SEC (128), Big Ten (122), ACC (100) and American Athletic Conference (53). Our Sam Khan explained how and why Texas Tech has the No. 1 transfer portal class through the first two weeks of the portal season.
The Red Raiders had more commitments (17) out of the portal and more top-100 ranked players (8) than any other FBS program as of Sunday night. Wisconsin (15), Kansas (15), Ole Miss (14), LSU (13), Auburn (13), Kentucky (13), Arkansas (13), Louisville (13), Minnesota (13) and UCLA (13) were next.
Brian Kelly’s Tigers have landed seven top-100 ranked transfers. Among the newest additions for LSU are former Florida State edge rusher Patrick Payton and former Virginia Tech starting center Braelin Moore. Payton, a former ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year, has one year of eligibility left. Moore has two.
There are 16 programs with at least two commitments from top-100 players. The only one that qualified for the Playoff is No. 1 Oregon. The Ducks have landed four top-100 players. Oregon’s latest additions include 6-foot-8, 309-pound offensive tackle Isaiah World, who started 35 games in three seasons at Nevada mostly at left tackle, and ex-Texas State starting right tackle Alex Harkey.
The other programs with at least four pledges from top-100 transfers: Ole Miss (5), Auburn (5), Alabama (5) and Miami (4).
Miami’s moves
Miami lost two of its last three games to miss qualifying for the ACC championship and the CFP. The Hurricanes also lost some key recruits down the stretch in the early signing period. But coach Mario Cristobal is starting to build some momentum in the portal.
He’s landed four former starters in the portal in the past week: ex-LSU receiver CJ Daniels; former Louisiana Tech defensive tackle David Blay; ex-Michigan State cornerback Charles Brantley and former Jacksonville State safety Zechariah Poyser. Daniels, Blay and Brantley have only one year of eligibility left. Poyser has three.
Nobody, though, has been brought in yet to replace ACC Player of the Year Cam Ward at quarterback.
Few top QBs available
Speaking of quarterbacks, most of the best ones who jumped into the portal have already found a new home. Only one QB ranked in our top 10 — former Cal star Fernando Mendoza — has yet to commit to a new program. Mendoza’s younger brother is a backup quarterback at Indiana.
(Photo: Bob Donnan / Imagn Images)
