The NCAA’s Transfer Portal Isn’t Going Anywhere

As a college football fan, you are likely aware of the NCAA’s transfer portal. Love it or hate it, the portal is here to stay and has changed the landscape of college football. It will continue as it essentially gives student/athletes free agency.
Since the very beginning, college football coaches have always been free to leave their current school for a “better” job, which is simply code for one that pays more. The college football player, until recently, was not afforded that same opportunity.

Nowadays, a FBS player can play at one school one year and be at another the next. NIL (Name, Image & Likeness) money plays a huge role in this process and, like anything, there are some positives and some negatives. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of the transfer portal.

Fans Hate It

It’s happening more and more now, but fans will watch their favorite team in late December or on the first Wednesday in February. Those, of course, are signing days. Fans get all hyped up when their team signs four- and five-star recruits, especially at quarterback. The typical big-time quarterback usually signs early and enrolls early. By the following January, said quarterback could already be in the transfer portal and have found a new school.

Of the top 50 high school quarterbacks that signed letters of intent between 2017 and 2020, over 70 percent transferred at least once. Dillon Gabriel started his career at UCF. He transferred to Oklahoma where he played the last two seasons, and he’ll play his final year of college football in 2024 at Oregon.

Coaches Love It…and Hate It

College football coaches absolutely love the transfer portal. Where else can you get experienced college football players who are more mature than the average high school recruit? That would be the portal. Think about it. As a college coach whose job depends upon wins, would you rather have a 21-year-old quarterback that has three seasons of college football under his belt? Or would prefer the four- or five-star 17-year-old out of some high school?

It’s the same at every position. Coaches dive into the portal as soon as it opens and start offering guys left and right. Now, that said, college coaches also hate the portal. There’s one big reason why. It forces coaches to recruit their own players all year-round. Coaches spend a ton of time recruiting their future classes. Sometimes, things don’t work out the way a player had planned. Those players have the freedom to jump in the portal when it opens. Coaches constantly have to be aware of their own players, especially guys they don’t want to lose.

Players Love It

What’s not to like about free agency? For the first time in college sports, athletes have choices. Imagine being a top recruit and you sign a letter of intent to play for a certain school. You arrive, redshirt your first year, and then the head coach takes a job at another school. He takes most of his staff with him. In the past, the student-athlete would have been stuck at the school. He could have transferred, but he would have had to sit out for a season.
Not anymore.

The college football player that is unhappy with his current situation now has options. Add the NIL money into the equation and a player is essentially the average employee looking for a better job. Let’s say you’re a freshman quarterback at Purdue. You’re making the equivalent of about $50,000 per year in NIL money. You are No. 2 on the depth chart and a coach that recruited you at a different school takes a new job.

That coach needs a quarterback at his new school. You enter the transfer portal and that coach – and others – is all over you to transfer. They offer you $75,000 a year. In a year or two, the same player could do it all over again and earn even more. That is the reality of college football right now. It is happening and it isn’t going to stop anytime soon.

2024 College Football Transfer Portal Tracker