SEC Transfer Portal Update: Day One

Petre Thomas-Imagn Images

By Chris Marler

The 2026 NCAA transfer portal opened Friday morning for college football. Early movement has centered on player entries, with no major commitments yet. Here’s a day one recap.

By the numbers

Over 2,000 players entered the transfer portal within the first 12 hours of it being opened. To put that in perspective, 1,600 entered on day one two years ago. Last year, the number of entrants on day one was nearly 2,400, and at the pace we are currently sitting at this year’s numbers should surpass those.

Going rate keeps going up

The market value for certain players and positions has been fascinating to watch over the first couple of years in the portal. The first Power Four QB deal that was reported when NIL was legalized in 2021 was Miami QB D’Eriq King who got $20,000 from College Hunk Movers. Those numbers have changed dramatically.

On3’s Pete Nakos gave a list of the market value for several of the positions in the portal this year. Here’s a look at where some currently sit.

Quarterback – $750,000 to $4 million
Defensive Line – $500,000 to $1.5 million
Offensive Line – $500,000 to $1.2 million
Wide Receiver – $400,000 to $1 million
Running back – $350,000 to $1 million
Defensive Back – $300,000 to $850,000

Exodus by SEC teams

These numbers will fluctuate rapidly, but as of Friday, Jan. 2 at 3:30 p.m. CT here are the total players that have entered the portal for each SEC team according to 247Sports.

The first day of the window still has nearly seven hours left at the time of writing this, but as of now 260 players from the SEC have entered their name.