Transfer Portal By the Numbers

By Chris Marler

The new era of college football with the transfer portal and NIL has taken some getting used to. Both are in year four of their existence. However, both are just as untamed and unregulated as they were during their infancy in 2021. 

Imagine telling yourself ten years ago that a high school senior would get $12.5 million dollars to flip from LSU to Michigan because a billionaire in San Francisco didn’t want to buy his girlfriend roses or jewelry this Christmas. So he bought her a five-star quarterback instead.

Can you imagine how many Dodge Chargers Nick Saban could’ve bought with $12.5 million?

The NCAA released a study recently over the numbers and statistics involving the transfer portal. They are somehow even more shocking than I thought.

Here’s a look at the Transfer Portal By the Numbers

• 2707: Total Number of Players in the Portal in 2024

• 25 Percent of D1 Football players enter the portal within their first year of college

• 30 Percent of those players never left the portal or got signed by another team

• 72 FBS teams lost 20 players or more to the portal last year, nearly triple the number from two years ago (25)

• More than 60 FBS teams had a transfer quarterback in 2024

• 883 FBS Players transferred to a Power Four school last year nearly double the year before (454)

I still haven’t picked my jaw up off the floor at the fact that 25 percent of college football players enter the portal within one year of getting to college. To be clear I am still a proponent of both the portal and NIL. For every Bear Alexander and Tate Martell, there’s a Group of Five Player who was able to make the jump from small-time conference to Power Four football.

I don’t know if there’s a silver lining, or if there is a solution in sight. Until then all we can do is watch it unfold and hope that Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos never date an Ohio State fan.