Transfer portal breakdown reveals unexpected winners, major losers

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Jason Jones
Transfer portal breakdown reveals unexpected winners, major losers image

The transfer portal window will close tonight with many teams scrambling to make some last-minute moves.

Currently, there are over 3,100 players still available in the portal. This includes four former five-star talents, as well as eight players with a rating over 90.

EDGE Princewill Umanmeilen, EDGE Damon Wilson II, OT Jordan Seaton and RB Trequan Jones are the best of what is still available.

Analyzing the winners and losers takes into account six different values: Incoming and outgoing portal rating, star-rating of players added, as well as the rating improvement.

This factors everything into one number. That dictates the ranking order for this. All criteria provided by On3.

Top ten winners

Notre Dame (+18.04): The Fighting Irish only brought in seven players that qualify under this analysis. However, the seven they brought in dramatically impacted their rating improvement. The only team flirting with a +20. Notre Dame brought in seven players with a rating over 90.

Indiana (+13.25): Staying with Curt Cignetti’s typical recruiting approach, the bulk of Indiana’s additions were 3-stars. QB Josh Hoover (TCU) and WR Nick Marsh (Michigan State) are the biggest names brought in and both have a transfer rating over 93.

BYU (+12.09): BYU, like Notre Dame did not add a large number of players, but the players they added were significant. While BYU only brought in one player over a 90 rating, the players that left were lower rated than the players coming in. LB Cade Uluave was the highest rated incoming player at 92.

Texas Tech (+8.56): The Red Raiders approach, like BYU, was to slightly upgrade the players coming vs the players leaving. Texas Tech’s rating is more math than anything else. Tech only added one player over 90 (WR Malcom Simmons from Auburn-91), yet almost every player they brought in has a rating between 86-89.

Houston (+8.25): Houston was another fan of the “rising tied lifts all boats” approach. Players leaving, 80-86. Players coming in, 85-89. The highest rated player Houston brought in was S Javion White (89).

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Texas A&M (+7.94): The Aggies are the first big program that seemed to approach the portal like a big program. Focusing on those players at the top end of what’s available. Most of their additions fell between a rating of 88-93. WR Isaiah Horton (93) was the highest rated player they added.

Virginia Tech (+7.47): It should come as no surprise that James Franklin’s first season with the Hokies will have a significant number of former Penn State players. Of the 23 players that qualify for this analysis, eight were Penn State players under Franklin in 2025. Former Penn State QB Ethan Brunkenmeyer (92) and TE Luke Reynolds (93) were the highest rated players brought in.

Texas (+7.21): Texas was a big winner based on a handful of big names with big ratings. Wide receiver Cam Coleman (98) was one of the bigger prizes out of the portal. Pairing him with Arch Manning should be viewed as a big win. In addition to Coleman, Texas added WR Hollywood Smothers (93) and LB Rasheem Biles (95) were their highest rated players.

Louisville (+5.84): Louisville was another team that raised the level of their rating by bringing in slightly higher rated players than those leaving. Louisville focused on players rated around 88-92, upgrading the overall score. Wide receiver Tre Richardson from Vanderbilt (92) was the highest rated player added.

Florida (+3.61): New coach Jon Sumrall brought in a mixed bag of players from all around, but stated by adding a few former Tulane players early in the process. After that, a good mix of SEC, ACC, and Big 12 were added. Despite losing QB DJ Lagway, Florida upgraded ratings almost across the board. The highest rated addition being WR Eric Singleton Jr from Auburn (93).

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Bottom Five Losers

NC State (-7.32): The Wolfpack’s transfer portal includes many players leaving. The issue was the players leaving were replaced by players with consistently lower ratings. They also only brought in 12 players that qualified, all of whom were 3-stars. The highest rated player added was Montana State TE Hunter Provience (88).

Utah (-5.06): Following the stepping down of head coach Kyle Whittingham, loses in the portal were expected. Multiple Utes made the move to Michigan following their coach. Most of who were brought in, fall into the mid to high 80s range.

Georgia (-3.94): Surprising to find Georgia on the negative side of the transfer portal spectrum. However, due to many players leaving and few coming in, the numbers do add up. Only 8 additions that qualify and all 3-stars. Despite losing as many as seven players rated over 90.

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Michigan (-2.52): The loss of Sherone Moore as head coach in a less than amicable way led to somewhat of an exodus of players. Utah DL John Henry Daley (95) following Whittingham to Michigan was the biggest portal win. However, most of the rest occupy that mid to low 80s range.

Colorado (1.47): Colorado only registers in the positives due to volume. Deion Sanders' team has lost most of its player rated 87 or higher, including OT Jordan Seaton (97) and CB DJ McKinney (91). Those players were replaced by cheaper, lower-level talent (Group of Five conferences and below). 

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