College Football is Broken: Unbelievable Percentage of D1 Starters Currently in the Transfer Portal

Andy McNamara

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College Football is Broken: Unbelievable Percentage of D1 Starters Currently in the Transfer Portal image

As the college football playoffs march on, we know there will be plenty of stars wearing different jerseys later in 2026.

Since the NCAA allowed NIL (Name Image Likeness) to come into effect in 2021, player movement has continued to increase. 

Student athletes can now profit from endorsements and business deals, whereas before they would lose scholarship eligibility. While it's good that players can earn cash, NIL may have broken college football.

Look at these unbelievable transfer portal details:

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That's 329 more in the transfer portal than total active rostered NFL players in 2025!

CBS Sports reports, "Because this is the first year of the NCAA's new condensed 15-day window (which runs from Jan. 2 to Jan. 16), the volume of players entering the portal is unprecedented."

Within the first 12-hours over 2,000 entered the portal, with the Day 1 amount spiking to over 3,700 by end of day Friday. That is roughly one-third of active D1 football players on scholarship in the country potentially changing teams over a 15-day stretch.

Sam Leavitt

Chris Coduto/Getty Images

The transfer portal is turning the smaller "Group of Five" (G5) schools essentially into farm system feeder teams for the "Power Four" (SEC, Big Ten, ACC, Big 12).

Now a smaller program like Coastal Carolina or North Texas spends time and resources developing a player into a star, then a big budget school can poach them. The allure of a massive NIL offer makes jumping schools too enticing to resist.

"Several elite quarterbacks have already posted multi-million NIL valuations with reported figures around $2M–$2.5M for names like Sam Leavitt ($2.1 million), Brendan Sorsby ($2.4 million), and Dylan Raiola ($2.5 million)." (Sports Illustrated)

Of course, this furthers the gap between the large and small programs when it comes to competing for championships.

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News Correspondent