The Transfer Portal: College Football’s Free Agency

Earlier today, Eron Hodges Tweeted something out that really caught my eye.

The last time I saw, there were over 800 athletes in the Transfer Portal.

Not only is that number alarming, more than half on a normal year do not find a home after leaving their previous school - if this holds constant, that means there will be 400 players out of a chance to obtain a degree for leaving their school.

With transfers gaining immediately eligibility, it is of no surprise that players are leaving their schools if they are unhappy or not playing.

For example, Amad Anderson, who I believed should have been playing much more after a successful Redshirt Freshman Season, rarely played this year. He opened up to the transfer portal early and found a new school in Temple, which is much closer to home.

If coaches are eligible to leave at any given point - I have no issue with players being allowed too.

But, I do believe this will affect recruiting high school players, both in a positive manner and a negative manner.

For one, I believe we will see less players offered out of high school. If schools are getting 1 to 5 transfer players a year, you are talking class sizes in the upper teens rather than low to mid twenties.

I think we will see players choose programs based on who coaches are. Do they develop the players or is there a mass exodus of athletes after 2 or 3 seasons on campus? Does this coach get players into the NFL? Players may use G5 schools as stepping stones to get to a P5 school.

To go with coaches, I think that college coaches will have to be much more transparent when recruiting high school players and transfer players. Here is our plan with you, we believe you can do this, this is why we love to recruit you, etc.

Maybe in the future, we will see the NCAA be proactive for once, and reward players (who am I kidding) - reward programs for retention of players through graduation - having a player on campus for a full four or five years has become much more rare.

Again, I have no issue at all with the transfer portal. But, Eron Hodges brings up a good point.

Why are you leaving?

Do you have the GPA to make it to your next university? What is your character like? Any off the field issues? Will your previous coaches and teammates give you a glowing recommendation?

For Purdue, the Grad Transfer Portal has been great during the Brohm Era.

This off-season, they have already added a grad transfer interior offensive lineman that has 42 career starts and played in 49 career games at Western Kentucky in Tyler Witt.

Early in the season, True Freshman Running Back, Dylan Downing, left UNLV and came to Purdue, he was a 3 star from Carmel High School in Carmel, Indiana.

This year, more than ever, the transfer portal is a free for all. Here is to hoping that the transfers find a new home and that the 2021 high school recruiting class gets a fair shake as well.