Let’s talk about the transfer portal.
Because it certainly seems like the primary topic of conversation around Happy Valley these days, doesn’t it? Which football players are leaving the Penn State team and which players are joining the Penn State team.
As a “mini-expert” in the transfer portal – our son used it twice during his college career – I’ve got some insight into the process of how and why the portal is used.
Five-and-a-half years ago on these pages I wrote a column on the portal after our son used it the first time. At that point the portal had been in existence less than two years – it was started on Oct. 15, 2018.
Yet, even as new as it was back then, it was very important to and elicited strong reactions from college football fans. And its importance and those reactions have only grown stronger and louder in the ensuing years.
But first, let’s understand why the portal exists.
It exists because the NCAA has rules restricting contact between current players and coaches. Current players can’t have any conversations with coaches, staff or anyone from another team. All they can do is tell a team they are interested in transferring there, but that’s it. No visits, no calls, no texts, no discussions with the team/coaches about what opportunities that team might have.
That is, until they enter their name in the transfer portal. The portal is available for any other school in the country to see, and those schools can now easily verify that they can talk to and interact with that student-athlete as a potential transfer without running afoul of the NCAA’s rules.
That is the reason we have a transfer portal: so that schools can easily identify which student-athletes are “fair game” in the transfer process. It’s a completely administrative tool that upgrades the previous process that was best described as ancient.
But, you might ask, why does the NCAA restrict when coaches and student-athletes can talk to each other? Isn’t this exactly the opposite of the work advice we all receive as we move into adulthood: never leave a job until you have a new job lined up?
Well, let’s compare this transfer process to our real-life work lives. Imagine you can’t start looking for another job until you tell your boss that you want to look for another job. And you can only start looking for another job during one time a year. And then imagine that your boss can tell you to leave right then. Goodbye, see you later. Sounds kind of drastic, doesn’t it?
But that’s what the NCAA has done to student-athletes. It requires them to tell their boss that they would like to look at different options before they can even determine what different options exist. And then gives that boss the ability to kick them off the team and pull any scholarship money.
Which seems sort of excessively controlling. Perhaps even to the point of restricting student-athletes from receiving fair compensation or benefits from playing their sport. Which means could we possibly even suggest that, well, maybe it’s illegal?
Which may be why back in June 2021 that United States Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote, “The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America.”
Now, Justice Kavanaugh wrote that in a concurring opinion for a case that involved only a narrow subset of the NCAA’s rules. Which was why he added, “I add this concurring opinion to underscore that the NCAA’s remaining compensation rules also raise serious questions under the antitrust laws.” In other words, just because they’re rules now, doesn’t mean they’re legal.
So, the rules that are the reason for the portal’s existence – rules about “tampering” or contact between players and coaches, etc., of other teams – might eventually be found to be illegal. And if so, the portal would no longer need to exist because any player could talk to anyone else they wanted to at any time. They would all be “fair game” at all times. There would be no such thing as tampering.
In fact, there is a case working its way through the judicial system right now regarding this “tampering” concept. The University of Wisconsin is suing the University of Miami in part because, “Miami’s actions are in direct contravention of… the NCAA’s established anti-tampering rule…” This could be the beginning of the end for the need for a portal at all.
But, for now, we have the portal. That’s what we’re dealing with, and that’s the topic of all our water-cooler conversations these days!
And why is it so important? Because, as Vice President for Intercollegiate Athletics Patrick Kraft said when announcing the hiring of Matt Campbell as the new Penn State head football coach, “… our mission was to find a proven leader who reflects Penn State’s… championship expectations.” And then in the introductory press conference he added, “Coach is here to… restore our championship mindset.”
Because that’s what we all want, right? Conference and national championships. And perhaps one of the ways you get those is by doing a good job in the portal getting quality players. Maybe you not only have to do a good job evaluating high school talent and recruiting young men to your team to start their college careers, but maybe it’s just as important that you evaluate players who wish to transfer to your team.
However, can we find out if it is really and truly important, you ask? Well, 247Sports is generally considered one of the best services in ranking college football recruits. And since 2022 they have included a separate ranking for each team for transfers in addition to their ranking for high school recruits.
As of this writing, of the 12 teams in this season’s college football playoffs, eight out of those 12 teams ranked in the top 25 for the class of 2025 recruits. The four that didn’t were: Indiana at No. 49, Texas Tech at No. 51, Tulane at No. 70, and James Madison at No. 103. But 10 out of the 12 ranked in the top 25 for the class of 2025 transfers. Only James Madison at No. 71 and Tulane at No. 77 didn’t.
And if we use the class of 2024, nine of the 12 teams ranked in the top 25 for recruiting and eight for transfers.
Meaning that it would appear if your mission is to win, or at least compete, for conference and national championships in this new day of the portal and an enlarged college football playoff, you not only need to recruit well at the high school level, but also do a very good job with transfers. (For those interested, Penn State’s recruiting rankings both years were No. 15; their transfer rankings were No. 41 in 2025 and No. 53 in 2024).
So… maybe all that transfer portal talk is important. Let’s keep it up and see who is coming to Penn State!
