CFB transfer portal tracker (2024)

Welcome to the era of unlimited transfers in college football.

Administrators and coaches have been putting it off for as long as possible, but it’s here. The rules limiting players to one transfer with immediate eligibility have been suspended since December and will likely be eliminated this week. Transfers are up almost 20 percent among FBS scholarship players from this time last year. The average Power 5 team has signed more than 10 transfers this offseason. And the spring transfer window opens on Tuesday.

In this evolving portal era, programs take different approaches to attacking that opportunity. Everyone must decide who they want to be when it comes to transfer recruiting, finding a strategy that fits their institution and ambition. As the action resumes, here’s a closer look at the five prominent styles of portal shopping you’ll see in the next two weeks.

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Penn State’s lone portal activity so far today is ... the pending departure of reserve receiver Malick Meiga, who entered the portal this evening. Meiga has been buried on the depth chart here for the last few years, but his speed helped make him a special teams captain last season. It’s certainly not a surprise after four seasons and a limited impact on the field here.

Penn State, without KeAndre Lambert-Smith and Meiga, still has 13 scholarships invested in wide receivers. That number includes signees Tyseer Denmark and Peter Gonzalez, who have yet to enroll.

Colorado cornerback Cormani McClain announced Tuesday he plans to enter the NCAA transfer portal after one season with the Buffaloes.

McClain, a former five-star and the No. 1 ranked cornerback recruit in the Class of 2023, was the highest-rated signee in coach Deion Sanders’ first recruiting class at Colorado after Sanders flipped the Lakeland, Fla., standout away from a commitment to Miami.

The 6-foot-2, 165-pound cornerback got off to a slow start during his freshman season and didn’t play a snap on defense in the Buffaloes’ first three games. Sanders told reporters McClain needed to “study, prepare, be on time to meetings, show up to the dern meetings, understand what we’re doing as a scheme” before he could be entrusted with more playing time.

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LINCOLN, Neb. — Around college football on Tuesday, the re-opening of the transfer portal created an abundance of noise.

Calm won the day at Nebraska.

“If anybody on our team wants to go in the portal, it’s open today,” coach Matt Rhule said. “That’s their right.”

No one among the 120-plus Huskers on the practice field this spring made an exit. Former linebacker Eric Fields and safety Corey Collier, both of whom left the team after last season, entered their names in the portal.

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Georgia WR Tyler Williams is entering the portal. A freshman last season, Williams played in two games and had one catch. Georgia got three receivers out of the portal, and Williams wasn’t likely to crack the initial rotation, although long-term could’ve been a different story.

This is Georgia’s second spring portal declaration, after RB Andrew Paul announced on Monday. There will be more as Georgia gets under the 85 scholarship limit and considers adding a transfer or two more.

Rice has done a solid job in the transfer portal in recent years, finding former power-conference players like WR Luke McCaffrey (Nebraska) and QB JT Daniels (USC/Georgia/West Virginia) who became major contributors. On Tuesday, the Owls landed former Georgia tackle Chad Lindberg, a Houston-area native who spent the past four seasons with the Bulldogs.

Lindberg, a graduate transfer, has two years of eligibility remaining. He announced in March that he was entering the portal. Lindberg served primarily as a reserve lineman and special teams contributor and played 226 snaps in 12 games in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus. Expect the 6-foot-6, 325-pound Lindberg to be an impact player for the Owls, who are coming off a bowl appearance in their debut season in the American Athletic Conference. He should easily fit into the Owls' physical style of play.

There will be several notable players who transfer for the second time this offseason. Because unlimited transfers are now legal, some players who transferred in the winter will be on the move again. It could be because they don’t like their new home, but it could be because they already want to renegotiate a larger NIL package and could find that elsewhere. Teams need to hang on to some players who just joined the team. Having two transfer windows and unlimited transfers has created a second free agency within teams.

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Pitt defensive lineman Dayon Hayes has entered the portal as a grad transfer. Hayes, a Pittsburgh native, moved into the starting lineup last season and produced a team-high 10.5 TFLs plus four sacks, four pass breakups and a forced fumble. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported Hayes was one of the highest-paid players on the team yet is still leaving for his final season of eligibility based on concerns about Pitt's competitiveness in 2024.

“It’s just that I don’t believe we can win now,” Hayes told the Post-Gazette. “I believe we (were going to) win games, but I believe we are (in) a developmental stage. And I just can’t do that right now.”

TUSCALOOSA — Offensive lineman Kadyn Proctor announced his decision to return to Alabama on Tuesday. This comes after Proctor officially re-entered the transfer portal on Tuesday with a “do no contact” distinction.

In doing so Proctor returns to Alabama where he started every game during the 2023 season and wraps an eventful few months for the rising sophom*ore.

Proctor was one of the players to depart from Alabama’s program following Nick Saban’s retirement when a new transfer window opened. Proctor announced his commitment to Iowa, where he was committed for most of his senior season of high school before flipping to Alabama just before early signing day in 2022. But the Iowa reunion was shortlived as Proctor expressed his intent to transfer from Iowa on March 20, one day before Iowa began spring practice.

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MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin crossed the halfway mark of spring football by completing its eighth practice Tuesday morning inside the McClain Center. Here are five takeaways on where things stand for the Badgers.

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Notre Dame's starting punter Bryce McFerson has entered the transfer portal with three years of eligibility remaining. McFerson, a North Carolina native, was a one-time commitment to Wake Forest before flipping to Notre Dame late in the process. He averaged 45.1 yards per punt last fall during his sophom*ore season and had no serious competition for the starting job heading out of spring practice, which wraps up on Saturday.

Miami backup quarterback Jacurri Brown is entering his name into the transfer portal, according to multiple reports. Brown started Miami's Pinstripe Bowl loss to Rutgers and twice as a true freshman in 2022, including a win at Georgia Tech. The former four-star recruit from Valdosta, Ga. has three years of eligibility remaining.

Miami has four scholarship quarterbacks on the roster: grad transfer Cam Ward, junior Reese Poffenbarger, sophom*ore Emory Williams and freshman Judd Anderson.

Iowa's inability to retain scholarship receivers once again comes to the forefront with redshirt freshman Jacob Bostick hitting the portal this morning. Bostick, a 2022 recruit, was oft-injured during his two seasons and did not record a statistic last fall while seeing action in five games. But in the big picture, it's yet another pockmark on Iowa's receiver resume.

From the 2018-22 recruiting classes, eight of the 10 receiver recruits now have hit the transfer portal and a ninth (Brody Brecht) went exclusively to baseball. Then you add transfers who later left over that span — Oliver Martin (Nebraska) and Charlie Jones (Purdue) — it's 11 of 12 signed receivers who didn't finish their college eligibility as Hawkeyes. The attrition is part of the reason receivers coach Kelton Copeland was replaced in the offseason, but the numbers are beyond troubling.

North Carolina QB Tad Hudson has entered the transfer portal after redshirting during his first year with the Tar Heels. We've already seen eight of the top 30 QBs in the class of 2023 hit the portal this offseason:

• Dante Moore, UCLA to Oregon
• Malachi Nelson, USC to Boise State
• Eli Holstein, Alabama to Pitt
• Aidan Chiles, Oregon State to Michigan State
• Austin Mack, Washington to Alabama
• Sam Leavitt, Michigan State to Arizona State
• Gabarri Johnson, Missouri to Oregon State
• Tad Hudson, North Carolina

Last year, nearly 650 FBS scholarship players transferred during the spring window, including more than 300 from Power 5 schools. It’s reasonable to expect we’re going to see more players become available in this year’s cycle since this is sort of a free-for-all with the NCAA’s one-time transfer rule currently suspended. What that’s going to lead to, and we’re already seeing it early on, is a lot of repeat transfers and even players who are going back in the portal after joining a team in January. Most of the contenders I’ve checked in with the past few weeks say they don’t need much this spring barring some surprise attrition, but the expanded Playoff is going to motivate more top-25 caliber teams and their NIL collectives to be post-spring buyers looking for upgrades or depth at certain positions.

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Another intriguing G5 defensive lineman is now on the market: Kent State DT CJ West. The 6-foot-2, 315-pound senior has been a three-year starter for the Flashes and graded out as the top defensive tackle in the MAC last season in PFF's grading. West recorded 40 stops, seven TFLs and two sacks as a junior and picked up third-team All-MAC honors. West has two more seasons of eligibility.