Identifying an Unusual New Transfer Portal Phenomenon

Despite being new to college sports, the transfer portal has made a profound effect on the way they operate, particularly in college football. Roster management is now a 365-day a year job. Even when guardrails have been put in place, they seem to change or get removed rather quickly. The calendar is a mess and each day it feels like we’re learning something new about how it operates.

The transfer portal is a dynamic tool for college football programs and yet one norm was established rather quickly. When players committed, it stuck.

Most of that was based on the nature of portal recruitments. One college coach used this analogy to describe it. “High school recruiting is kind of like dating someone. It takes time. In the transfer portal, it’s a quick fling.”

Things move much faster in the transfer portal because they have to. There are only a couple of weeks on the calendar for players to enter the portal, visit a school, commit, then enroll. During the first few transfer portal cycles, once that player committed, they signed paperwork and started looking for a place to live right away. Things have changed this year.

We now have Transfer Portal Flips

Earlier this week Jayden Maiava announced he is transferring from to Georgia. The UNLV quarterback made a different announcement just over 24 hours later, flipping his commitment to USC instead.

It sounds bizarre, but transfer portal flips are a new accepted norm and it is impacting schools on Kentucky’s schedule, mostly for the worst.

South Carolina received three transfer portal commitments that had a change of heart. Vanderbilt wide receiver Jayden McGowan got out of the SEC to attend Boston College. It looked like Vanderbilt quarterback AJ Swann was going to battle LaNorris Sellers for the starting quarterback position in Columbia, but he opted to join Brian Kelly’s rat race at LSU instead. Ball State tight end Brady Hunt redirected to Texas A&M, and he wasn’t the only Ball State tight end to have a change of heart in the transfer portal.

Hunt’s partner in crime, Tanner Koziol, was one of Louisville’s first big additions this offseason. A few weeks later he removed his name from the transfer portal and returned to Ball State, a move that’s become more popular this offseason.

Louisville has been on both sides of the the new transfer portal flip. Tennessee safety Tamarion McDonald committed to Ole Miss Dec. 17. Three days ago he joined Louisville’s class. Conversely, Florida cornerback Jalen Kimber committed to Louisville Dec. 30, but flipped to Penn State yesterday.

If you’re having trouble keeping up, that’s the point. The transfer portal has always been chaotic, but at least there was one standard. If you committed, you were rock solid. Throw that norm out the window. All bets are off. Rules? Standards? Who needs ’em? Certainly not the portal.

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