Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

afraid the NCAA could save them some $$$?

https://twitter.com/chrissolari/status/1520248610855825408?t=3az2nZX_FGDT2iAsAp86gA&s=19

makes it hard to build a program if the break out stars just wind up transferring to helmets. kid will probably wind up at Bama. 

I'm encouraged that the Husker boosters are willing to out bid the Horns for players

Oklahoma and Auburn for the Ex-Horn QB

and Illinois for the Texas Tech D-lineman Devin Drew

More than 2,000 players entered the transfer portal during the 2021-22 school year with a large number coming during major coaching changes or system revamps. Virtually every Power Five program has taken a handful of transfers to immediately fill holes. With hundreds of players remaining in the portal, more could be making decisions on their futures soon.

Here are eight programs that stand apart as winners and losers from the 2022 transfer portal cycle.

Winners
USC: Rebuilding looks a little different these days. After spurning Oklahoma, coach Lincoln Riley nabbed the No. 1 spot in the 247Sports transfer rankings in his first offseason to quickly build a Trojans roster in his image.


Bringing quarterback Caleb Williams from Oklahoma was the headliner, but USC also added receiver Mario Williams, linebacker Eric Gentry and running back Travis Dye as sought-after playmakers. Four receivers transferred to join Riley's high-flying offense -- Biletnikoff Award winner Jordan Addison could also join the fold -- but more than half of the class's transfers came on the defensive side of the ball as defensive coordinator Alex Grinch worked to build some depth. Granted, the Trojans also lost a handful of key players to the portal, like quarterback Jaxson Dart and tight end Michael Trigg, but if the Trojans compete for a Pac-12 title right away, Riley will owe the transfer portal a debt of gratitude.

Ole Miss: Rebels coach Lane Kiffin declared himself the "Portal King" after putting together the No. 2 transfer class in the nation. Dart was the headliner to replace NFL Draft pick Matt Corral, but he was only the start. Ole Miss went to Texas and nabbed running backs Ulysses Bentley IV and Zach Evans from SMU and TCU, respectively. Safety Ladarius Tennison, tight end J.J. Pegues and receiver Malik Heath transferred from programs within the Rebels' own division. Kiffin has been perhaps the most open portal recruiter in the country and has classes that prove it.

Arizona: It's flown under the radar at a relatively anonymous program, but coach Jedd Fisch is recruiting his butt off. The Wildcats pulled in the the Pac-12's No. 3 recruiting class for 2022 and followed it up with a dynamic transfer class. Wazzu quarterback Jayden de Laura will emphatically answer the glaring question under center, and he will have the freakishly dynamic Jacob Cowing from UTEP to target. Linebacker Anthony Solomon (Michigan) and edge Hunter Echols (USC) bring some dynamic play on the defensive end. The Wildcats went 1-11 in Fisch's miserable first season, but players don't seem dissuaded from his plan. That alone makes Arizona's signing class one of the most important in the Pac-12.


Nebraska: The Cornhuskers needed quick fixes and found some answers in the portal. Quarterbacks Casey Thompson and Chubba Purdy will compete for the starting job to replace Adrian Martinez. Receivers Trey Palmer and Isaiah Garcia-Castaneda add some much-needed athleticism outside. Defensively, Nebraska nabbed blue-chip transfers Ochaun Mathis (TCU) and Tommi Hill (Arizona State) to bolster an already solid unit. Offensive lineman Hunter Anthony will add some much-needed depth. Scott Frost's additions weren't especially flashy, but the transfer class will hopefully make a difference in some of those close games.

Losers
Arizona State: The Sun Devils might as well put up a "Help Wanted" sign after the vast majority of their top players decided to leave the program in the midst of NCAA troubles. Quarterback Jayden Daniels left the program for LSU in a surprising decision, which set off another round of transfers. Top receiver Ricky Pearsall and star defender Eric Gentry were expected to play central roles, while DeaMonte Trayanum left for Ohio State. Linemen Spencer Lovell, Ezra Dotson-Oyetade and Jermayne Lole all entered the portal in the last weekend.

In all, 14 key scholarship players entered the portal. Granted, the Sun Devils got some help back in the form of a top-15 transfer class, but it features only one blue-chip transfer prospect (Miami DL Nesta Jade Silvera). Ultimately, the transfer portal was a net loss for ASU.


Virginia: The Cavaliers were in a strange spot after suddenly losing coach Bronco Mendenhall, but the mass exodus of linemen after his retirement is hard to ignore. Four different offensive linemen who started games left, including All-American center Victor Oluwatimi. Ultimately, 20 players transferred from Virginia during the transition to new coach Tony Elliott with a number coming in the trenches. Luckily, star quarterback Brennan Armstrong is back, but Elliott has his work cut out to fill all the holes.

West Virginia: The Mountaineers added quarterback JT Daniels late in the cycle, but it doesn't eliminate the obscene amount of talent they lost. Twenty players entered the transfer portal, including key starters DT Akheem Mesidor, LB Josh Chandler, quarterback Jarret Doege, top receiver Winston Wright and both starting cornerbacks. Along with losing a number of contributors to graduation, WVU will look very different next season. The Mountaineers are staying active in the transfer portal to try and recoup some of the losses, but they're still in a tenuous spot heading into a make-or-break season for coach Neal Brown.

Colorado: The Buffaloes roster seems to think the 4-2 season during Karl Dorrell's debut was a fluke, as more than 20 key players from that squad entered the portal.

UW picked up a safety from Utah. 3 years remaining. From Hawaii and played HS with current UW OLB Nick Herbig.

Will piecemeal their Transfer Portal discussion across several posts because it's a bit lengthy, but Fox Sports’ Brady Quinn and Lavar Arrington had plenty of lamenting over the recent Transfer Portal chaos on their morning radio show earlier this week:

Transfer Portal Pt 2
Lavar Arrington:
"…there’s so many moving parts…people have made the argument that coaches have been able to leverage the college system…to use it like a transfer portal or like an NIL…look at what Lincoln Riley just did. Look at how USC is approaching the whole Lincoln Riley hiring. And one of the things I’m seeing with all these kids – because I work with a lot of these kids on a daily basis – the portal is further perpetuating the feeling of entitlement. In a lot of cases they’re delusional. College athletes are a little delusional…for all the big stories we see with the Caleb Williams and the Spencer Rattlers there are a whole bunch of other names that entered the transfer portal and are sitting at home right now on their coach. Or going to a junior college because no one picked them up. We’re not hearing about the horror stories yet. We haven’t seen anybody addicted to pain killers yet, attributed to sitting and home and not getting another opportunity. There’s a very dark side to this transfer portal. While I will agree the NIL is not the direct problem to all of this, I will say having this whole transfer portal and being able to leverage the NIL to get the kids you want into the transfer portal is quickly becoming the issue that’s coming to a head as an issue that’s possibly monitored and regulated because there’s no slowing this freight train down." 

Fox Sports' Brady Quinn:
“And that’s the hard part. I don’t know anyone in congress who wants to run on this platform. You’ve got a stock market that’s taken on the worst month we’ve seen since 2008 back when the housing market crashed. And there’s a lot of people out there watching inflation and just trying to fill up their gas tank…you’ve got a war in Ukraine…is Russia using chemical weapons?…does the U.S. have to get involved because of that?…congress isn’t going to come in a save college football. I think it’s going to collectively take the Power 5 conferences and their commissioners to come together and figure out a common ground…I think every school is trying to abide by what they believe the rules are but that’s a different interpretation depending on where you are. And if you’re a desperate blue blood you’ll do anything to make it work, like calling up some of the best players around the country and using NIL money to induce them to come to your school. Tampering, whatever you want to call it – when you’re a desperate blue blood you’ll push whatever envelope you can.”

The thing this current arrangement lacks is a speed bump. I think the one-year break had its issue, but it was a solid speed bump. And it's hard to figure out a way for kids to speed bump themselves. You can't rely on "they just want to be there" as a reason kids stay. 

There might also be a simple reality that the luxuries afforded to student athletes (the recruiting inducements of yesteryear) make the transition easier too. Part of the reason many kids don't transfer isn't because they're loving school, it's because transferring is a tremendous pain in the ass. In this world, it seems it's not (perhaps the world these kids come up in is more prone to change, which means they're better handling it).

I was a a reunion with some college friends a few months back, and at some point, when we were quite drunk, we got on the subject of being underclassmen and how it's often profoundly lonely. Networks of support you've built up aren't there. You're sort of hastily assembling friend groups on the fly. The way you're socializing is often not conducive to something that's really fulfilling. Three of us were chatting, the other two has said they considered transferring to a smaller place. I had tried to transfer in HS, which didn't work, and I realized that if I wanted to leave college, I had nowhere to go that I assumed would feel comfortable (i.e., everyone I knew didn't go to one place) and quitting meant a life pivot I was almost assuredly not ready for. Since these teams are so supportive, their coaches such good salesmen, I'd bet it means that with the lonely reality, there's always someone who can make the next place sounds good, wholesome and comfortable.