College football transfer portal live updates: Spring commitments, latest moves, analysis

The men talked a little too loosely on the train ride home. They were in a Pullman car, going from Atlanta to Washington on Saturday night into Sunday morning, and with their job done, they figured they could talk freely. And so they talked … very freely.

The day before, Nov. 2, 1907, the Georgia football team lost 10-6 to Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Now on the train up north were three men who had played in that game who decidedly were not enrolled at either of the schools. Four days later, one of their fellow passengers, F.L. Ingram, fired off a letter to Georgia — and several newspapers — about what he heard:

“Two of them had been players on the Georgetown team, and were living in or near Washington, D.C., and the third, with whom I traveled as far as Winston-Salem, N.C., stated that two of the party were not connected in any way with the University at Athens, but were paid $150.00 cash, and their traveling expenses to come to Atlanta to play with Georgia in Saturday afternoon’s game.”

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Arizona State quarterback Jaden Rashada has announced he's entering the transfer portal. Rashada, a top-100 recruit and the No. 7 ranked QB recruit in the class of 2023, played in three games and made two starts during his freshman season with the Sun Devils.

Rashada initially signed with Florida and agreed to a $13.85 million contract with a Gators collective but asked to be released from his letter of intent after the collective failed to make a payment and terminated the agreement.

Arizona State landed Michigan State transfer Sam Leavitt in the offseason and also has Trenton Bourguet returning.

Georgia is expected to be the frontrunner in this recruitment, a source told The Athletic, as the Bulldogs are seeking a backup to provide depth this year and compete with Gunner Stockton next year.

Colorado CB Cormani McClain has now officially entered the transfer portal. The five-star signee becomes the 15th Colorado scholarship player to hit the portal this week and that's 27 since the end of the season. USF and USC are among the schools already in the mix.

In an expected move on Wednesday, the NCAA Division I Council approved a change to transfer rules, which will grant immediate eligibility to all transfers as long as they meet academic eligibility requirements. So long are the days of sitting out a year and submitting eligibility waivers. Say “hello” to unlimited transfers.

The rule opens the floodgates for athletes to transfer more than once in their careers. This week, I dove into the topic of multi-time transfers and aimed to answer one question from the athletes who have gone through it: Who do they root for as alumni?

The overwhelming majority of players I spoke with said time spent at a school and/or where they got their degree were the most influential factors in their loyalty post-college. But still, a split feeling is present.

Said Alan Bowman (who transferred from Texas Tech to Michigan to Oklahoma State): “I don’t know how I’m going to raise my son. I really don’t know. The loyalty issue is a thing.”

What about all the excess gear? And friendships left behind? This was a fun one to report. Read it here.

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Remember when we thought this window might be a little tamer since teams are still in the middle of spring practice? So much for that. Let’s take a look at what we’ve seen from this window so far — numbers are courtesy of The Athletic’s portal guru, Max Olson. Read his full breakdown of movement here.

• By 10:30 a.m. (ET) on Tuesday, 90 scholarship players had entered the portal. The significance? On the opening date of the spring window last year, 90 players entered in total.
• The first-day total: 221 FBS scholarship players entered the portal. That breaks down to 105 Power 4 transfers and 116 from the Group of 5.
• More than 20 percent of the first-day entries were repeat transfers. (More on this group later.)
• Colorado had nine players enter on Tuesday, including six who had transferred in for Year 1 under Deion Sanders. 👀
• The total number of FBS scholarship transfers in this cycle (which began Aug. 1, 2023) has surpassed 2,100. That’s a 25 percent increase from last year’s total at this time.

So, who entered? Max ranked the best available transfers and will update the list as the news continues. A few early names to watch include Arizona CB Tacario Davis (No. 2), Texas A&M safety Jacoby Mathews (No. 3) and Penn State WR KeAndre Lambert-Smith (No. 4). Ranked No. 1 is Oregon State RB Damien Martinez, whose transfer is particularly interesting.

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By my count, there are 35 players from the Big Ten whose names have become transfer portal entries since Monday morning. Illinois and Indiana both have five entries while Michigan State has four. It's no surprise with the Hoosiers and Spartans, both of whom have new coaches and had the Big Ten's highest entries after the first portal opening (Michigan State with 31, Indiana with 30). Illinois had low attrition in the last window with only nine departures.

The league's highest-profile exits start with tackle Kadyn Proctor, who started every game at Alabama last year, transferred to Iowa in January, then left the Iowa program the day before spring practice. Perhaps the most surprising exit is Penn State receiver KeAndre Lambert-Smith, who led the Nittany Lions last year with 53 catches for 673 yards and four touchdowns.

With a few teams wrapping up spring practice this week, there likely will be some departures Monday. The Ohio State backup quarterback situation also bears watching. So far, none at that position have entered the portal this spring.

Michigan State DT Simeon Barrow Jr. has entered the portal as a graduate transfer. The 30-game starter has twice earned honorable mention All-Big Ten honors for the Spartans and has recorded 110 tackles, 18.5 TFLs, 10.5 sacks and two blocked field goals in his career. Barrow briefly went in the portal last October after Mel Tucker's firing but withdrew and stayed through the spring.

Our Until Saturday podcast crew discusses. Listen here.

Colorado running back Alton McCaskill IV has announced he's planning to re-enter the transfer portal.

The Houston transfer was one of the more coveted playmakers in last year's spring portal and was the AAC's Rookie of the Year in 2021. But McCaskill was still recovering from a torn ACL that forced him to miss the 2022 season and couldn't make much of an impact for the Buffs in 2023, rushing for 59 yards on 14 carries in four games and taking a redshirt.

Once he and Cormani McClain are officially in the transfer portal, that makes 26 CU scholarship players exiting the program since the end of the season.

Louisville running back Peny Boone has re-entered the transfer portal. Boone was the 2023 MAC Offensive Player of the Year at Toledo last season after leading the conference with 1,400 rushing yards on 7.2 yards per carry and scoring 16 total touchdowns. He's now back on the market after spending the spring with the Cardinals, who made a big splash with their portal haul in the winter transfer window.

Colorado TE Chamon Metayer has re-entered the transfer portal. The Cincinnati transfer had joined the team in January and was considered one of the top tight ends in the December portal cycle. The Buffs have had 11 scholarship players hit the portal so far this week, including seven players who'd joined the program via the portal.

Michigan’s Cristian Dixon is in the transfer portal. He was a four-star wide receiver and a top-250 prospect out of California in the Class of 2021. He was listed as a wide receiver but said he was working at defensive back, too. Even with Michigan’s needs at wide receiver, he didn’t have a clear path for playing time.

With spring football over, Ohio State is now on to the next part of the college football offseason: the spring transfer portal. The two-week window for all undergraduates opened on Tuesday, and there will be plenty of movement around the country.

Ohio State made major moves in the winter window, adding safety Caleb Downs, quarterback Will Howard, running back Quinshon Judkins and center Seth McLaughlin. The spring window might not include the same amount of fireworks in Columbus, but some departures and some additions can be expected before the window closes on April 30.

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The inaugural NCAA transfer portal spring window opened for college football players on April 15 last year. On that date, only 90 FBS scholarship players put their names in the portal. Those were simpler times.

On Tuesday, the spring transfer window opened and 90 scholarship players were already in the portal by 10:30 a.m. ET. By the end of the day, more than 200 had entered the portal to kick off this 14-day period for underclassman transfers. Here’s what we learned from Day 1.

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