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

Colorado has picked up another portal commitment from Texas transfer OL Payton Kirkland. The 6-foot-6, 366-pound lineman from Orlando did not appear in a game during his lone season with the Longhorns and gives Colorado a promising developmental lineman with four years of eligibility.

Oklahoma has picked up a commitment off its spring game from SMU transfer center Branson Hickman. The three-year starter and All-AAC selection visited TCU and Arkansas but couldn’t turn down a good opportunity to become the Sooners’ starter at center with Andrew Raym off to the NFL and Troy Everett sidelined with a knee injury that required surgery. Hickman was No. 11 in our latest best available rankings.

Pitt transfer DE Dayon Hayes has committed to Colorado. Hayes was No. 16 in The Athletic's best available rankings and one of the top defensive ends currently in the portal. He led the Panthers with 44 pressures and 10.5 TFLs in 2023 but hit the portal after saying he felt the program wasn't in a position to "win now." He's joining a Colorado squad with a much more explosive offense and a real need for impact pass rushers.

Arizona State's Elijhah Badger has entered the portal as a grad transfer and immediately becomes one of the top wide receivers available. The 6-foot-2, 190-pound playmaker has produced a total of 135 catches for 1,579 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns over the past two seasons, an especially impressive feat considering the Sun Devils have played five different QBs over those two seasons. Badger was set to be one of the top wideouts in the Big 12 this fall and has two more seasons of eligibility but is a likely draft pick a year from now if he has a strong senior year.

Minnesota has picked up a big commitment out of the portal from LSU transfer outside linebacker Jaxon Howard. The 6-foot-4, 241-pound edge was the No. 1 ranked recruit in the state of Minnesota in the 2023 class and appeared in five games during his freshman season with the Tigers. Now the former four-star is coming home with four seasons of remaining eligibility. Good win for P.J. Fleck and his coaching staff.

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.

Last week, reports surfaced that Martinez planned on entering the portal, which he made official on Tuesday. His loss is a big blow for the Beavers — Martinez was a first-team All-Pac-12 rusher and formerly pledged his commitment to the Beavers amid roster turnover following coach Jonathan Smith’s departure to Michigan State.

Amid the initial rumblings, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that Martinez was set to make more than $400,000 in NIL deals to remain at Oregon State in 2024. Players are making money. We know this. But rarely do we see the actual dollar amount next to these deals.

Following the report, Martinez implied to the Oregonian that Oregon State’s collective, Dam Nation, did not live up to its promises. Kyle Bjornstad, co-founder of Dam Nation, said whatever commitments the collective made to Martinez were fulfilled, “1,000 percent.” A few days later Martinez told John Canzano that he “had no problem with Kyle or the collective” and insisted his decision didn’t have to do with NIL.

The story is a big mess and sends yet another bat signal about the transparency needed in NIL negotiations. It’ll be interesting to follow the narrative of where Martinez ends up. He has visits planned to Miami, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi State and Arizona during the next two weeks.

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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.

At almost any college football program, Cam Goode would have been among the 85 players receiving a full-ride scholarship.

Goode played at Michigan, which had one of the deepest rosters of any team since the 85-man scholarship limit took effect in the Football Bowl Subdivision in 1994. Before the 2023 season, Goode was asked to give up his scholarship to make room for another player. Instead of transferring to a school that could offer him a scholarship, Goode chose to stay at Michigan and pay for his tuition through name, image and likeness deals.

“I was totally open to it,” said Goode, a defensive tackle hoping to hear his name called in the upcoming NFL Draft. “I’m not a selfish person at all — if anything, selfless. It was all for the better. I knew they were going to take care of me. I’m a good player, they love me, I’ve got a great personality. I knew they’d take care of me, for sure.”

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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.