- - College football transfer portal recap: Everything you about the flurry of movement

Yahoo Sports Staff January 16, 2026 at 9:07 PM

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The end of college football's transfer portal is here. Or is it?

The Jan. 16 deadline is actually just the end of the window for players to enter their names into the transfer portal, but there will still be plenty of commitments in the coming days and even weeks. We don't yet have a full picture at college football rosters for next season, but the majority of the pieces are signed or at least committed to their new teams.

What's next? Well, there's still a national championship game to be played on Monday, and those players will have an extra five days after the game to decide whether they want to stay at their school, jump into the portal or make the leap to the NFL.

But many of the players who entered the portal have made their decisions and it's been a flood over the past two weeks. What do you about all the player movement? If we spelled all that out, this post would be a novel, but here are the biggest winners and losers from the transfer portal.

With thousands more players in the portal than previous seasons, these are some of the key things to know as transfer season winds down.

Top transfer

That'd be former Arizona State quarterback Sam Leavitt, who committed to LSU on Monday after flirting with several other major programs.

Leavitt is a huge get for new LSU coach Lane Kiffin, who hadn't added a marquee quarterback but was reportedly in the running for several top transfers at the position.

The former Arizona State QB entered the transfer portal after a 2025 season that was derailed by an ankle injury. He appeared in just seven games and was 145-of-239 passing for 1,628 yards and 10 TDs with three interceptions.

Leavitt led Arizona State to the Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff in 2024. He was 216-of-350 passing for 2,885 yards and 24 TDs to just six interceptions while also rushing for 443 yards and five touchdowns that season. The Sun Devils beat Iowa State in the Big 12 title game before losing to Texas in the College Football Playoff.

He'll now join an LSU team that is looking for a fresh start under Kiffin after going 34-14 in 3 1/2 seasons with Brian Kelly as head coach.

What happened in the transfer portal? (Henry Russell/Yahoo Sports)Which teams made out the best?

Kiffin and LSU definitely didn't do poorly with the addition of QBs Leavitt, Elon transfer Landen Clark and USC transfer Husan Longstreet. Leavitt will be Kiffin's main man next season and Clark should be a capable backup while Longstreet could be his developmental quarterback for the future. They also added a crush of offensive weapons, including eight wide receivers.

Not surprisingly, Texas Tech reloaded after its success in the portal last season, and the Red Raiders thought they'd try the same formula again for 2026. Tech went hunting for a quarterback this time and nabbed former Cincinnati QB Brendan Sorsby on an NIL deal worth a reported $5 million. Sorsby emerged as one of the better quarterbacks in the country in 2025.

Arch Manning got himself a new weapon at Texas with the transfer addition of former Auburn receiver Cam Coleman, who was widely seen as the best wideout available. He should form one of the best receiving tandems in the country with Ryan Wingo.

National title contestant Indiana has already added a replacement for Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza for next season as TCU's Josh Hoover has committed to the Hoosiers. They've also added Tulane WR Shazz Preston and Boston College RB Turbo Richard. The defense has been also been bolstered so Indiana likely won't lose a step next season.

Which teams made out the worst?

As expected, teams that lose their coaches lose a lot of their players too.

Iowa State and Utah lost longtime coaches Matt Campbell and Kyle Whittingham, respectively, and there was a mass exodus at both programs.

The Cyclones’ roster is going to be unrecognizable in 2026 under new coach Jimmy Rogers. Over 50 players entered the transfer portal following Campbell’s departure to Penn State and a good amount of those players went to State College. That group includes QB Rocco Becht, RB Carson Hansen, TEs Ben Brahmer and Gabe Burkle, CB Jeremiah Cooper and backup QB Alex Manske.

The Utes also experienced significant roster turnover in the wake of Whittingham’s departure. Utah was likely expecting a level of roster consistency as defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley took over for Whittingham and there was no logical landing spot for Whittingham in 2026.

But Michigan opened up after Sherrone Moore was fired with cause, and Whittingham became the Wolverines’ new coach. In addition to bringing offensive coordinator Jason Beck with him, players like DE John Henry Daley, CB Smith Snowden, edge rusher Jonah Lea'ea and WR JJ Buchanan have all transferred to Michigan.

Additionally, it’s hard to say Alabama has gotten better so far this transfer cycle with numerous losses.

Where did the best offensive player land?

We've already mentioned Leavitt going to LSU and Coleman going to Texas, so we'll focus on the rest of the pack here.

Per On3, the top-ranked running back in the portal was Caleb Hawkins, who played for North Texas and transferred to Oklahoma State after his coach Eric Morris made the move there. Hawkins ran for 1,434 yards and 25 touchdowns during his freshman season with the Mean Green and will surely be a star for the Cowboys.

Perhaps more notable though: Texas added NC State transfer Hollywood Smothers and Arizona State transfer Raleek Brown to its backfield in an attempt to reload and give the Longhorns a chance at a title run in what is likely Manning's last season. The No. 2 RB in the portal was former Michigan RB Justice Haynes, who landed with Georgia Tech on Wednesday.

On the offensive line, Colorado's Jordan Seaton is the hottest commodity on the market. Texas is expected to get a visit from Seaton, per On3’s Pete Nakos.

Seaton, who was a five-star prospect and the Rivals industry ranking’s top-rated offensive tackle in the 2024 recruiting class, started 22 games at left tackle for Colorado over the past two seasons.

Where did the best defensive player land?

Per On3, freshman edge rusher Chaz Coleman was the top defensive player in the portal, and it's likely not a coincidence he went from Penn State to Tennessee. The Volunteers hired former Nittany Lions defensive coordinator Jim Knowles after James Franklin's firing in Happy Valley.

There were also other more established defensive players on the move. Utah's John Henry Daley followed Kyle Whittingham to Michigan after delivering 11.5 sacks for the Utes last season (sixth in the nation). Minnesota's Koi Perich was the top-rated defensive back in the portal and is headed to Oregon after totaling 82 tackles last season. Perich also had a sack, an interception, a touchdown and played on offense and special teams for the Gophers.

There's still one big name yet to commit to a new program. Missouri defensive end Damon Wilson II hasn't made a decision yet after a season in which he had nine sacks and one interception for the Tigers.

Will it be the same next year?

The college football transfer portal is expected to stay the same, meaning just one window in early January as opposed to years past where there were multiple windows across several months for players to hop in and hop out. But that is still very much in flux and the sport's brass could change their minds.

The calendar is still causing all sorts of chaos and is a constant conversation for college football's leadership. With an extended coaching carousel, an ongoing College Football Playoff and the transfer portal all overlapping, there's bound to be some pain points and it may end with more changes to the calendar.

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Source: “AOL Sports”