Max Olson over at The Athletic did a deep dive into the transfer portal and pulled some interesting data. Couple of interesting findings. First, more than 80 percent of those who transferred found a new school, which is great. Second, it's really tough to find a good offensive lineman in the portal. Third, there's usually going to be a quarterback available to you, though the 2022 recruiting season was crazy. Fourth, lots of defensive backs.
Should be the second hardest I would think. For OL there are 5 spots available and it's normal to wait till Jr or Sr year to start. Good ones probably don't transfer unless starring at a lesser program early. DTs could start earlier and have only 2 starting spots so you might get a few, but most probably still come from from lower level programs, Juco or coaching changes.
I guess you could read this another way; 20 percent of those who attempted to transfer did not find a new home. Some of those 20 percent were probably asked to move on by their schools, but, others probably gave up a perfectly good "bird-in-the-hand" scholarship.
Seems that a lot of kids in that 80 percent were stepping down a level after transfer. Not going to an equivalent P5 school.
Good point - perhaps the 80% is a bit misleading if some of them failed to land an equivalent opportunity and had to step down
It's the exact opposite of beggars can't be choosers -- Alabama gets to be extraordinarily picky when they hit the transfer portal, and the best of the best always wants to play there. You know you're going to be playing for a championship and you know you're going to be in the best possible position to get drafted nice and high.
Yeah. I have nothing against the portal, either normatively or strategically -- I don't look down on transfer players, and these days you're committing a dereliction of duty if you ignore the portal. But you want your roster in a place where you're only going to the portal a handful of times per year, and when you do you're cherrypicking the very best players to either fill a hole or buff a strength even more.
Surprised the UL OL didn't make that list since he was an All American last year. How many AA's made that list?
